With half of the transfer window period already gone, Harry Redknapp has flown all over in his desperate bid to beef up the imbalanced Queens Park Rangers squad he inherited from Mark Hughes. To no one’s surprise, players are hesitant to join the London club that is now slightly adrift at the bottom of the English Premier League with less than half the season to go. QPR fans are torn: should the club be buying established Premier League players (such as the ones that Hughes apparently bought) or should the club just prepare for life in the Championship?
Although QPR’s defence has often been a laughing stock of the league, improved performances from players like Onuoha and Fabio have seen the Hoops stifle big clubs like Chelsea and Spurs as both clubs drew blanks against a resolute team effort. This season, QPR have lost 7 out of 12 games by merely one goal. What is more concerning, however, is the fact that QPR have scored two goals or more in only 3 games this season.
Reading seem to be scoring freely (mostly in losing efforts), Aston Villa have Benteke and Wiemann who on a good day can get them points (see win at Anfield) whilst Wigan seem to have a similar problem to QPR where they aren’t finishing their clear-cut chances although they’re having many attempts at goal.
Unfortunately, despite having more shots on and off target compared to relegation rivals, QPR have the lowest chance conversion at 8%. The shooting accuracy is pretty much the same for all of the teams show above but the QPR chance conversion hardly comes as a surprise when you consider Cisse’s below-par work-rate and the long-term injuries to options like Bobby Zamora and Andy Johnson. Wingers such as Mackie and Shaun Wright-Phillips cannot be relied on to score somewhat consistently, which puts all goal-scoring responsibilities on the shoulders of one Adel Taarabt.
The most alarming of statistics lie in the clear-cut chance conversions, where QPR struggle with 24%. Many times this season, many QPR players find themselves in one-on-one situations with the goalkeeper only to put the ball everywhere but the back of the net.
The stats show that Harry needs to find a striker, and fast. With the return of DJ Campbell and Jay Bothroyd, and even possibly Bobby Zamora, Redknapp may have more options. But more than anything, QPR need a proven goal-scorer to step up to the challenge and finish off the half-chances that a relegation team need to beat the drop.
Which striker, realistically, would you like to see brought in this Transfer Window?
All of the stats from this article have been taken from the Opta Stats Centre at EPLIndex.com – Subscribe Now (Includes author privileges!) Check out our new Top Stats feature on the Stats Centre which allows you to compare all players in the league & read about new additions to the stats centre.
