Stephan explains Esquerdinha’s absence for QPR win

Julian Stephan said he left Esquerdinha out of QPR’s matchday squad against Stoke in order to include more attacking players on the bench.

The young left-back impressed prior to the recent loan signing of Rhys Norrington-Davies, but was not even among the substitutes against the Potters.

Stephan said: “It was a choice. I wanted to have a lot of offensive options – to finish with more offensive players if we needed it, but it was not the case.”

In the end, the R’s head coach made just one substitution, bringing on Issac Hayden in midfield midway through the second half.

Stephan admitted he considered taking Harvey Vale off before his winner.

The Frenchman thought about sending Kader Dembele on to attack left-back Aaron Cresswell, but Vale was having an excellent game on the flank and was kept on.

And the former Chelsea man broke the deadlock on 75 minutes – his first Rangers goal – to secure a third consecutive win for Stephan’s side.

Stephan explained: “In the last 20 minutes I had a lot of hesitation and, to be honest, I imagined that Kaddie would enter on the pitch for Harvey, yes. It was the plan.

“I wanted to create something different with Kaddie one-v-one against the left-back.

“But we didn’t change and in the last 15 minutes I felt that the players were continuing to do well physically and to enter the pitch in these kind of games is not easy. So we chose to stay like this.

“Sometimes you feel that you have to change and sometimes you feel you don’t have to change.”