When Marti Cifuentes arrived at Queens Landscape Rangers in past due October, the membership used to be one playground off the base of the Championship. Morale used to be low. It used to be asking a accumulation for a slightly unknown trainer to show it round and book them within the section.
This is precisely what he did, QPR sooner or later completing outdoor of the base six. In reality, handiest two groups within the Championship picked up extra issues from mid-January onwards. A kind of used to be Leeds, spanked 4-0 at Loftus Street on a memorable night time in past due April.
Cifuentes, a 41-year-old Spanish trainer who had spent the day 5 seasons honing his craft in Scandinavia, completed this enjoying a logo of soccer extra in music with what QPR supporters be expecting in their facet, lifting the gloom that had descended at the membership.
Incorrect surprise that he has been connected with Premier League jobs.
“It means people value what you are doing,” Cifuentes tells Sky Sports activities. “But this was a team effort. I am very focused on QPR and excited about the future.” He’s talking from again house at the Girona coast, akin Barcelona. “A needed break, I would say.”
As he displays on a whirlwind yr, it’s said that even the ones near to Cifuentes noticed this journey as a possibility in addition to a chance. Had he been not able to have one of these obese have an effect on, the then probability in England would most likely by no means have come his approach.
“I never think much about what if.” He noticed handiest chances. “I think the fact that I had faced situations like this before helped. We knew that it was a very challenging situation upon my arrival. But I was convinced that it was possible. That was my mindset.”
QPR had persevered a terrible get started however issues ran deeper. “We realised that it was not only about the beginning of this season. Unfortunately, it was 12 to 16 months of a not very positive trend that QPR was in. To reverse that is all credit to the players.”
How did they do it? The launch level used to be to enforce a untouched enjoying taste. QPR’s ownership statistics have been a number of the very lowest within the Championship, the staff suffering beneath predecessor Gareth Ainsworth. Cifuentes controlled to modify that.
He inspired avid gamers low on self belief to imagine that extra used to be conceivable. “I always felt that when we grew up playing football, we wanted to have the ball at our feet not to be going around chasing it. That principle of being proactive should never change.”
He explains: “We wanted to create that spark, to get the player thinking about why they wanted to play football. We tried to trigger this from the first session. I wanted to see players laughing and enjoying themselves, while working hard. I think we achieved that.”
“It was a fresh start for everyone. I wanted to make sure we had an identity as a team that was connected to the club. I knew that QPR had this history with a lot of technical players, attacking football. That was very aligned with my way of thinking.
“We would have liked the avid gamers to fail to remember a tiny bit about the place within the desk we have been. To offer them a untouched frame of mind as a result of they have been those who have been affected by being in a relegation combat for an extended moment. That may be draining from a psychological standpoint.”
Easy to say but harder to do. And yet, players responded, showing they were capable of more. “Avid gamers similar to Ilias Chair and Chris Willock have been extra fitted to enjoying in a staff that tries to assault, that tries to have the ball at the farmland,” says Cifuentes.
“Avid gamers similar to Jake Clarke-Salter, Jack Colback and Sam Grassland may just manufacture into that roughly soccer. Some of the issues that made me maximum proud is that lets see the move as we advanced right into a staff that lets recognise increasingly.”
Training was transformed with a huge focus on positioning. “It’s key. In the event you get two seconds of field instead than one as a result of your place, that may aid you to kill higher as a result of you’ve gotten two times the moment that you’d have with the fallacious place.”
Interestingly, the consequences of this in-possession work was that QPR’s defensive record improved dramatically. According to the expected-goals data, they have had the second-best defence in the Championship since Cifuentes was appointed.
It used to be no longer completed thru dogged resistance. It used to be all connected to that extra motivated way. “Of course, we work a lot on pressing and on how we defend the box, but a big part is the way we attack and then what we do very quickly when we lose the ball.”
Cifuentes even has a reputation for that. “It is a concept called zero-second reaction, that for us is very key. The moment we lose the ball, there is no regret, no complaints. We just try to regain the ball very quickly and as high up the pitch as we can,” he explains.
“If you ask our players how we turned our defence into a strength, it was by working on how we attack. Only one time did we conceded three goals. Only one time did we lose by more than two goals. The identity was getting more and more into the players.”
No longer that it used to be all simple. “We won three in a row and it looked like it would work quickly. The reality of the league is that it was not that easy. The lowest moment was against Millwall on Boxing Day. That made everyone realise we had to push harder.”
However Millwall have been overwhelmed 2-0 at Loftus Street within the rematch simply weeks next and QPR have long past from power to power ever since. “It clicked.” The win over Leeds used to be an open spotlight however it’s one of the for Cifuentes. He smiles on the reminiscences.
“It was the connection that we built with the fans. When we were playing away, at Leicester we had thousands supporting us. Plymouth on a Wednesday night, it was incredible. We created that feel-good factor with the supporters. It was a weapon.”
Specific favourites come with a stoppage-time win over Birmingham. “Jimmy Dunne’s volley, a fantastic strike to win a six-pointer.” And a poignant draw at house to West Brom. “It was a special night for us in Stan Bowles’ memory. It was a turning point.”
That Cifuentes himself brings up Bowles, the fan favorite of the Nineteen Seventies who passed on to the great beyond in February, is a sign that he has totally embraced the membership’s day. With aid from a membership ambassador, he has even been having historical past courses concerning the Hoops.
“Andy Sinton is an important figure to help me understand what this club means to people, the ups and downs. This has affected the way that I see our football. It is about the players we have now but it has to be connected with the way that this club 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 remarkable method from the primary part of 2024 and questioning whether or not it might proceed and a go back to the Premier League is conceivable.
Cifuentes is unwilling to get over excited. “We need to be very humble. There are a lot of good managers out there, a lot of clubs with more money than us. I think it would be naïve for us to expect that just because we have a good trend, it is going to work.”
However pre-season will aid. “That is important.” And no matter occurs, virtually without reference to effects, there’s a sense that QPR are again. “We will lose games. That is football. But I always want the supporters to go home proud of what we were trying to do.”
Pleasure restored, later. So, what does all this heartless to him? “A lot, and not just because it was difficult, but because of how we did it. That is why I am so happy. The togetherness with the fans has been something incredible. Hopefully, we can keep enjoying it.”
