Luke Moore: All is not lost at Loftus Road

Tony Fernandes has plenty of managers to choose from should he see fit to sack Mark Hughes

It's not all doom and gloom at QPR says Luke Moore, though a managerial change might be their best way of being a Premier League outfit next season...

Back to winning ways last week then, as Manchester City delivered an almighty shellacking to Aston Villa as expected. We could have gone even more severe on the Asian Handicap, but a win's a win and what's more, the boys in sky blue didn't even need super sub Edin Dzeko to come on and break the deadlock for them. Presumably he'll be pleased/disappointed about that, who knows?

It's probably fairly ominous for the other teams in the Premier League that Man City are top of the league, unbeaten, and don't really appear to have scaled anywhere near the heights they reached last season yet.

One team that are certainly not unbeaten are Queens Park Rangers. Their performance at home to Southampton at the weekend was, from what I saw, one of the most disjointed, defensively bereft displays I've seen in the top division for many a year and it's difficult not to fear for them even at this early stage in the season.

Southampton's first goal saw Rangers have an opportunity to clear the ball in no less than eight phases of play from a corner, yet they still conceded. No-one took responsibility for anything much after that, and the organisation and communication for the other two they conceded was just astonishingly bad.

One of QPR's main problems this season (other than the clear lack of leadership and togetherness) is that, at the moment, they don't appear to know what type of team they are.

When Mark Hughes came in last term the job was clear from the outset: Get the players together, backs against the wall, scrap for every point, try to nick a goal, and do everything possible to stay up. Once that was achieved, Tony Fernandes and the fans (probably rightly) decided it was time to kick on.

Enter a whole ream of new players without much thought for transfer strategy and policy and now I genuinely don't think Hughes knows either what his best team is or even how to set up with all these new players at his disposal. Do they attack from the outset? Are they a team that soaks up pressure and uses pace to counter? It isn't clear.

Some have remarked that this is an extended hangover from the role they played on the last day of last season, and although they were virtual spectators in the end as other results conspired to keep them up, there's bound to be a certain amount of inertia after surviving on the final day in such fashion. But it was and is Hughes' job to motivate his team and get them performing where they should be. He has shown himself clearly unable to do that. The atmosphere at Loftus Road on Saturday was hostile, and sadly for him it looks like there's no way back now especially with a trip to Old Trafford on the horizon.

With Southampton at home to a wobbly-looking Newcastle at the weekend, Rangers could well be five points adrift at the bottom when the sun sets on Sunday.

But, all is not lost for them. While I'm not usually an advocate of sacking a manager early (especially not in the circumstances that we've just seen Roberto Di Matteo lose his job), it's clear that Hughes will not last much longer. And I think, with the calibre of managers that are available to Fernandes due to his budget and the players that they have at their disposal there's a decent chance they can turn things around.

There are 78 points still to play for, and a new manager can rejuvenate the club, bond the players together and really give them a fighting chance. From what I can see, the only things really missing at QPR are leadership, confidence and organisation, three things that a good manager can easily instil in them. This is not a team without the personnel to turn things around and all their issues are manager-related.

For that reason, I think laying QPR to be relegated at around 1.75/7 is a good bet. There's plenty of mileage left on the clock this season, and, provided Fernandes acts quickly and decisively, there's no reason they can't stay in the country's top division when May rolls around.

Recommended Bet
Lay QPR in Relegation market at 1.75/7