QUEENS Park Rangers boss Marti Cifuentes shared how his side must “show personality” after capitulation in their FA Cup tie with Cherries.
Cherries had to come from two goals behind at Loftus Road to secure safe passage to the fourth round, Marcus Tavernier, Kieffer Moore and Justin Kluivert turning the game on its head.
Sinclair Armstrong and Lyndon Dykes had given the Championship strugglers a shock lead heading into the break, two goals in two first-half minutes leaving Cherries stunned at the interval.
Discussing his side’s cup exit, Cifuentes told QPR’s website: “We had great expectations of playing in this tournament, we know the history and how important it is.
“I thought we started the game at a very high level, we competed throughout the whole first half, creating chances and the guys did a very good job.
“What we can take from today is that when we are at our best we can compete at a very good level against very good teams.
“But when we are not it’s very difficult to compete, so we need to show personality to not change our approach to the games.”
Tavernier and Moore’s efforts saw Cherries’ exploit QPR’s weaknesses at set-pieces, two corners leading to two goals.
“It was very disappointing to concede from set pieces once again, obviously you can imagine,” continued Cifuentes, the Spanish boss having bemoaned Rangers’ set-piece record in the build-up to the game.
“The guys are trying but definitely we need to keep improving. It’s the first time in my career that I have experienced something like this.
“You don’t have to be a genius to see the stats and that since I’ve been here we’ve conceded 15 goals and 10 of them have been from set-pieces.
“Unfortunately set-pieces have been an issue for a while and we are not getting better so we need the balance. It can be an issue mentally as well.
“The fact we are conceding goals from set-pieces is more than just the keeper, Asmir is a very experienced keeper, he knows how to handle.
“He’s the type of leader who wants to take responsibility. I don’t want to point individually, this is a team task.”
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