‘I’m not one to complain and point fingers’ – Marti Cifuentes reacts as QPR drop to the bottom of the Championship table

Marti Cifuentes insists he is clear about the areas in which his QPR side need to improve after they fell to the bottom of the Championship table on Saturday.

Despite taking an early lead through Kader Dembele, Rangers lost 2-1 to a previously winless Portsmouth side at Loftus Road courtesy of a Freddie Potts strike and a Callum Lang penalty.

Ilias Chair failed to score a one-on-one that would have seen Rangers regain the lead before half-time, but they struggled to fashion chances to equalise after falling behind.

“Football is about edges,” said Cifuentes. “I’m not a fan of talking ‘what if’ but if I talk about a clear situation where usually Ilias would score, we are a talking about a different game.

“Football is about mistakes, we made two individual mistakes that cost us two goals.

“Of course I’m disappointed about the performance. But I’m not one to throw everything out, complain and point fingers.”

“I’ve spoken to the players and said we have two ways to face this situation. Either we accept where we are and accept the criticism, because that’s the nature of football, and accept we need to get better if we want to get results, or we start to point fingers and it will be much more difficult [to turn things around].

“The way I am as a human being and as a manager, I have a clear decision on how to act in those moments.

“I spoke a lot in the summer about expectations. I said this could take a little bit of time and I’ve not changed my approach.

“I’m very calm about how the guys are working and the commitment [they are showing]. I’m aware that we need to improve. Whatever we achieved last season or last week is not enough, it’s about the next game and the next action.”

Expectations were high at Loftus Road that QPR could avoid a third successive season of battling relegation following an impressive end to the previous campaign.

Cifuentes oversaw a run of just four defeats in 19 games to end the season, helping the west Londoners move comfortably clear of the drop zone.

A busy summer of transfer business looked like it could see the Catalan head coach build on his good start in W12 but the Portsmouth defeat was the latest disappointment in a frustrating start to the term.

“The feeling when I arrived [last October] was that it was really tough,” said Cifuentes.

“I believe in the culture we are trying to set on the training ground and the players believing in what we are trying to do.

“I want to think the team has a higher bottom level [of performance] than what we are showing now and it’s about improving [performances].

“I have full confidence in the guys and I believe we can turn the situation around. It’s very early to say we will not be good enough [to stay up].

“In this league, dynamics can change pretty quick. After [games against] Sheffield Wednesday and Luton, people would say this team is so resilient. Now people will say we are really bad and this [situation] is so disappointing.

“I stay more calm. I have been lucky enough to coach in five different countries and have been doing this job almost 20 years. I’ve been in tougher situations.

“We need to be aware of where we are and careful in our assessment. We need to approach the situation in the way it needs. We need to improve quickly but I think [the situation] is about some factors that make me believe it will be better [in the future].”