Marti Cifuentes believes that the international break arrived at a good time for QPR, as the Spaniard looks to put an end to his new side’s winless run.
Cifuentes has overseen draws against Rotherham United and Bristol City in his first two games since arriving from Swedish club Hammarby. The West Londoners are currently 23rd in the championship table, having not tasted victory in 11 matches.
The new Rangers boss felt that the two-week hiatus was the perfect opportunity to both get to know his players better and fine-tune his tactical approach before returning to action against Norwich City on Saturday.
“Usually the international break is the last thing you want to happen,” Cifuentes said. “But it has been a good period for us to keep training despite having a few players go away with their national teams.
“It has been good to spend some time with the players, to talk with the captains, and to get to know the young players and academy players. “The first target is to win against Norwich. Usually, you only have a week, but we have had two weeks to prepare for the game properly.
“The second target has been about our style of play and our identity. It will be important if we are going to be the club that we want to be to have a strong identity. To play attacking football, we need to learn about the positional game—how to take advantage of our positions on the pitch and have possession with purpose.
“Progress has been made with the way we want to play in just a few weeks. Now we can see some of the principles and behaviors we want on the pitch. The players are getting big ideas about reaching certain positions, about using the ball to move the opposition, and about being a team that is competitive in all parts of the pitch. It’s definitely encouraging.”
Cifuentes admits he has had barely any time to explore London due to the hours he is spending at the club’s Heston training ground, but he has been able to keep an eye on Saturday’s opponents, Norwich.
The Canaries were on a miserable run of form of their own just before the break, losing five of six matches before picking up a much-needed win against Cardiff City last time out.
Even though David Wagner’s side has not won on home turf since the end of September, the QPR boss was keen to stress that they are capable of causing his team problems at the weekend.
“They are a good side,” said Cifuentes. “They had a bad trend a few weeks ago, but they turned around the game against Cardiff in the last minutes, so they will probably get a great boost from that.
“They are a very intense side. It is clear from their approach that they have a German coach. They score a lot of goals, but they concede as well. The identity that they have is very strong.
“We expect a game with a high tempo where they will create a lot of situations to try and dominate and create open situations with players that can drive with the ball. Tactically, I think it will be a very interesting challenge.”
Cifuentes confirmed that both Jake Clarke-Salter and Reggie Cannon have trained ahead of the trip to East Anglia following respective injuries, but both will be assessed before Saturday’s game.
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