Stephan defiant after QPR suffer another heavy defeat
Julien Stephan remained defiant after QPR suffered another chastening defeat.
Rangers, recently hammered 5-0 at Southampton, were thrashed 4-0 at home by promotion-chasing Middlesbrough, who totally outclassed them.
Stephan’s side were in the thick of the race for the play-offs before suffering three consecutive losses – a run in which they have failed to score and have conceded 11 goals.
They have also lost three in a row – and four of their last five matches – at home.
But the head coach said: “I don’t do this job just for the good moments.
“My job as well is to be able to manage the bad moments like this and to keep the same behaviour, same energy, and same communication with the players.
“Of course we are not happy. It’s a difficult moment when you lose three games in a row and you concede many goals.
“But I want to protect my players, because I know them and I know they tried to give their best.
“It’s a difficult moment. This is the reality. But they didn’t lose all their quality in this short time.
“Sometimes you have to deal with these moments. And this is a moment when I will probably learn a lot about who we are and which identity we have.
“Are we able to stay together just in a good moment? Or are we able to face these moments all together and continue to build for the future?
“This is a bad moment and we need to stay together and continue to build for the future.”
David Strelec put Boro ahead before Alan Browne and Hayden Hackney added second-half goals before Tommy Conway’s late penalty completed the scoring.
“When you lose against a top, top team, you have to accept (it). And they are better than us. This is the reality. They deserve their win,” Stephan said.
“They had more quality, individually and collectively. More quality with the ball and without the ball. I have to say that we lost against a better team than us.
“We will not face an opponent like this every time, but we need to be able to show more quality in possession.
“In the last three games we didn’t score. In football if you don’t score and are only in defensive positions it’s very difficult to get a good result.”
