Beale backs Roberts to be a success at QPR

Mick Beale has backed new loan signing Tyler Roberts to be a success at QPR and insists his underwhelming goalscoring record is not a concern.

The 23-year-old Wales forward has joined the club on a season-long loan deal from Leeds United – where he has scored just nine goals in 101 appearances, though almost half of those outings have come as a substitute.

But Rangers head coach Beale believes Roberts has what it takes to improve on that record this season.

“I think everyone should be excited about having Tyler here because I think he’s got huge motivation to be here,” Beale said.

“He turned down four or five clubs to be here, which I think is key as well. When we’re talking to players of course we want to entice them to our club, but we also want that player to really want to come and be part of what we’re doing.

“I think when you look at Tyler, he’s a 23-year-old who has won the Championship, has 19 international appearances, and has played 60 or 70 games in the Premier League.

“He is very, very experienced – more experienced than the other young players we have – and already in training you can see what he’s going to bring in terms of power and athleticism.

“I would say that he’s a player that will score goals if he’s played consistently in the attacking areas and that’s what we’re looking to do with him.

“I see him as a hybrid (forward). I worked with a player who was similar to him in Kemar Roofe. I think he’s got similar traits to (Roberto) Firmino.

“He’s like a nine-and-a-half, ten-and-a-half, if you want to use these modern terms that people use now. He’s a striker that drops in and he actually has got more ability than the guy who just stays in the box.

“He’s very mobile. He’s a hybrid player which I like. He has got a lot of transferable skills.”

QPR’s top scorer last season, Andre Gray, scored just 10 times and has since left the club following the end of his loan deal.

But Beale insists he has no concern about where the goals will come from during this coming season.

“I think we’ve got to remember that last year in the league, Dom Solanke and (Aleksandar) Mitrovic were the standouts but I don’t know how many goals the Nottingham Forest striker got, for example, and the Huddersfield striker and stuff like that. I haven’t looked at that in depth,” he explained.

“I know Nottingham Forest because they had one of our boys from Aston Villa, Keinan (Davis), they struggled for goals so it was a collective thing as a team.

“The big thing is we have goals in our team. We have goals from Chris (Willock), we have goals from Tyler (Roberts), we have Lyndon (Dykes), Macauley (Bonne) is back in, obviously Ilias (Chair) is there, the centre-halves need to compete as well on set-plays.

“Luke Amos had a really good spring and summer after Christmas, going on to score goals. So goals can come throughout the team.”