Stephan rues errors after QPR defeat
Julien Stephan insisted his decisions were not the cause of QPR’s latest home defeat.
Head coach Stephan bemoaned his team’s apparent inability to do the “simple things” – and the injury problems which have marred their season.
Sheffield United eased to a 2-0 victory at Loftus Road, where Rangers have now lost three of their past four matches.
Stephan’s side, thumped 5-0 at Southampton in midweek, were again punished for some woeful defending.
They were cut apart on their left side for the opening goal, scored by Callum O’Hare in the ninth minute.
And Jonathan Varane giving the ball away led to Tyrese Campbell thumping in the Blades’ second.
With his team having been totally outplayed in a one-sided first half, Stephan made a double substitution at half-time, sending on attackers Paul Smyth and Rayan Kolli and switching from a 4-4-2 to 3-4-3 formation.
“We knew before the game that they were able to combine on their right side. The way they scored the first goal was exactly what we could expect,” said Stephan.
“But if you don’t respect the principle of play and don’t close inside – simple things, it’s not a question of back four or back five, it’s just a question of respect of the principle of play. The second one, we must be able to keep the ball in this situation.
“I don’t think it’s a question of shape or organisation. We know the situation with the injuries and all the players we have out. It has a huge, huge impact on the quality we can have on the pitch.
“But if we are not able to compensate with more intensity and more aggression we have no chance in the Championship. And in the two games the disappointment has come from that.”
Just a week after a 3-1 win at Hull seemed to leave Rangers in the thick of the battle for a play-off spot, back-to-back defeats have changed the mood totally, and the season is petering out.
Key midfielder Nicolas Madsen suffering a hamstring injury at Southampton was another major blow.
Stephan said of his players: “They are very honest. We were able to have a good result against Hull City, but the reality is that the lack of players means it is difficult to play in three days.
“We can see that physically and mentally we are not 100% and our performance dropped a lot. There’s a big difference between the Hull game, and our quality and aggression, and the next one.”
He added: “But this is our realty and we need to improve very quickly, because the week after next we have three games in a week as well, and we need to be better to get some points.”
In light of the injury to Madsen, and with Esquerdinha at left-back having struggled in the absence of Rhys Norrington-Davies, who was ineligible to play as he is on loan from Sheffield United, Stephan was asked about the club’s decision to allow Sam Field to join Norwich on loan.
Stephan replied: “I am very happy for Sam. He is playing for Norwich and did some good games.
“I don’t think we can explain the last game we did with Sam’s situation. It was just a decision.
“We didn’t know Nico Madsen would have an injury and did not know that Ilias Chair would not be able to come back at the moment. We did not know that Kader Dembele had an ACL injury,
“I’m happy for Sam. He’s playing well and it’s a good thing for him.”
The defeat left Rangers 15th in the Championship table, 10 points away from the play-off places.
“Tough game. Tough performance. We conceded a goal too quickly in the first half, didn’t start with enough intensity or aggression,” said Stephan.
“Tried to fix some problems during half-time and I think it was better in the second half but we didn’t create enough.”
