Hughes Needs To Instill The Passion

The defeat at Everton was characterised by a first half that was missing all that was good about the last few games of last season, passion, confidence and drive, Mark Hughes needs his team to find that and fast.

Those who watched the game at Goodison Park noticed that from the off Saints seemed to lack any read energy and passion for the game, whereas Everton played with the gusto you would expect from a side with a new manager and a few new signings.

Yet we had not of that, we looked like rabbits in the headlights at times with no organisation and leadership.

Last season we had a decent squad, we still have and it is more than capable of a top 10 finish, but what has happened to the intensity and desire we had in the final few games, the hope was that Mark Hughes having found that in the squad could keep the momentum this season and with the addition of a few new players could take us forward.

I believe he can do that, but we have to find a structure to our team and leadership not only off the field but on it.

In the first halves against both Burnley and Everton the players looked lost, as if they didn't really know their jobs in the line up and it only needed one or two to be out of sync and soon the rest follow, of course the usual suspects are blamed, but it is more than that.

I think that Mark Hughes firstly has to find out his best line up, I'm not sure that he knows it yet, certainly he is also making some strange selections including the ommission of Hojbjerg from the starting line up in both games.

It hasn't helped that already there are injury problems, defensively the arrival of Vestergaard looked a good piece of business and the ideal man to add strength to the side and counter balance the skills of Hoedt, hopefully he will be back against Leicester City.

Likewise Stuart Armstrong has looked an absolute bargain, but he was not fit to start at Goodison and of course we all have high hopes for Elyounoussi to be another star.

But although Hughes injury woes did not help his selection dilemmas, that wasn't the problem, it was a complete lack of passion and determination that caused our downfall and left us a mountain to climb.

If Hughes can find that on Saturday then hopefully we can beat Leicester and start to move forward, if we don't then the knives will be out.

What to read next:

Season Preview Revisited – Top Half
It’s that time of the year again where we look back at the hits and misses from our season preview – this year we either got your team exactly right to the place, or missed by half the division.

A season of three thirds: how Cifuentes and QPR beat the drop – Analysis
Columnist Andrew Scherer returns with an end-of-season deep dive into the facts and figures behind Marti Cifuentes’ rescue job on QPR’s class of 2024.

End of Term 23/24 – Attack
The fourth and final part of our annual review and number crunch of the QPR squad finishes with the club’s amazing non-scoring strikers.

End of Term Report 23/24 – Midfield
The third part of our end of term report focuses on QPR’s midfield – an enormous problem for this team for a number of seasons now, it’s been one of the areas of significant improvement under Marti Cifuentes.

End of Term Report 23/24 – Defenders
Part two of our annual individual player reports for the season focuses on a defence which really came into its own under Marti Cifuentes and contains the two outstanding candidates for the club’s player of the year award.

End of Term Report 23/24 – Goalkeepers
The first of our annual four-part individual assessment of the QPR players’ performances during the previous season always starts with the goalkeepers – and, regrettably, that means we’re puncturing the recent feel-good factor round here by beginning with a negative.

The Coventry Conference – Report
Coventry away, for so long a fixture that loomed almost as large as the spectre of Eoin Jess over Queens Park Rangers, turned into an eighth away win of the campaign and survival party for a manager and support base who both really stepped up when it mattered in 23/24.

Coventry City 1 - 2 Queens Park Rangers - Player Ratings and Reports
If you saw the match, please give us your player ratings and a mini match report.

The season that was - Preview
As QPR, unbelievably, head to Coventry on the final day safe and secure, LFW looks back at a tumultuous two years at the football club, and the lessons it must learn to make the most of the potential it now has to move forwards.

I hear you’re a set piece team now father – Analysis
In his final analysis piece for LFW this season, Dan Lambert looks at how QPR went from being the worst team in the league for offensive set pieces to, eventually, kind of good.