QPR boss Ainsworth defends direct style of play

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QPR have won just one match under Ainsworth (Picture: Ian Randall Photography)

QPR boss Gareth Ainsworth has defended his direct style of play.

Rangers slumped to a dire 3-0 defeat at home to Coventry on Saturday and have scored just twice in Ainsworth’s five home games since he replaced Neil Critchley in February.


Defeat by Norwich at Loftus Road on Wednesday could see Rangers drop into the bottom three.

And with a trip to champions-elect Burnley on Saturday, they face the genuine prospect of relegation to League One.

Rangers have been noticeably more direct since Ainsworth’s arrival, with a strike force of Lyndon Dykes and Chris Martin deployed in the past two matches, with Ilias Chair playing on the left wing in a 4-4-2 formation and veteran wide-man Albert Adomah on the other flank.

The style is in complete contrast to the one instilled by Mark Warburton during his three years in charge, and also by Mick Beale, who enjoyed success with Chair and Chris Willock playing behind the strikers earlier this season – Rangers were in the top six on Christmas Day.

Chair has been deployed on the left flank (Picture: Ian Randall Photography)

However, Ainsworth maintains he is not just a long-ball manager and claims his defenders, who have conceded 21 goals in his nine games in charge, need to work on being more solid rather than playing out from the back.

“If you can get your centre-halves playing progressively into the 10s then great,” Ainsworth, who left Wycombe to take the QPR job, said.

“But at the moment I don’t think the confidence is there. We need to be more solid first before we start thinking about anything like that.

“I would urge people to look at the Wycombe goals this season and see how many of those are back to front.

“Having the big man up there can be effective, but I also like runners down the sides – that is all Coventry did on Saturday, it’s not like they played total football and cut us apart.

“People can say what they want about styles of play, but set-pieces come into it and we haven’t been threatening on those.”

Ainsworth also pointed to Rangers’ shortcomings under Critchley prior to his arrival

He said: “There is a lot to work on here. I think my predecessor had an opposite style to me, you could say, but that didn’t work out either.

“Everyone was buzzing after the West Brom game and no-one was mentioning style, but we lose to Coventry and everyone says we’re not doing enough. But that’s football.”