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‘Astounded’ Hughes takes beleaguered team abroad — Tuesday diary
‘Astounded’ Hughes takes beleaguered team abroad — Tuesday diary
Tuesday, 14th Feb 2012 23:24 by Clive Whittingham

Manager Mark Hughes said he was “astounded” by how bad QPR were in the first half at Blackburn on Saturday and vowed to put his team through a gruelling week of training in Portugal this week.

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Rangers are without a game this weekend because of their early FA Cup exit, a break that has given Hughes a chance to take the team away for some warm weather training during which the issues from Saturday’s first half capitulation at Ewood Park will hopefully be physically beaten out of the team.

Hughes told the Daily Mail: “I’m still astounded by the first half, to be honest. We won’t labour the point because they were told in no uncertain terms about that. It’s probably the first time they’ve seen that side of me but they’ll see it again if we have the same problem. We understood straightaway that that wasn’t acceptable and I don’t anticipate that we’ll see that level of performance again. We’re going to Portugal to get some work done because we’re struggling at our training ground at the moment. It’s frozen so we’ve been training at the stadium and we need to give that a break.

“It will give us the opportunity to have a couple of sessions a day and have a real understanding of what type of personalities they are and how they react to certain situations. I’ve learned a lot about the group, both in the performance in the first half and in the second half as well. We conceded two goals from two shots and they were really poor from our point of view. Given the circumstances we’re in, the confidence ebbed away somewhat and we can’t afford to have that. We’re in a position where, even if things go against us, we’ve still got to dig in and do the right things. In the first half we felt too sorry for ourselves.”

Hughes did have more positive words for Jamie Mackie who rose from the bench to haul QPR back into the match single handedly with two well taken goals. Hughes told the official website: “It was important for Jamie. Last year was a bad time for him but he's come through it and been great. He's been unlucky not to be in the side and has started a number of games for me. I thought that when he came on, we needed his energy and willingness to try and affect the game and get around people and that's what he did. He scored a great goal and has done his prospects, in my eyes, no harm whatsoever."

Mackie himself told the Fulham Chronicle: “I was really happy I took the goals, but I was as gutted as anyone else about the result. We really need to start picking up points, and personal thoughts go out of the window. I'm gutted I couldn't change the scoreline, you can only do the best you can, but another 10 minutes and I think we would have won. I was delighted to be up front too as I haven't been playing there much. I will play wherever I'm told to, but I feel my best position is up front, and that is where I can benefit the team most.”

The players depart with the words of chairman Tony Fernandes ringing in their ears. The Air Asia boss was about as impressed as the rest of the QPR fans with the “efforts” of his expensively assembled team in Lancashire on Saturday.

Fernandes pulled few punches after the match, telling his Twitter followers: “Talent is one thing. Being able to cope with the pressures of talent is key. Everyone needs a spine to take the pressures of life. We need a spine in QPR. We need fighters not just talent."

Later he gave an interview to the Press Association, his first since the sacking of manager Neil Warnock. Fernandes said: "I always said from day one we would be in a relegation battle and our aim was to avoid relegation. Am I coping with the pressure? I'm not loving the pressure, but I'm loving the whole experience. I'm doing the best I can, and it's now up to the boys on the pitch and the manager to do what they can. We certainly have the players and ability to avoid relegation, but the Premier League is very tough, and only time will tell.

"I liked Neil, and I thought like with any of my employees it would be a long, long, long relationship. Sadly I ended up doing the one thing I said I wouldn't do, which is why it was tough. I'd rather not go into the reasons why I got rid of him. It was a decision that was made, and we've moved on from it."

The results may not have changed much following Warnock’s departure, but the party line on Adel Taarabt certainly has. Warnock seemed certain the Moroccan would be on his way out of the club this January and found little use for him following an abysmal first half performance and subsequent half time withdrawal at Spurs earlier this season. Hughes though sees promise.

He told West London Sport: “I’m enjoying working with him. He’s a very bright kid, he’s good around the place, and I’ve been really, really impressed with him. I think there’s more to come. With the right work and the right direction he could be more effective than he has been in the past. It’s his first season in the Premier League and we want to make sure he improves year on year. I think with my and my staff’s help he’ll be a better player.

“I was pleased because he took on responsibility [against Wolves] and that’s what you want from players. He understood the situation and that he had to really drive the game for us and that’s what he did. I like players who are able to understand what’s going on and are able to take responsibility in a game. Some shy away from it but he certainly didn’t.”

As ever, following a poor performance and defeat, the QPR players have been quick with words about just how much better things will be next time. In their defence journalists ask questions that have to be answered but they must understand that their actions on the field are currently speaking louder than any words in the press.

