QPR 0-5 Burnley

Match Report

If this was Martí Cifuentes’ final game at Loftus Road – and his heartfelt farewell to the fans after the final whistle certainly made it look that way – it wasn’t a great way to say goodbye. This was our biggest defeat of the season and was in stark contrast to our 4-0 victory against Leeds in the equivalent fixture last year. We were outclassed in every area of the pitch. Some will put it down to the fact that Burnley have a much stronger squad, having received a parachute payment of £49 million at the beginning of the season after being relegated from the Premiership. But we managed to hold them to a 0-0 draw at Turf Moor in the reverse fixture. The only thing that can be said in mitigation is that five of the players that started in that game are currently unavailable: Steve Cook, Jake Clarke-Salter, Sam Field, Koki Saito and Zan Cellar. QPR’s B team were simply no match for the Clarets, who ended this game top of the league.

Martí made several changes to the line-up that started against Swansea last Monday, replacing Min-Hyeok Yang with Harrison Ashby out on the right; putting Karamoke Dembélé on the left; playing Nicolas Madsen in the No 10 role instead of Lucas Andersen; bringing Jonathan Varane back into defensive midfield; and filling the gap left by Ashby at left back with Kenneth Paal. That meant we lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation as follows: Paul Nardi in goal; Jimmy Dunne, Liam Morrison, Ronnie Edwards and Paal in the back line; Jack Colback and Varane in front of them; Dembélé, Madsen and Ashby as the attacking trio; and Rayan Kolli leading the line.

For the first five minutes, we looked like we might give the visitors a game, but that illusion was soon shattered when they scored in the 9th minute and went on to score two more in the first half alone. Burnley enjoyed 71% of possession in the first 45 minutes, had 12 shots to our one, seven of which were on target, and enjoyed an xG of 1.95 to our 0.15. I don’t think I’ve seen a more dominant display all season, with their attacking players, particularly Zian Flemming, Hannibal Mejbri and Luca Koleosho, constantly running into space on our left hand side, easily passing their way round Dembélé and Paal. Indeed, goals two and three came from crosses put in after Paal was beaten on the left. The mismatch in skills was embarrassing at times, with our defenders beaten again and again.

Cifuentes gave Dembélé the hook at half time, bringing on Michy Frey as our striker and moving Kolli out left to replace the former Blackpool man. He also replaced Madsen with Ilias Chair in the CAM role. We looked better with Frey and Chair playing up front, but not better enough to actually score. In the second half, we had a bit more possession and managed a total of six shots, two of them on target, but still couldn’t muster an xG above 0.30. Indeed, the only shot that needed saving was a daisy cutter from Colback in the 75th minute, which followed our first corner a minute earlier. I kept having to remind myself that the Clarets have the best defensive record in the league and better teams than us have struggled to break them down.

If there was one positive, it was that Emmerson Sutton got half an hour of game time, having replaced Kolli in the 59th minute, and looked like he might provide us with an option as a wide player next season. At one point, he beat Maxime Estève in a foot race, although the resulting shot in the centre of the box was successfully blocked by the French centre back.

Notwithstanding the manager’s additional substitutions – bringing on Morgan Fox for Edwards in the 80th minute and Andersen for Ashby in the 86th – the visitors scored two more goals, including one in the 93rd minute which felt like the nail in the coffin of our season. The ref put us out of our misery seconds later.

At the end, the stewards duly held up a rope around the perimeter, but this didn’t feel like a crowd that was about to invade the pitch. When Madsen had our first shot in the 40th minute, they broke into a chant of “We’ve had a shot”, and, in the second half, during a brief spell of possession, a chant of “We’ve got the ball”. Nevertheless, quite a few remained at the end to applaud the players after they came back out with their partners and children. Martí did a victory lap with his wife and two children and, at one point, started doing the ‘we’re not worthy’ gesture, genuflecting to the fans in R-block. It felt very much like a farewell from the Spaniard, although I sincerely hope it isn’t.

I’ll share some reflections about the season as a whole in the final match report next week, but I’ve written about what’s gone wrong – why we’re likely to end this season with three fewer points than in 23-24 – in my sports column in the Critic. That’s free to read here. That was written at the end of our bad streak when we went seven games without a win, so the tone is quite pessimistic. But after this game, perhaps not overly so.

Next up we’re away to Sunderland for our last game of the season. You can watch the ‘highlights’ of today’s game on Sky here.