Stephan happy with QPR’s progress, despite deflation of Loftus Road stalemate.
Although Wednesday night’s disappointing 0-0 stalemate with Oxford United may have ended QPR’s hopes of adding a victory to a modest run of four games without a loss, the manager still thinks his club is headed in the right direction.
Their defensive performance was remarkable, and even if the last third lacked quality, Julien Stephan is sure that his strategy of switching up his players and closely monitoring their energy levels will be successful this season. The Hoops will go to Bristol City this weekend in high spirits after the Loftus Road stalemate at least keeps the run continuing.
“It’s always a process to build something and we have to link that with the confidence, because the confidence is so important for the players,” said the Frenchman.
The players’ confidence naturally rises when you have good results, and we have taken 11 points in the last five weeks. However, I believe we still have room to improve, particularly in ball control and last-third choices.
However, I’m pleased that we haven’t given up much threat defensively in the last three games. You can travel [good] after the season if you have a solid defensive game, but I’d want to create more danger than we did tonight.”
Stephan went on: “I believe we had opportunities to win the game in the second half. We certainly could have performed better in the first twenty to twenty-five minutes, but I thought the last fifteen minutes were better, and we also felt more confident since we had played the game well in the final thirty minutes.
“It was important for me to involve different players, with three games in one week. It’s just the beginning of the season and we need to do the season with 17, 18, 19, 20 players, not only with 11 or 12 players.
“Playing new players was our original strategy. Oxford chose to start with the same starting lineup as the previous game, and we were able to observe that physically. We ended the game rather well and were, I believe, physically superior to them.
“It’s the plan in for the next games because in three days we play Bristol City, who played yesterday and have one day more to recover and they play at home, while we have to travel on Friday.
“If we play always with the same starting XI, I think in two months I think we will have these players completely dying, probably. If we want to do a good season, we need to have 20 players involved.
“I believe we maintained our dominance and remained in the opposition’s half in the second half. We had our chances, but occasionally the last third’s choices were poor. We didn’t score tonight because of this.
Although he was pleased with the growth of players taken from League One, such as Richard Kone and Amadou Mbengue, Stephan acknowledged that they required further time to acclimatise to the demands of the Championship.
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