Akos Buzsaky, abysmal at Blackburn on Saturday, told Sky Sports: “I think QPR deserve to be here and this is a club that does not want to go up and down, go up again and go down.We have done the hard bit and now we want to stay up and be an established Premier League side like Everton or Stoke.We definitely have a strong enough team to stay up, but you never know in football. Everyone knows we need to do our best because things can change. Even without the new signings, we shouldn't be fighting against relegation but we are because that is something we did not do properly. Everybody needs to look in the mirror and just give 100% from now on. I am sure under this new regime, we will be fine."

No Algarve training camp, or action for the next six weeks, for luckless striker DJ Campbell though – he’s torn his hamstring again. He told London24: “"It's a grade two tear so I'm looking at four to six weeks. It has been one thing after another but I just have to try to get on with it. Hopefully if I can do my rehab a bit better this time then it will be okay. It's frustrating but it happens, it's been like that all season. I was on the last day of my rehab and it went again. I've had a few injections on it, so were hoping that might get me back a bit sooner."

Mali international Samba Diakite will join his new team mates in training for the first time from tomorrow.

Assistant manager Mark Bowen told the club’s official website: “The first impression since we've arrived is that this is an excellent training camp. The facilities are fantastic and we've had a look at the pitches and they look very good as well. It's a great time to come away for two reasons. Firstly it gives us the opportunity to play on good services at a time when the Harlington pitches are frozen, and it also allows us the chance to go through a lot of tactical bits and pieces with the players. There are things that we want to address coming on the back of last weekend's result against Blackburn. The manager said afterwards, and rightly so, that the first 45 minutes was a shock to all of us with how poorly we played. We didn't expect that because we thought we had prepared the lads well in terms of what we expected of them. But we finished the game very well and the stats from the second half showed that. Over the course of this week we will learn more about the players and the players will learn more about us. And with the new lads coming in, it means they can get used to their team-mates more and get involved in the group more.”

QPR now desperately need points from successive home matches against Fulham and Everton, and the Merseysiders will only have 1,700 fans in attendance after the Toffees elected to take the smaller allocation offered to visiting teams at Loftus Road. In their defence they haven’t been to Rangers for more than 15 years now, but their official website suggestion that they were disappointed not to be offered an option between 1,700 and 3,000 shows a chronic lack of knowledge of Loftus Road’s away end design. QPR will now get the lower tier of the School End for that game.

Finally congratulations to youth teamers Gareth Deane and Frankie Sutherland on their recent international call ups. Deane was outstanding in the Under 18s’ FA Youth Cup run this season, taking LFW man of the match honours in the narrow defeat at Newcastle last week, while Sutherland was playing excellently against Everton in the previous round before being sent off.

Deane will play for Northern Ireland Under 21s against Macedonia in a European Championship qualifier on March 1 while Sutherland is in the Republic squad for their friendly with Turkey the day before.

Former R’s

Neil Warnock was deemed to have taken QPR as far as he could in January, but if reports are to be believed other clubs are clamouring for his services. A 2-1 defeat at lowly Coventry tonight is likely to cost caretaker manager Neil Redfearn any chance of becoming the permanent Leeds manager and Warnock has been heavily linked to Elland Road. But it’s the position at Wolves that is causing greatest interest. Alan Curbishley has stated his interest and is the early favourite to replace Mick McCarthy, who was sacked yesterday following Sunday’s 5-1 derby defeat to West Brom, but Warnock is said to be on a three man shortlist along with Curbishley and former Sunderland boss Steve Bruce. Wolves are currently below QPR in the table on goal difference and the possibility of them staying up at our expense with Warnock at the helm is not one that would sit comfortably with anybody around W12, least of all those who decided to fire him.

Goalkeeper Nick Culkin has been nominated for the Fans’ Player of the Year award in the Northern Premier League for his performances at Radcliffe Borough, just under two years after being dragged out of retirement to keep goal for them. He has made the final shortlist of five.

Jimmy Smith scored a late winner for Leyton Orient tonight as they won 2-1 at big spending Bournemouth in League One. Terrell Forbes and Kevin Lisbie also played for the visitors.

Premiership Shorts

- Carlos Tevez will enter his own mini-pre-season training regime after returning to Man City today. Tevez said manager Roberto Mancini had treated him “like a dog” but was willing to bury the hatchet and retake the field for the title chasers after an unauthorised three month leave of absence.

- Two bits of good news for Arsenal who have lost the comedy stylings of Per Mertersacker for a month with an ankle injury and are hoping to welcome midfielder Jack Wilshere back from his season long injury nightmare within a similar time scale. A stress fracture in his foot had looked set to rule Wilshere out for the rest of the campaign but after positive scan results manager Arsene Wenger said: “Jack can be back within a month if all goes well.”

- Lille midfielder Eden Hazard, a long term transfer target of Chelsea, could join Spurs this summer. The Belgian midfielder described Spurs as a “great club” on television at the weekend. It remains to be seen whether an anticipated departure of manager Harry Redknapp to the England position has any bearing on this.

