Newly-appointed Queens Park Rangers head coach Marti Cifuentes has admitted that it is his ‘job to make this puzzle work’ as the Hoops face Rotherham United in a huge match for both clubs.
The QPR board decided to make the difficult decision to relieve Gareth Ainsworth of his duties on Saturday afternoon, just a few hours after his side were defeated at home to league-leaders Leicester City.
The London club had failed to win a game in the Championship since the beginning of September and had dropped into the relegation zone with six consecutive defeats against Coventry City, Leeds United, Blackburn Rovers, Huddersfield Town, West Bromwich Albion and eventually Leicester. In fact, QPR lost every game in October.
Now, QPR are facing a relegation six-pointer on Saturday as they travel to Rotherham to take on the Millers who are sitting one place and one point higher in the second-tier table.
However, the Hoops will have a new man in the dugout after it was announced that former Hammarby head coach Marti Cifuentes would be taking the reins at Loftus Road.
The Spaniard joins QPR without having any experience in English football and, in a recent interview with BBC Radio London, has acknowledged the difficulties facing him [quotes via BBC]:
“This is my fourth time taking a team in the middle of the season. I know that there is no time,” he said.
“I want to learn, to develop, to get better and I know that English football will help me.
QPR have won just two out of 14 league games this season and their goal difference of -16 is the worst in the division.
“I’m not here to judge what has been done before. We start from zero,” he continued.
“It’s the law of football, when a manager leaves, the new one has an opportunity to change things and give everybody a fresh start.
“From the first day they called me, it was a clear idea – not only about the big challenge we have ahead of us but looking as well in the long term.
“What we are going to try to build here is respect and identity that this club had in the past. Now it is my job to make this puzzle work.”
Writer’s View
Cifuentes’ Hammarby played some of the best football in Sweden’s top-flight during his time with the club. However, the process to get there was gradual.
The Spanish coach will have less time now to change QPR’s direct style of play from the Ainsworth era to a more possession-based approach, but points on the board are what is most important at this moment in time.
