Ainsworth praises players after QPR win
Gareth Ainsworth praised QPR’s players after his change of direction resulted in a 2-1 win at Cardiff.
West London Sport revealed in the wake of last weekend’s 4-0 hammering at Watford that boss Ainsworth was ditching his direct tactics in favour of more of a passing style.
And his side duly produced a transformed performance and earned a deserved victory, with new signing Steve Cook making a big difference at the heart of the defence.
“My system and setting the boys up didn’t give them the best chance of winning, and it has been a big week for me,” Ainsworth said.
“It’s a big day for me, a long week, and I can’t thank the boys enough for their time with me and patterns on the training ground about how I want to do things.
“I really did think ‘How do I get the best out of the players I have got rather than what has got me success (at Wycombe) in the past?’.
“I had to say to myself ‘This is new Gareth’ and I thought I was stifling what the boys are good at, so we changed things up.
“There are still some non-negotiables with me and fundamentals, like scrapping and giving their all, but there was a little bit of a more of a style, which I enjoyed. The boys went out there and delivered.”
Sinclair Armstrong scored his first QPR goal and Kenneth Paal also netted before Ike Ugbo pulled one back Cardiff.
Paul Smyth created the opening goal, chasing what looked a lost cause on the right and robbing Callum O’Dowda before teeing up Armstrong for a simple tap-in from a couple of yards out.
Rangers rode their luck after the interval when Aaron Ramsey fired against the bar.
But then the outstanding Armstrong set up the all-important second goal.
Armstrong did brilliantly on the flank and pulled the ball back for Paal, who netted with a lovely first-time strike.
Rangers faded after Armstrong and Smyth went off and had to ride their luck late on.
Ugbo gave the Bluebirds hope by slotting home after being set up by O’Dowda – and they hit the woodwork again in the final minutes, this time when Mark McGuinness’ effort struck the bar.
14/08/2023 @ 5:08 pm
sorry about all the repeat posts – I was trying to find out why I couldnt see them, I thought I had been banned. All sorted now.
13/08/2023 @ 12:31 pm
So it only took a change of direction to secure our first win of the season.
13/08/2023 @ 10:51 am
Looks like i was wrong to write them off so soon. long may this run continue (hopefully longer than my last failed post did)
12/08/2023 @ 7:59 pm
Agreed, and long may it continue – Spot on T Block – as usual.
12/08/2023 @ 7:28 pm
An honest admission from Ainsworth that the players he’s got cannot be moulded into his style of play, and that he gets the best out of them by adapting the style to suit the players. The perfect example being young Sinclair. We all know how good he can be, but managers have not been able to unleash his potential, well that changed today. When you’re the size of Mike Tyson and can run like Usain Bolt, you need to give the lad the ball and let him terrorise defences. This sea change of playing to the strengths of the players we have, not trying to mould them into something they’re not (Warburton, Critchley) must continue !