Marti Cifuentes takes responsibility for QPR’s disappointing defeat to relegation rivals Sheffield Wednesday
QPR head coach Marti Cifuentes felt he did not prepare his team in the right way for their 2-0 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday at Loftus Road.
Second-half goals from Djeidi Gassama and Anthony Musaba ended Rangers’ three-game unbeaten run and left Cifuentes’ side just four points above the Championship relegation zone.
Rangers’ improvement since the Spaniard was appointed in October has seen them recover from being six points shy of safety, but Cifuentes took full responsibility for the setback.
“I’m very disappointed – but with myself as well,” he said. “When I look at the performance I didn’t prepare my team well enough for the kind of game I knew it would be. We were not good at all.
“It was a bad performance. A poor performance. That’s why I’m very disappointed, not only about the result, but about the game and the quality that we showed. It is a very disappointing day.”
Back-to-back wins over the Easter weekend had left QPR in a strong position to avoid the drop heading into the final weeks of the season.
But Wednesday’s win in west London helped to make the relegation tussle even tighter, with Rangers facing another crucial game on Tuesday night against fellow strugglers Plymouth Argyle.
“That’s always the danger not only in football but in the human being. Sometimes we tend to relax and those moments are very dangerous,” said Cifuentes when asked about his side’s drop in performance level following the victories against Birmingham City and Swansea City.
“You think you are doing so well but football always gives you the reality. If you are not at 110 per cent it is very difficult.
“We tried during the whole week to let everybody know that it was a very difficult game, probably the most difficult game of the season.
“It looked like Sheffield Wednesday were playing for their lives but unfortunately I was not good enough to convince my players that today that kind of intensity was needed.”
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