Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink lived up to his reputation as a hard man to please in the wake of QPR’s pre-season friendly win over Watford yesterday.
Sebastian Polter’s first half strike and Conor Washington’s first goal for Rangers sealed a 2-0 win over the Premier League visitors in what looked something close to the perfect dress rehearsal for next Sunday’s Championship curtain-raiser at home to Leeds.
While the former Chelsea striker saw a big step forward on previous pre-season performances he insisted his team still can and must do better by learning to boss the action even without the ball.
“I’m never satisfied, but this was more positive than Burton,” he said
“I think we looked good together and the organisation was vital, but let’s not get carried away as there is still work to be done.
“I want to make sure that even when we don’t have the ball we are in control, we dictate where they put and pass the ball and that we are comfortable out of possession.
“At stages today we did that and we looked comfortable, but at stages we didn’t and we have to improve on that.”
The fact Hasselbaink left his starting XI on the pitch for more than an hour suggested he was using the game as a proper dry run ahead of Leeds’ visit.
He was though not giving away any secrets about his team-sheet and stressed the needs of the team would always trump any thoughts of the best 11 individuals, leaving him room to spring a surprise or two yet.
“In football you always know something can happen or somebody can lose something in the next two days or whatever, but you look at players and how they have come through the pre-season and all that kind of stuff and make your assumptions from there,” he added.
“You don’t want to look at things too much individually. You want to see the dynamics of your team and how one works with the other. So I’m looking at what the strongest team is or can be and what we need on the day.”