- There could be another managerial change in the air at Chelsea as well. They slipped out of the Champions League places with a 2-0 loss at Everton at the weekend and owner Roman Abramovic is now making daily visits to the training ground where the club’s famed senior player clique is said to be undermining Andre Villas Boas at every turn sparking angry confrontations in front of the club’s owner. Fabio Capello waits in the wings.

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Monahoop added 08:35 - Feb 15
Well let's hope MH can iron a few problems out with this break and make the team train hard, very hard and not take them on some pathetic team building exercise on some fancy golf course somewhere.
The whole team owe it to the fans to show that they are good enough and have the backbone to sustain a determined survival approach to the end of the season.
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R_in_Sweden added 09:19 - Feb 15
Encouraging to see that Hughes is willing to invest in the footballing talent of Taarabt. Be interesting to see what kind of player Diakite is, maybe he'll take the place of captain rent-a-quote in the team.

After watching the Blackburn and Wolves games I really feel that Hughes has his work cut out getting this team to gel and installing some much needed confidence. We really need to perform for 90 minutes which has been a rare occurence for us this season and see out games the way Newcastle did at their place. Either that or build up a four goal lead. Who knows, maybe the trip abroad will prove to be a tonic.

Will be hoping for at Brighton victory at the weekend as I stupidly booked a trip for the Liverpool game not realising that it coincided with the cup.

Keep up the good work.
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DorsetR added 10:47 - Feb 15
Hughes must be astounded by the team , we all are. He needs to take this as a chance to start again with the team. Lets hope hes got some new ideas, might be a very different team lineup for Fulham.
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Myke added 12:49 - Feb 15
It would be nice to see Mackie get more game time up front. In 20 mins last weekend he became our 2nd top scorer! I'm Irish but still it's time Kenny was dropped. Both Doyle's and Yakubu's efforts were very safeable. We've started to score more since Jan, but are still conceding an average of 2 goals per game and that's not substainable. Not all Kenny's fault by any means though. Maybe Diakite can solve the problem at source like Derry did last leason?
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JAPRANGERS added 14:16 - Feb 15
I wish Rangers were as consistently good as your reports and articles Clive!
As others have said, we'd soon be out on our ears if were performed in our jobs as crap as some Rangers players are managing to do at present.
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double_m added 18:21 - Feb 15
Well, Hughes and his team are certainly saying the right things to fill this small square of Loftus road with confidence. Bring on the lilly-livereds. Come on you R'sss!
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RBLOCKPAT added 20:31 - Feb 15
To me Bartons lackadaisical way of playing seems to slow the pattern of play too much, obviously gifted he seems to play too deep and gets caught too often by more eagre opposition, at Newcastle he played more often in the final third of the pitch and was more aggressive, he possibly wrongly thinks he is the Big Fish in a small pond he couldnt be more wrong, he has dellusions of grandure and I would bring him down to earth by letting him warm the bench for a couple of matches and hand over the armband to Jamie Mackie a player who would die for the club and on considerably smaller wages than Barton. Play Jamie up front with Zamora and Taarabt just behind them and I am sure we can prosper. SWP worries me and his lack of success in beating people and wrong choices must deflate the rest of the team, maybe he needs a rest. Looking forward to seeing Diakite and praying he is better than Taiwo and Onuoha.
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e1337prodigy added 21:46 - Feb 15
Agree with Myke, Kenny was saving those kind of shots at the beginning of the season/last season. Maybe he is still not fully fit.
Agree with Rblockpat, Barton seems to lazy, missing half a step. SWP is ok, he just never seems to get the final ball in, seems to pull out of it and try to cut inside but then has to go back as the oppositions defender has blocked his path.
They are all passing poorly, giving the ball away.
I thought Diakite was a midfielder. I think he was brought in to cover Faurlin.
Definitely Jamie and Zamora up front, Mackie is in top condition at the moment and would really benefit from some headers on from Zamora... Just have this funny feeling... They don't cope with this pressure of being in relegation battle. Wolves, Blackburn, Wigan etc have been in these positions every year.
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jo_qpr63 added 23:35 - Feb 15
Team bonding went well last season and i think helped the unbeaten run we went on and winning the league. We got so many new players and i hope this break does bond them as a team(as poncy as it sounds).For me Kenny is still our best keeper but maybe lacks the confidence in his defence which changes every week. I agree Mackie up front with zamora sounds a good option at the moment. SWP wont improve, he has never had a end product,skillfull though he is. Too early to judge Taiwo and Onuoha. I think we are going to have to rely on Taarabt again to kick the season on.
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johann28 added 00:29 - Feb 16
'dellusions of grandure'? funny. cheered me up
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