The lowdown on QPR 1 Middlesborough 4 – Rangers remain mired in relegation trouble following comprehensive defeat

QPR’s winless run stretched to 11 games after they were beaten 4-1 by Middlesborough at Loftus Road.

Here is the lowdown on the match.

THE LINE-UPS

SNAPSHOT OF THE GAME

QPR remain firmly in relegation trouble after being comfortably beaten by Middlesborough.

All of the defensive resolve that had seen struggling Rangers pick up three consecutive draws seemed to disappear as Michael Carrick’s side created chance after chance. Boro took the lead in west London when Riley McGree turned home at the near post following some brilliant play by Liverpool loanee Ben Doak on the right wing.

It took less than five minutes for the visitors to double their lead as Tommy Conway tapped in a Finn Azaz cross.

QPR gave themselves a lifeline in the second half when a Jimmy Dunne header at a corner was turned into his own net by Anfernee Dijksteel. But any hope of a comeback was extinguished with five minutes to play, as substitute Emmanuel Latte Lath rounded goalkeeper Paul Nardi before scoring.

Fellow sub Dan Barlaser extended the lead by scoring with a placed effort from the edge of the box in injury time.

TACTICAL APPROACH

Marti Cifuentes stuck with the system that had earned a creditable draw with league leaders Sunderland at the weekend, but he did make a couple of alterations to his starting line-up. Koki Saito took the place of Paul Smyth on the right wing, and with Harrison Ashby injured, Hevertton Santos came in for him at left-back.

Santos struggled considerably to deal with Ben Doak and was taken off at half-time with Saito replacing him in defence.

Cifuentes ended the game with two strikers in attack as his side desperately chased an equaliser but it never looked likely to materialise.

STAR MAN

Koki Saito. Always looks tidy and comfortable in possession, particularly on a night when QPR made hard work of keeping the ball. Switched to left-back at half-time and did a much better job than Santos of keeping an eye on Doak while also still contributing in attack.

Have QPR made any real progress in the past 12 months? Rangers are in near enough the same league position that they were this time last season. It is clear that they have been a better side under Cifuentes than his predecessor Gareth Ainsworth – but the league table is currently not backing it up. There was excitement around many of the summer signings, but a number do not look ready for the Championship as of yet, and a lengthy injury list is forcing players to be used in unnatural positions. Cifuentes showed his quality as a coach in turning last season around and he now looks to have a considerable job on his hands doing the same again.

“It’s a game that we started slow. In the first 30 minutes, not much was happening for either side. In three minutes we conceded two goals that we should have defended much better, and suddenly we are 2-0 down.

“We reacted after that and created three saves from the ‘keeper. We knew that scoring before half-time would help in the second half but unfortunately the keeper was brilliant.

“At half-time we said we needed to keep believing. We scored a goal that gave us a chance to get something from there. We tried to put more pressure on in the second half and when we are trying to push we are risking more and more and after a counter [goal] the game is over.”