Muslic previews Queens Park Rangers visit
Before Argyle took on Oxford United on Monday night, and drew 1-1, new Head Coach Miron Muslic had had just one training session with his players.
By the time Queens Park Rangers arrive at Home Park on Saturday, Muslic will have had a bit more time to assess and work with his inherited squad, and although a relatively small amount of contact time will have been had, the boss is pleased with what he has seen from them so far.
“I feel very confident,” Muslic told Argyle TV, “because I saw the lads now for the last two days in the training and it was very good. I was very pleased with what I saw. Good energy, good focus, a good desire to take the next step - and we have the possibility Saturday already.
“A lot of things are new, that's why I'm very safe in terms of information. I don't want to overload them. I want to simplify the game. The situation is challenging enough for us anyway. Imagine if I was showing up with a million ideas. You can only overload them, but we want to give them stability, clarity, a good structure.
“From there on, we can move. This is exactly what we also tried as staff over the last two days, to get this structure better. With this structure, we will be more and more competitive, more and more safe, and then we can go and challenge QPR.”
Rangers arrive in Devon in 13th place in the Sky Bet Championship table, with only one loss in their last 11 league games. Six-goal forward Michael Frey will likely the line, and he was the Hoops’ scorer when Argyle and QPR drew 1-1 at Loftus Road earlier in the season.
“They are a good team, no doubt, with a good run,” said Miron. “They are very structured in all phases of the game, but we also have enough quality to challenge them. If we can do other things right, we will also create a lot of troubles for QPR. This is the plan to go out, challenge, to compete, to give the best possible performance, and to win the game.
“I think it will be an intense game, a very physical one, because this is a team that will not just drop back and wait.
“They will try to attack us. They have some clear patterns in the build-up. They have also some clear patterns of how they progress to finish with the target player, Frey. We have prepared a lot exactly for that. We also showed the players where QPR are vulnerable, and we can take advantage of that, that's the most important thing.”
Argyle were without, among other longer-term injury absentees, Kornel Szucs and Conor Hazard on Tuesday night, and Brendan Galloway is now a doubt having picked up an injury against Oxford. On the plus side, Ryan Hardie may be fit to return.
“It's a hard part of being a head coach, and we are struggling right now with some injuries,” said Muslic.
“Brendan is out. Kornel is out. Conor is still a doubt and could not play the last game, so we will miss those guys, no doubt. But the solution is always inside the squad and inside our frame. I think we have also a good plan of how to replace them.
“In those kinds of moments, you have to be confident. It's easy to complain about everything, but the solution is inside our squad, and we are competitive enough to show it and to face QPR.”