The luck of the draw.
That seemed to be the message that QPR boss Mark Warburton wanted to get across ahead of today’s West London derby with Brentford.
QPR have gone through a bit of a purple patch in the last two games, having scored a total of eleven goals and conceding two. However, Warburton knows that a run like that can’t go on forever, and a lot of it will come down to your proficiency on the day.
Speaking ahead of the game against Brentford, Warburton talked about how the reason they managed to score so many goals in the past two games came down purely to their luck on the day, and that it really could have happened before, and could happen again:
“We have started to convert our chances in our last two games and in truth the stats from the previous games were better than Cardiff and Swansea but we were just more clinical. Goals change games and it’s as simple as that. It’s about putting the ball in the back of the net and that can change the whole dynamic of a game. The opponent then has to come out and attack to try and get something back and that opens up more space and our ball players can play.”
Thing is, I’d much rather these goals be spread out, rather than all coming in batches like the last two games. If you were to give me eleven goals, I’d rather they came in a three, three, three and a two across four games. Because that way, you stand a decent chance of winning them, barring the opposition scoring four against you every game as well.
So just like he spoke about getting the balance right in regards to resting players and getting the best out of the team through the hectic winter schedule, the same needs to be done in the next couple of games. So rather than pushing the boat out in every game trying to smash opponents, the plan needs to be slightly more conservative.
Will we score five goals in a game again this season?
Yes
No
Rest the legs and spread the effort across the games rather than going gung ho in one of them. Because this run of goals isn’t going to last, so we need to make sure that we are careful with when we cash in all our goals, otherwise there could be another bad run in the offing because we’ve worn ourselves out.
