Marti Cifuentes explains reasons for QPR’s slow start in Bristol City draw
Rangers were fortunate to go in level at half-time at Ashton Gate, with the home side controlling proceedings.
A five-game unbeaten run looked set to come to an end when Scott Twine opened the scoring with an impressive free-kick on the hour mark, only for a Paul Smyth wondergoal to rescue a share of the spoils for Cifuentes’ side.
“[It’s] difficult to explain,” said the QPR boss when asked about the start of the match. “There are small things. I think the level of energy was not at top [level].
“That’s ones of the things I’ve been saying we need to improve internally, and we need to make sure [we get] all the margins we can get as a team and as a club.
“We understand that not just because we had a good week or good results that everything is going to be fine. We need to keep improving because football is a game of small margins.
“The fact that we played on a bigger pitch, the way we need to shuffle and we need to arrive half a second [earlier into position] makes a difference against a team that moves the ball quick, and they could find the pockets so when we were trying to lock them in one side [to press] it was not easy to arrive to the pockets they created in the middle.
“It was small things but the reality was that the first half was poor and we need to be better. The first pass after regaining [possession] was definitely not the way we want to build counters. Small things. Some of them I keep internally, some of them I’m sharing with you.”
Cifuentes made a half-time change at Ashton Gate, replacing forward Rayan Kolli with fellow youngster Alfie Lloyd.
Although QPR’s first shot of the game did not arrive until Smyth drew them level, Lloyd helped get his team further up the pitch thanks to his hold-up play.
The QPR head coach was pleased with what he saw from the 21-year-old.
“I am very happy about the minutes he played,” said Cifuentes. “It’s not easy with our two senior strikers (Zan Celar and Michy Frey) out.
“Rayan has been struggling with illness so the decision was do we start with Rayan or start with Alfie, who is coming back from a groin injury so we felt he couldn’t manage a lot of minutes. So we tried to share the halves and both tried to give their qualities
“Alfie has the capacity, this physical presence, to run in behind and be a mix between a target player and a runner, and this is not easy to control.
“We knew that one of the keys for us in this game would be to attack behind the centre backs because the way they play is quite expansive. He (Lloyd) helped us a lot in the second half.”