Independent Rs Messageboard

[Steve Russell]

Dave Mc for West London Sport...

'Julien Stephan admits QPR are in a “challenging” spell because of the number of
attacking players currently unavailable.

The likes of Ilias Chair and summer signing Kwame Poku have been out injured and
Karamoko Dembele has been ruled out for the rest of the season with anterior cruciate
ligament damage.

Striker Justin Obikwu, signed almost a month ago after top scorer Rumarn Burrell suffered
a hamstring injury, has himself been unavailable and has not featured since arriving from
Coventry.

“It’s a challenge because we don’t have a lot of options,” Stephan said.

“Now the main thing is to find the right balance during the week between continuing to
work and being careful with the players with the load and intensity of the sessions.

“We need to find the right balance because it’s impossible for us to lose another offensive
player. The opportunity is small now, for me, regarding the choice.

“It’s a challenge to find the solution and find some adaptation.”

Rangers are nevertheless among a number of clubs still in the running for a Championship
play-off place.

They are 13th in the table but just three points from the top six, having beaten Coventry –
who were top – in their previous home match and drawn 0-0 at Charlton last time out.

On Saturday they are at home to relegation-threatened Blackburn, who have installed
Northern Ireland boss Michael O’Neill as manager.

Rovers are third from bottom, have won just two of their past 16 league games – a run
which has included seven defeats and began with QPR’s 1-0 win at Ewood Park in November.

R’s head coach Stephan said: “In the last week we succeeded to beat the leaders and a
good draw – probably some frustration not to score, but to take a point each time away
is a good result.

“We now need a good performance against Blackburn. We know it will be tough because
they want to stay in the league.

“Now it’s not a question of position in the table. All the games will be very difficult, so
we need to be ready.”

[ESSEXURs]

No good bleating about lack of strikers when we make schoolboy errors at the back!
Blackburn added to our long list of teams below us we are incapable of getting a result against.

Maybe we thought we were in the FA Cup!
This policy of employing foreign managers who have no Championship experience is not going
well to say the least.

[Tommy Cunningham]

This manager is one of the worst I can remember in many many years of supporting QPR, he
talks the biggest load of bollox I have ever heard from any QPR manager and that takes some doing.

He is clearly out of his depth at this level and we are a hard watch, what on earth is Christian Nourry
thinking about keeping this clown in a job.

Before today’s game against Blackburn, in their previous 5 away games Blackburn had scored one
goal.

Today at Loftus Road they scored 3 goals in the first hour of the game, they arrived today really
struggling and in poor form.

This manager does not have a plan A, B or C, tactically inept and team selections appear to have
square pegs in round holes on a regular basis.

Oxford and Charlton away were both winnable games, but we leave both grounds with a point
after goalless draws.

We went to West Ham in the FA Cup and they were rock bottom, it was the ideal time to play
them and have a right go at them.

We never laid a glove on them and they eased past us into the next round.

Julien Stephan should be replaced as QPR manager sooner rather than later.

[ESSEXURs]

Must agree he should be replaced now with us in a reasonable league position for a change.
This will give the new manager, hopefully not foreign, time to assess his squad.

Other than the odd game we have been far from convincing and our performances against
poor sides has been unacceptable.

[Tommy Cunningham]

What I find so frustrating is certain positions in the team have been totally neglected, where
it has been blatantly obvious to the vast majority of supporters we needed change.

The goalkeeper’s position has been a problem for us all season, neither Nardi, Walsh or Hamer
will be there next season and an upgrade is desperately required.

The right back position has seen Jimmy Dunne, Amadeus Mbengue and Ronnie Edwards, all
central defenders selected to play in the right back position. These players are not full backs,
yet our clueless manager continues to play them there.

He has even selected midfielders Kieran Morgan and Sam Field, to play right back and left back
respectively.

Regarding Clarke-Salter, Poku, Vale and Obikwu, these players were all signed whilst they were i
njured. Lazy and irresponsible recruitment.

The club needs change now to give the supporters some hope for the future, because they have
turned up in their numbers this season and been right behind the team.

Unfortunately the team hasn’t turned up on a number of occasions.

[ESSEXURs]

The team not turning up in the past has usually been because something has gone
on behind the scenes.

Are the players less than in tune with the manager and coaching staff?
Are they being asked to play in a way they are not suited?

Didn’t attend the match but Sky showed the goals as they went in. I couldn’t believe
the size of the gap between our defence that opened in the middle to enable opposition
players to find the net relatively unchallenged.

That suggests players are disenchanted or are being told to defend that way.

And Tommy don’t get me started on the subject of not addressing certain positions.
If we put as much effort into the positions that definitely need filling as we do to acquiring
mainly lightweight midfielders we would have a team capable of at least top six.

[Kerrins]

In theory we have a better squad than the previous two seasons but are underperforming.
OK we have been a bit unlucky with injuries but that's not the full story.

My view at the moment is the manager will be gone at the end of the season if not sooner

[Tommy Cunningham]

Mr Kerrins I would agree that we do have a better squad than last season, but
we have so many injury prone players at the club now.

I hope you are right that the manager will be gone at the end of the season, hopefully
before the end of the season if Christian Nourry has the balls to admit he got it wrong again.

The likes of Vale, Poku, Saito, Clarke-Salter, Chair, Dembele, Obikwu and Burrell, have spent
more time in the treatment room than on the playing field this season. Some of these players
even signed for the club whilst they were injured.

There is obviously a problem with recruitment at QPR, signing players with a history of injuries
would signify a lack of research and knowledge of the players.

The manager has had an easy ride so far, another couple of defeats and the supporters will make
their dissatisfaction known.

[ESSEXURs]

The next big problem looming on the horizon when we do get players fit is the continuing
desire to rotate the players to a state of dizziness.
You need a settled side to build understanding.
I do not think this manager understands that concept.

[Tommy Cunningham]

I think we have a real problem with recruitment at QPR, I don’t think for one minute
that the manager was involved in any of this season’s signings.

Looking at the players recruited he probably didn’t know the majority of them.

The club have been totally oblivious this season, to overlook the tough, competitive
and physical league the Championship is.

Signing unproven young players hasn’t helped, but a serious lack of physicality within
the squad has been very evident this season.

We appear to constantly struggle with injuries.