Calm set to join QPR as Cifuentes’ assistant

New QPR boss Marti Cifuentes is set to install fellow Spaniard Xavier Calm as his assistant.

Cifuentes worked with Calm at Hammarby before recently leaving the Swedish club to take over at Loftus Road.

Calm, 42, previously spent 10 months at Birmingham City, initially managing their Under-23 side before being promoted to the role of first-team coach.

He left the West Midlands club in May 2020 for family reasons and subsequently managed Spanish side Atlético Baleares before joining Cifuentes in Sweden in July last year.

Meanwhile, Cifuentes says he will make “the three Ps” – possession, pressing and positioning – the foundation of QPR’s style of play.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, he explained: “There are what I call the three Ps.

“You use possession as a tool and use the ball to move it and create the chances, to create gaps.

“We will try to have good pressing when we don’t have the ball, because we like to regain the ball quickly to create chances.

“The last one and perhaps the most important is positioning. As long as we have good positions on the pitch then we’re going to get better situations on the ball to execute the actions.

“These will be the foundations. We want to be a brave team that wants to attack and if we score a goal tries to chase the second one.”

Cifuentes has inherited a team which has lost six matches in a row and sits one off the bottom of the Championship table.

His reign will begin at Rotherham on Saturday and Steve Cook is expected to return after a hamstring injury, but Jake Clarke-Salter remains sidelined.