When Marti Cifuentes arrived at Queens Park Rangers in late October, the membership was one place off the underside of the Championship. Morale was low. It was asking lots for a comparatively unknown coach to show it round and preserve them within the division.
That’s precisely what he did, QPR ultimately ending outdoors of the underside six. In truth, solely two groups within the Championship picked up extra factors from mid-January onwards. A type of was Leeds, spanked 4-0 at Loftus Street on a memorable night time in late April.
Cifuentes, a 41-year-old Spanish coach who had spent the previous 5 seasons honing his craft in Scandinavia, achieved this enjoying a model of soccer extra in tune with what QPR supporters count on of their aspect, lifting the gloom that had descended on the membership.
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QPR head coach Marti Cifuentes talking after the 4-0 win over Leeds United
No marvel that he has been linked with Premier League jobs.
“It means folks worth what you’re doing,” Cifuentes tells Sky Sports activities. “However this was a staff effort. I’m very centered on QPR and excited concerning the future.” He’s talking from again dwelling on the Girona coast, close to Barcelona. “A wanted break, I’d say.”
As he displays on a whirlwind 12 months, it’s acknowledged that even these near Cifuentes noticed this transfer as a threat in addition to a chance. Had he been unable to have such a huge impact, the following probability in England would most likely by no means have come his manner.
“I by no means assume a lot about what if.” He noticed solely potentialities. “I feel the truth that I had confronted conditions like this earlier than helped. We knew that it was a really difficult state of affairs upon my arrival. However I used to be satisfied that it was potential. That was my mindset.”
QPR had endured a depressing begin however issues ran deeper. “We realised that it was not solely concerning the starting of this season. Sadly, it was 12 to 16 months of a not very optimistic development that QPR was in. To reverse that’s all credit score to the gamers.”
How did they do it? The start line was to implement a brand new enjoying model. QPR’s possession statistics had been among the many very lowest within the Championship, the staff struggling beneath predecessor Gareth Ainsworth. Cifuentes managed to alter that.
He inspired gamers low on confidence to imagine that extra was potential. “I all the time felt that once we grew up enjoying soccer, we needed to have the ball at our toes to not be going round chasing it. That precept of being proactive ought to by no means change.”
He explains: “We needed to create that spark, to get the participant eager about why they needed to play soccer. We tried to set off this from the primary session. I needed to see gamers laughing and having fun with themselves, whereas working onerous. I feel we achieved that.”
“It was a recent begin for everybody. I needed to verify we had an identification as a staff that was linked to the membership. I knew that QPR had this historical past with plenty of technical gamers, attacking soccer. That was very aligned with my mind-set.
“We needed the gamers to overlook a bit of bit about the place within the desk we had been. To present them a brand new mind-set as a result of they had been those who had been affected by being in a relegation battle for a very long time. That may be draining from a psychological perspective.”
Simple to say however tougher to do. And but, gamers responded, exhibiting they had been able to extra. “Gamers corresponding to Ilias Chair and Chris Willock had been extra suited to enjoying in a staff that tries to assault, that tries to have the ball on the bottom,” says Cifuentes.
“Gamers corresponding to Jake Clarke-Salter, Jack Colback and Sam Area may turn into that form of soccer. One of many issues that made me most proud is that we may see the progress as we developed right into a staff that we may recognise an increasing number of.”
Coaching was reworked with an enormous concentrate on positioning. “It’s key. In case you get two seconds of house moderately than one due to your place, that can provide help to to execute higher as a result of you have got twice the time that you’d have with the fallacious place.”
Curiously, the implications of this in-possession work was that QPR’s defensive report improved dramatically. Based on the expected-goals knowledge, they’ve had the second-best defence within the Championship since Cifuentes was appointed.
QPR’s defensive report has been reworked beneath Marti Cifuentes
It was not achieved by way of dogged resistance. It was all linked to that extra formidable strategy. “After all, we work lots on urgent and on how we defend the field, however an enormous half is the best way we assault after which what we do in a short time once we lose the ball.”
Cifuentes even has a reputation for that. “It’s a idea known as zero-second response, that for us may be very key. The second we lose the ball, there is no such thing as a remorse, no complaints. We simply attempt to regain the ball in a short time and as excessive up the pitch as we are able to,” he explains.
“In case you ask our gamers how we turned our defence right into a power, it was by engaged on how we assault. Just one time did we conceded three targets. Just one time did we lose by greater than two targets. The identification was getting an increasing number of into the gamers.”
Not that it was all simple. “We received three in a row and it appeared like it might work rapidly. The truth of the league is that it was not that straightforward. The bottom second was in opposition to Millwall on Boxing Day. That made everybody realise we needed to push tougher.”
However Millwall had been overwhelmed 2-0 at Loftus Street within the rematch simply weeks later and QPR have gone from power to power ever since. “It clicked.” The win over Leeds was an apparent spotlight however it’s one among many for Cifuentes. He smiles on the reminiscences.
“It was the connection that we constructed with the followers. After we had been enjoying away, at Leicester we had 1000’s supporting us. Plymouth on a Wednesday night time, it was unimaginable. We created that feel-good issue with the supporters. It was a weapon.”
Explicit favourites embrace a stoppage-time win over Birmingham. “Jimmy Dunne’s volley, a incredible strike to win a six-pointer.” And a poignant draw at dwelling to West Brom. “It was a particular night time for us in Stan Bowles’ reminiscence. It was a turning level.”
That Cifuentes himself brings up Bowles, the fan favorite of the Nineteen Seventies who handed away in February, is a sign that he has absolutely embraced the membership’s previous. With assist from a membership ambassador, he has even been having historical past classes concerning the Hoops.
“Andy Sinton is a crucial determine to assist me perceive what this membership means to folks, the ups and downs. This has affected the best way that I see our soccer. It’s concerning the gamers now we have now however it needs to be linked with the best way that this membership is.”
Cifuentes has restored that feeling at QPR. Such is the character of soccer, supporters will now be hoping for extra, taking a look at that spectacular type from the primary half of 2024 and questioning whether or not it might probably proceed and a return to the Premier League is feasible.
Cifuentes is reluctant to get carried away. “We should be very humble. There are plenty of good managers on the market, plenty of golf equipment with more cash than us. I feel it might be naïve for us to count on that simply because now we have development, it will work.”
However pre-season will assist. “That’s vital.” And no matter occurs, nearly no matter outcomes, there’s a sense that QPR are again. “We’ll lose video games. That’s soccer. However I all the time need the supporters to go dwelling happy with what we had been making an attempt to do.”
Delight restored, then. So, what does all this imply to him? “Quite a bit, and never simply because it was troublesome, however due to how we did it. That’s the reason I’m so completely satisfied. The togetherness with the followers has been one thing unimaginable. Hopefully, we are able to preserve having fun with it.”