MARTI Cifuentes accepts QPR’s lack of goals is a big priority after his side drew another blank in today’s 2-0 defeat at Millwall.
Both of the Lions’ strikes came late in each half, the opener from Tom Bradshaw and the second right at the death from Murray Wallace.
Results elsewhere later on left Cifuentes’ side five points from safety and with just one goal in the last four games – a 2-1 defeat at fellow strugglers Sheffield Wednesday – the Loftus Road chief knows things need to improve quickly.
He told QPR TV: “We are working on it. We need to just get better in the box with occupation, we need to get better on how we arrive through the last third.
“I think we need more quality in terms of one-v-one and getting into certain areas that we know that, if we hammer during the game, we get more into those areas during the game and we create much more goal chances.
“We need to get better on that.
“But as I said, it is bit of a combination.
“When you cannot beat the high press, it is very difficult to create goal chances.
“The main thing is as a team is we do well in all areas, and then of course we are very aware that we need to create much more goal chances to create and score the goals that we need.”
Chris Willock was named as a substitute at The Den after picking up an injury late on in the Saints game, although he did take part in the pre-match warm-up in Bermondsey.
However, the manager revealed afterwards one of his most creative players was always highly unlikely to make an appearance from the bench.
“He got a big knock in the last game so he felt that he was not ready for the game today,” explained Cifuentes.
“As well we’ve got Jack Colback and (Steve) Cook (out), so obviously three important players for us.
“But again, we cannot complain – that is the reality with the Championship we have a new game in 72 hours.
“We just need to recover well, face a new game as an opportunity to get three points and forget about having any kind of losing mentality in terms of complaining or just feeling sad for ourselves.
“We don’t have the time to do that. We just need to recover, prepare for the game and no excuses, try to win the game.”
That next fixture on Friday just happens to be at Portman Road against Ipswich Town, arguably the Championship team of current campaign considering they only come up from League One this summer.
But despite chasing back-to-back promotions to the Premier League, Cifuentes believes there is nothing to fear for QPR, as the narrow Saints defeat proves
He said: “Obviously it is going to be a difficult game, we know that. We need to face a very good opponent that is having a fantastic season.
“We just need to get the best of ourselves if we want to get any points from that game.
“This team has enough quality to face almost anyone.
“We saw in the last game against Southampton – that is one of the best teams in the league and we can compete against the best teams.
“But definitely, if we perform as we did today it is going to be very difficult, so we need to learn from it.
“We need to just make sure that we recover well and again face the game in the best conditions that we can.”
