SWP - Harry Is Our Mourinho

QPR winger Shaun Wright-Phillips vows to find his missing X Factor
There will be no Christmas party at Queens Park Rangers this year but it would be mistaken to think that all semblance of festive fun has been sucked out of the club.

Lifting the blues: Shaun Wright-Phillips says Harry Redknapp can get him back to his best, By Jeremy Wilson
11:00PM GMT 14 Dec 2012

It is Thursday lunchtime at their Harlington training base and an unfortunate group of academy scholars are about to perform their version of the X Factor in front of a heckling and unforgiving first team.

Amid some raucous laughter, Shaun Wright-Phillips is just outside the canteen signing a big pile of replica shirts for various good causes. Our interview is delayed, however, because Harry Redknapp, the new manager, is insistent that all the first-team players are present for the big sing-off. It is a small thing but, amid the grim realisation of QPR’s plight at the bottom of the Premier League, it also feels quite telling.

For when Wright-Phillips does reappear from the canteen 25 minutes later, a huge smile tells its own story. Redknapp has been through enough relegation battles during 30 years in football management to know that releasing tension can be as effective as any number of hours spent on the training pitch.

As a player who has worked with some of football’s most illustrious managers, Wright-Phillips is certainly well placed to assess the renowned people skills of Redknapp and the comparison he draws with Jose Mourinho is instructive.

“They are both good at getting players to be very positive and confident but they do it in completely different ways,” he says. “They make it feel like it is a family. There is a sense of ‘we need you and you need us’. Mourinho was like a family man with us. He was always there for us, made us feel wanted, had a laugh with us. As much as he was our manager, he was also our friend which seemed to work for everybody.”


And Redknapp? “Harry is great at making you believe in all your capabilities. He gets you back to what put you on the pitch in the first place. He tries to bring back what made you you. He always reminds you of how good you are and the player you are. He lets me know the abilities I have. Most, if not all of us, only started playing football for enjoyment. He encourages you to go out there and express ourselves and enjoy our games. We work hard, we want to win as many games as possible but just play with a smile on your face.”

It all sounds so simple but, for a player like Wright-Phillips, also so vital. As a winger whose attacking impact depends on taking risks, there can be nothing more damaging than feeling inhibited. And, as a signing of proven Premier League experience who has struggled to provide the expected injection of quality, his situation is emblematic of a wider issue with the squad. Wright-Phillips has scored just once in 45 appearances since joining QPR 16 months ago but, having returned to the team under Redknapp, he does genuinely seem to be turning a corner. “It has been quite inconsistent,” he says. “At times I’ve been a bit too negative whereas before I used to be more positive. I need to be positive and try to be direct.

“For a lot of us, it’s quite hard. It’s unusual. Normally everything just comes naturally off the cuff and you don’t think what happens if they go up the other end and score. We have started playing as a team with a lot of confidence and I think over the last three games it’s getting better and better. I was playing with some caution because I didn’t want to lose the ball in a bad area. I would almost rather keep a ball than make something happen. Now we are in a position where we need wins and draws so we just have to play free. We need to be as positive as we can around the box.”

Wright-Phillips says it is “100 per cent” down to himself to continue this change but it is obvious that the wider environment is crucial. To that end, the new manager and the resulting release of tension around Loftus Road, already appear to have helped.

It must have been difficult for any player to fully express themselves during the final game of Mark Hughes’s reign against Southampton when supporters were chanting for the manager to leave and openly accusing their team of “only being here for the money”. Wright-Phillips did not play that day but is adamant that doubts over the squad’s commitment are unfounded.

“The players want the result just as much as the fans. Sometimes it is easy saying this person isn’t doing it but, when you are on the pitch, you don’t have that view or vision. Players give 110 per cent. The spirit is fantastic. I personally hate losing whether I am playing or not playing. The last three games since Harry has been here, the fans have been 100 per cent behind us, even if we have made a mistake, and encouraged us to get the ball. If we have that, the players don’t worry about if they lose the ball.”

Despite the recent improvement, there is already a sense that QPR are running short of orders at the last-chance saloon. They play Fulham at home today, the sort of winnable home fixture that must now regularly result in three points. A first victory, you sense, could still conceivably result in the sort of run that Redknapp has inspired during previous ‘great escapes’ with West Ham and Portsmouth.

“It would be massive for us,” said Wright-Phillips. “We are a great squad of players, great individual ability but, at the moment, it has not come out as a team. It sounds small but, for us, it’s a massive positive that we haven’t lost in three games.

“We are in a position where we have to fight. It’s obviously hard to change it around but I do think things are slowly changing. The belief has come in and it is looking good. All that matters is just to get QPR out of the situation we are in because the club and the supporters don’t deserve it.”

 

Maybe, just maybe... our tiny tot will bang one in for us later?