Ian Holloway has warned that Eberechi Eze will need to work on the defensive side of his game if he is to establish himself as a first-team player under him at QPR.
The teenager made his senior debut in Saturday’s FA Cup defeat against Blackburn and looked bright before going off with an Achilles injury during the first half.
Holloway regards Eze as a number 10 – an area the manager believes Rangers are overloaded.
And with Tjaronn Chery having agreed a move to China, Holloway is keen to introduce a more workmanlike approach in which certain players, including Eze, will have to adapt.
“I like his talent – he can produce all sorts of things. But what I’ve got to do is get him in the right blend and balance,” Holloway explained.
“Again, he’s a number 10. There’s no such position in my world; you have to learn how to defend, and if you are a number 10 and the ball goes to a (opposition) centre-half you’ve got to go and press it, and he didn’t get that right.
“He’s trained (with the first team) a couple of times and I’ve thought ‘wow. He has got unbelievable ability, it’s just about whether can he produce it out here.”
Eze, 18, was signed in the summer after leaving Holloway’s former club Millwall.
He has impressed for Rangers’ development side this season and the club recently extended his contract.
Holloway said: “Millwall let him go, being a number 10, and he’s got a lot to learn defensively, but going forward he’s got all sorts of ability.
“I’ve got to teach him the game, because you cannot be a luxury. Mr Chery cannot be a luxury who takes set-plays and gets us things.
“In the Championship you’ve got to have everybody doing a shift, pedal to the metal.”
This post was last modified on 11/01/2017
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I'm not at the training ground every day,only go to watch our match's but I can tell ollie with my limited 55 years of watching the Rs that what we need, have always needed, is a couple of goalscorers and a right fullback, which if Furlong is successful in that position(and I pray and hope he is) then why oh why are we not concentrating on bringing in two
(2) strikers.I repeat 2 strikers.