Following Saturday’s 1-0 loss to Southampton, Marti Cifuentes was left unsure why his QPR side has struggled to defend set-pieces since he took charge in October.Taylor Harwood-Bellis’ first-half goal from a free-kick condemned Rangers to their first home defeat under Cifuentes, and it is the fourth time they have conceded from a dead ball situation in his nine games in charge.
After Andre Dozzell had given away a cheap foul on the left touchline, Reggie Cannon lost track of Harwood-Bellis and allowed him a free header to decide the contest.
QPR were unable to find a way back into the game in the second half, leaving them in the Championship relegation zone on Christmas Day.
“Unfortunately, we conceded a goal from a set-piece… from a free-kick that we should never have done (given away),” said Cifuentes.
“We need to get better at defending set pieces. There is no excuse. We need to take responsibility. We need to work better. The team is not conceding a lot of chances but is getting punished hard on those.
“When I analyse the [previous] games, we do not have a bad organization; I don’t know about today.
“We need to get better until we solve this because, obviously, in the situation that we are it should be the opposite. We need to make sure that the set pieces are an asset for us not damaging us.”
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