McClaren on Rangel’s future, Hemed’s fitness, protecting Eze – and his mistakes as QPR boss
QPR’s encouraging run continued with a 2-2 draw at Stoke City on Saturday. Here’s what Rangers manager Steve McClaren had to say after the game.
On the performance
“I thought we were excellent. This is a difficult place to come with the quality Stoke have got – the players and the bench.
“What pleased me most was the way we controlled the game. We started ever so well, played football and got a goal up.
“Against the run of play we conceded. That rocked us a bit but in the second half but we showed the courage and the composure to play.
“We dominated and went a goal down – again against the run of play – and the response of the team was tremendous.
“We never stopped, we changed to a diamond and went for it, got the goal and then had to hold on towards the end.”
On asking the referee to protect Ebere Eze
“You saw a performance from Ebere Eze that showed his great potential. He was getting fouled too many times, so we just pointed that out.
“Although we make a foul and get a yellow (card), Ebere gets fouled 20 or 30 times and nothing happens.
“They’re small fouls but ones in which he’s away from people and attacking the goal. We wanted protection for him really.”
On Angel Rangel’s future
“We’ve got a stipulation where we can keep him. He’s got that option, Angel, it’s (about) whether he wants to stay with us or not.
“I think he’s been nothing short of a revelation, not just on the field but what a great lad off the field.”
On Rangel’s two goals
“I’ve got to say I don’t know why he was in the box heading the ball in from there. We told him to stay on the halfway line but we pleased he didn’t.
“And the second goal was a cracker – a great team goal. As long as we score, it doesn’t matter who gets them.”
On improving since a terrible start
“You come in and you learn, you make your mistakes, you try, you experiment looking for the right formula.
“In the early weeks I made a lot of mistakes. But the key was that we learnt from them.
“We got together a team with a consistency of performance and that what pleased me – whether we’d lost or drawn today, the performance and the recovery and the courage to play and spirit.
“It’s about whether we can keep that week in week out – that’s the difficulty in the Championship.”
On the team spirit
“They’ve always had that from day one. There’s always been that spirit – good dressing room.
“We’ve added to that with experience like Angel, Cameron, Hemed and Nahki Wells. It’s a good dressing room and I enjoy working with them every day.
“That spirit is now showing in terms of results and performances.”
On whether Geoff Cameron was missed
“I thought Jordan Cousins came in and did a great job. Massimo Luongo had just landed on Wednesday from a trip to Australia and he got better as the game went on.
“It’s a squad game and I’ve always said that. And the squad has played its part.”
On Tomer Hemed building up his fitness
“I think we saw that in the week for Israel and he’ll continue to do that. You’ve seen what a threat he can be.”
On whether he is eyeing the play-off places
“No. No. We’re just building a team and trying to build belief. We need a bit more of that but that’s natural and normal. No targets.
“We’ve got Rotherham on Tuesday and I saw they should have beaten Sheffield United. That isn’t going to be an easy game.
“It will be a different game and isn’t going to be easy for us. We get our feet on the ground and go again.”
