Critchley stands by decision to leave out Willock
Neil Critchley stood by his decision to leave Chris Willock out of the QPR starting line-up against Luton.
Rangers were crushed 3-0 in new boss Critchley’s first home match in charge and have now suffered four consecutive defeats at Loftus Road.
Willock was named on the bench, while Ilias Chair returned to the starting line-up and there were also places in the side for Olamide Shodipo and Tyler Roberts.
Critchley explained: “We just wanted to bring some energy to the team tonight – we’ve got three games in a tight, congested period.
“I wanted to bring some energy and life at the top end of the pitch and I felt we did that.
”I felt Mide had some really good moments in the first half, Ilias was bright and Tyler had some good moments.
“We got the ball into some really good areas and played some good football. But for our domination in terms of territory, we didn’t produce enough around the goal.”
Willock was eventually brought on for crowd favourite Chair – a substitution which leFt many of the already frustrated home fans unhappy.
But Chair was withdrawn because of illness, while Andre Dozzell and Jake Clake-Salter did not play because they too have been ill.
Critchley said: “Ilias is ill. We’ve had a bit of illness recently – Andre Dozzell was ill and Jake Clarke-Salter has been ill.
“Ilias was ill at half-time. He wanted to carry on. But when he came off he was struggling and went straight down the tunnel.
“I thought he had some really good moments in the first half, so it’s not something I wanted to do. I didn’t want to take him off but it was enforced.”
Carlton Morris put Luton ahead after 10 minutes and doubled their lead 80 seconds into the second half – a hammer blow for Rangers.
Alfie Doughty fired a late third beyond keeper Seny Dieng from near the edge of the penalty area.
“It was a very disappointing evening. The game has been decided in both penalty boxes and the timing of the goals we gave away were really poor,” Critchley admitted.
“At 1-0 down I thought we showed a really good response in the first half and had some really good moments and some promising situations.
“The story of our night was that we failed a lot – with our final ball and decision-making. We also didn’t get that bit of luck in front of goal that you might need.
“The second goal is the biggest disappointment for me because I felt at 1-0 that the second half of the game would follow a similar pattern to the first in that we were in the ascendancy. That second goal has a huge bearing on the outcome of the game.
“When you’ve been beaten 3-0 it looks like there’s been chance after chance and you’ve been well beaten, but I didn’t think we were.
“Seny had very little to do and has picked the ball out of the net three times. We just failed and they didn’t.”
30/12/2022 @ 7:26 pm
Joe – I’ve forgot what a goal scorer is.
30/12/2022 @ 2:03 pm
For goodness sake’s,when are we going to realise we need players who want to play for the club,which willock is clearly no longer interested in doing and even more importantly we need goal scorers
30/12/2022 @ 9:20 am
Feel gutted, Its never good to get beat 3-0 at home especially by a rival like Luton.
With injuries and illness affecting the team along with the congested fixture list i can understand the decisions made by the gaffer.
We do desperately need an in form striker and whilst Willock is currently way below par, I am sure he will ‘bounce back’ very soon.
30/12/2022 @ 8:40 am
They seem to be getting worse not better. Plenty of huff ‘n puff but totally inept in front of either goal. No disrespect to Luton but how can we go 3-0 down at home?