MARTI Cifuentes said the staff were giving Zan Celar “support and love” after the striker missed a penalty in Queens Park Rangers’ 1-1 draw against Stoke City at the weekend.
QPR trailed to Tom Cannon’s 24th-minute goal before Celar weakly hit his spot-kick wide after Paul Smyth had been fouled by Eric Bocat.
Ben Gibson’s own goal on 61 minutes gave the hosts a point but their winless run at home stretched to nine games and they are last in the Championship table, five points from safety.
Celar hasn’t scored since joining from Swiss side Lugano for £1.7million in the summer.
“It is about man-management and this is one of the biggest parts of my job, and the coaching staff as well,” Cifuentes said.
“We have a young guy who has moved to a new country, there is big expectations not only because he is playing for his national team and he comes as one of the goal-scorers in the Swiss league, but at the same time because all the strikers when they are signed, everybody expects them to be the solution to all the problems in every team in the world.
“We are going to try to help him. What we are trying to do is give him support and love, because probably that is what he needs and hopefully that will pay off because he is a quality player.”
QPR travel to Cardiff City on Wednesday. The Bluebirds are in 21st in the table.
“It is always important to get good results, especially against teams that are around us in the table because it becomes a six-pointer,” Cifuentes said.
“It is definitely an important game for us, especially for the challenge of playing against a team that is in a better trend since they changed their manager.
“As well, we know our challenge is to maintain the level of performance, if not increase, what we showed last Saturday. The challenge for us is this stability.
“I was surprised with the start of the season they got but it is a good example for us because sometimes the dynamic can change very quickly. In that sense, I know they have quality players and they have been doing well lately.
“But, for us as well we look at the history of our visits to this stadium and it has been good so hopefully we can repeat a positive result.”
