IS HUGHES TO BLAME FOR PROBLEMS AT QPR? Betfair: 3 October 2012 Reproduced with permission from betting.betfair.com. (c) The Sporting Exchange Limited. More Sharing ServicesShare | Share on facebookShare on myspaceShare on googleShare on twitter As QPR go down 2-1 at home to West Ham, Christian Crowther assesses the situation at Loftus Road... At the end of last season, Mark Hughes publicly vowed that he would never put QPR fans through that sort of final-day relegation dangling torment ever again. This may well prove to be true, but only because he may not be around long enough at Loftus Road to put this statement into practise. If the Welshman doesn't oversee a swift turnaround in results, he may not even get the chance to lead his team out past the clocks going back, let alone on the last day of the season. QPR's most recent defeat condemned Rangers to their worst Premier League start, winless after gathering just two points from a possible 18, leaving them propping up the table. One thing in Sparky's favour, for now, appears to be the backing of club chairman Tony Fernandes, who has heavily bankrolled the club this summer, allowing Hughes to bring in no fewer than 12 new faces. After the West Ham defeat, Fernandes said on his twitter account: "Keep calm. Six games does not make a season. I have learnt from many wise chairmen." Whether this turns out to be more akin to the dreaded vote of confidence than a genuine message of support remains to be seen. So how much of this is Hughes' fault exactly? One thing the former Blackburn, Man City and Fulham boss would point to is his defensive injury list. This is certainly a factor. When you have Anton Ferdinand, Jose Bosingwa, Armand Traore and Fabio all out injured and have to rely on - no disrespect - the likes of veterans Clint Hill and Ryan Nelsen, this is bound to have an effect. You'd strongly assume this was no the defensive unit which Hughes had in mind, however out of all his signings there is not one which has truly flourished so far this season, besides a good start for Bobby Zamora, who has had an extra six months to settle. Junior Hoilett is certainly a gifted player but for some reason was left on the bench and fellow sub Samba Diakite has a worrying penchant for a lunging tackle, which cost his team dear last night. Stephane Mbia and Esteban Grenero have certainly not offered the kind of quality and back four protection their signings promised, though Mbia wasn't in his primary position against West Ham. Until Hughes is able to get out his best defence out and give his other signings a chance to gel, I think it would be a genuine mistake to get rid of the Welshman now. Sparky should be allowed at least until Christmas to turn things around and hopefully Fernandes will stick by his words. Even though QPR are still winless at 4.7, they are still a tempting price to lay against relegation given the amount and quality of players they have to come back. If Hughes was to get given the heave-ho though, maybe a certain Harry Redknapp could be tempted into another Houdini act in the capital? Two more losses will even set up his favoured two points from eight games scenario...
Is he to blame......Well is he the boss? If yes then he is to blame. Did he keep you up last season?..NO bolton and other teams did.... Is he good enough to keep you up this season ? Well thats your choice and not my problem but if it was then he should have gone last season and not this where nothing has improved except the wage bill.....Will he improve? again its up to you whether you take the chance or not, ...You will win some games but will you reach the required number of points needed.....I cant see it...Not with sparky at the helm.
We may have a look at the Swansea Panic Sale in Jan for a couple of bargains ... after all it be over a month since the Swans put in any sort of performance that doesn't smell of struggle
I think he will keep us up - but even when we had our run last year at the end and won a few games - I never thought it was down to him. He is just too miserable. Do his teams play with passion? The fans and Mackie turned the passion on in the Liverpool home came and the little surge that followed took us to the last game and being close vs being confirmed relegation fodder. I don;t think he will ever be a hit with the fans. But... he will get the team fitter - instill discipline - buy some good players and we will do better than many on here think. IMO
Saying bolton saved us is plain wrong. Yes they failed to get the pointed required - but you could say that for a team finishing high in the league couldnt you. You could say for instance Liverpools poor form was the only reason Tottenham got 4th? No? All results in football are down to a number of factors - Hughes for sure helped to keep us up by getting 5 home wins on the bounce - surely beating stoke in the penultimate games saved us as well!
Why do we have to attribute blame? Our current situation is due to a number of reasons: 12 new players over confidence against a swans side that had never won at LR before Green's fumbled first goal - against the game plan and gave swans serious head of steam playing chelsea, tottenham and bloomin man city and norwich (bogie team for qpr) away. injuries to key defensive players samba diakite needing to learn to tackle without incurring yellows and reds some strange team selection the psychological impact of no win = monkey on their back injuries to AJ and loss of key partnership with BZ Cisse so far being a shadow of last year's player granero needing to man up in midfield and maybe get to the gym for some muscle work asap. QPR thinking they were playing West Ham at football when in fact it was mobile wrestling (sorry hammers but you are dirty bastards) I am sure you can extend the list too If this is an average season, some of the above will equal out over the next months as the season unfolds eg other clubs will also pick up key injuries when some of ours will be coming back. One of the things I detest about our society is that a bad situation is always somebody's fault. Sometimes it is just a set of odd circumstances that contrive against teams. Hughes can be held to account for some of the above and, sadly, if matters don't change, I guess he will be held to account for the lot. I personally hope it does not come to that.
Too right!! This chestnut keeps surfacing every time we need another skewer to puncture ourselves with. The fact is that we had saved our season prior to that game to the extent that Bolton needed to win their last game to survive AND we had to lose. The points we had earned prior to that game got us to that position. Bolton didnt succeed in doing do that; end of story.
Originally Posted by shenleyqprdave Another defeat and a hugely disappointing result having been 1-0 up. A win against the Hammers is a must otherwise i see another long winter ahead and a relegation battle. Originally Posted by Secret Ranger "You sure......Even the guy commentating said we wont be anywhere near the bottom of the table, get a grip man !!" Have you lost your grip now?
