BOSS MARTI'S ON A MISSION TO RESCUE R'S ALL OVER AGAIN

ARTI Cifuentes proved he was up for a challenge when he took the manager’s job at QPR just over a year ago.

- John Lyons

Former Wycombe Wanderers boss Gareth Ainsworth had paid the price for six straight Championship defeats which left the Hoops 23rd in the table. They’d won two of 14 league games and were six points behind Huddersfield, who were just outside the drop zone.

Tough task? You bet, but Cifuentes breezed in with an air of positivity and, despite a few bumps in the road, helped QPR ease away from relegation danger. It was a feather in the Spaniard’s cap that the R’s ultimately finished a solid 18th, six points above the drop zone.

But now he’s got to do it all again – and it may be even harder this time around. Tuesday’s morale-sapping 4-1 home defeat against Middlesbrough meant the west Londoners had won just one of their opening 14 games (2-1 at Luton) and were again lying 23rd.

One simple difference from last year is that the 42-year-old is no longer a new face or fresh voice. A year ago, the more direct style of play under Ainsworth wasn’t working and Cifuentes came in and put his arm around the shoulder of more creative talents like Ilias Chair and Chris Willock.

QPR began to express themselves, belief came back and the fans got on board. Now, however, Cifuentes has to dig the Hoops out of a hole that is partly of his own making. There will be no honeymoon period.

That said, most people of a reasonable nature realise that the former boss of Swedish top-flight side Hammarby IF hasn’t got the same options of the bulk of the sides in the second tier. Having overstretched themselves financially in the past, the R’s are among the poor relations in a division that seems to get stronger and stronger each year.

It means that when an injury crisis hits – as is the case right now – Rangers haven’t got the squad to cope. To illustrate that point, you only had to look at their substitutes compared to Boro’s in midweek.