Four of Hughes seven summer signings have previously played under him: Andrew Johnson at Fulham, Ryan Nelsen at Blackburn, Junior Hoilett at Blackburn (though, he didn’t actually play in the first-team whilst Hughes was manager) and, of course, Samba Diakite last season. A further two come from Manchester United, where Hughes played under Sir Alex Ferguson and has since remained close acquaintances: Park Ji-Sung and Fabio (on loan). That leaves just Robert Green out of seven summer signings that Mark Hughes has no immediate first-hand experience or trusted vicarious experience of. Knowledge is power, as they say, and Hughes is creating a team of which he has the best available knowledge of.
Prediction
Cohesion is vital for a team’s success: negative energy produces negative effects and thus it will be interesting to see how QPR’s results match up without and then with Joey Barton in the side – he misses the first 12 games of the season for his last day display of madness against Manchester City’s Carlos Tevez (another negative energy) and Vincent Kompany. The Dutch outfit in Euro 2012 this summer is a key example of a divided camp being a weak structure. Under Mark Hughes, QPR have little to worry about in that regard: his summer transfer activity is representative of this.
With Mark Hughes at the helm QPR are assured of mid-table safety: his six end of season finishes have always seen his sides in between 6th and 15th: at Blackburn he achieved 15th, 6th, 10th, 7th; at Manchester City he finished 10th in his only full season in charge and in his sole year at Fulham his team finished 8th. If the constant in Hughes’ performances is a mean average finish of 9th place, the variable is the discipline of his sides: whilst at Blackburn, Rovers finished bottom of the disciplinary table in each and every year, yet at Fulham he achieved qualification for the Europa League through the Fair Play League.
Bearing in mind that QPR have made a total of 9 permanent signings since Hughes’ arrival in January – plus the addition of Fabio da Silva on loan from Manchester United (Hughes’ third dealing with his ex-boss’ side since taking over at Loftus Road) for the following season – time will be needed for the team to fully gel. Or more precisely, reach optimum cohesion. Therefore, a prediction slightly under Hughes’ mean average finish of 11th is perhaps the most wise for QPR. One thing that is unlikely this season is another relegation scrap: firstly, Hughes just doesn’t do them, secondly he has the advantage of knowing the majority of his signings inside out and thirdly, the quality of his signings thus far just doesn’t hint of such a low final ranking.
Prediction: 11th
Written by Jordan Florit for www.maycauseoffence.com/ For more articles visit my website or my Twitter @JordanFlorit
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