Mark Warburton defended Jack Clarke after the youngster’s disappointing performance on his full debut for QPR.
Clarke, recently signed on loan from Tottenham, was off the pace before being substituted during the second half of the FA Cup defeat against Sheffield Wednesday.
But Rangers manager Warburton has no doubt the 19-year-old is capable of making an impact in west London and that his lack of game time this season was a factor in his below-par display.
He was recalled from Leeds, having been loaned back to the Yorkshire club after being bought by Tottenham.
“That’s why Spurs brought him back,” said Warburton, referring to the fact that Clarke had only made one league appearance this season prior to joining the R’s.
“He’s a £15m player. But he’s a boy, so he’s got to adapt to the level. There’s no doubt he will.
“You saw him play for Leeds and he’s a very talented player. There’s no doubt about his quality.”
Bright Osayi-Samuel made an impact after coming on for Clarke but Warburton stood by his decision not to start with the in-form winger.
“I keep repeating myself: they can’t keep playing week in, week out,” he said.
“All that would happen is that he’d pull a hamstring or pull a groin and we lose him for six weeks.
“You’ve got to look after the players. It’s about having a squad. Marc Pugh came in and did very well.
“When you can, you’ve got to rotate your squad. Pick the same 10 players and they’ll just break down, that’s all that will happen.”
This post was last modified on 25/01/2020
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How about this for a rumour:-
BOS to Burnley, in return we get Wells and Hart. Burnley loan BOS back to us until end of season.
tony need to sell the club so the club can go forward and plan for next season we will not be going forward with the owners we got how so it best for them to sell the club we need a manger with a plan to go forward with and warburton need to be sack how
sell manning to wolves and use the money to buy wells
butter fingers Lumley , has cost us game after game but still we pick him ?he makes the difference. Really nervous Kelly has proven he is the best keep full of convenience and in top form
the buck stop at the door of the manger time again the fans have been let down in cup match and league game about time the owners care about the fans who help to pay the wages of these players and lumley need to sold is january he is not good player for the club cost us to lots of goals warburton need to be sack how
acsrjjp - I agree 100%
First there was Lumley and now Clark joins him - we saw last night why he didnt cut the mustard at Leeds and the less said about Lumley the better. If Clark is a £15m player then what one earth is the rest of the team worth?
Can someone tell him its 11 players in a team, not 10 ! or is he saying goalkeepers dont run about, in which case why not stick with Kelly.
Not for the first time,MW's judgement has come into question, he never seems to have a Plan B,why did he play Jack Clark if he knew he was short of gametime in an intense cup game, and why oh why does he persist with Lumley when everyone (bar him) knows he will end up costing us a goal???????.