Exclusive: How QPR are embracing chaos to chase Premier League promotion dream

This time last year, QPR head coach Julien Stephan admitted that one of his biggest challenges had been adapting to the chaos of English football.

Stephan’s words were a window into where he wanted to take QPR. 12 months on, it is clear his team are starting to embody the chaos that previously overwhelmed them.

QPR’s recent 5-0 thrashing of second-place Swansea was a statement victory as they raced three goals ahead thanks to a Richard Kone hat-trick inside the first 15 minutes at Loftus Road.

Kone’s partner in attack, Rumarn Burrell, is currently nursing a “difficult” hamstring injury, but watched on from the sidelines against Swansea and says that QPR’s frenetic energy is infectious.

“I feel like this year, we have really capitalised on the chaos and turned it into not just chaos but playing out of the chaos,” Burrell exclusively tells Standard Sport.

“We are here to win. We are not trying to sit off teams. We are trying to get at them and press and create quality attempts.”

QPR have a shrewd and ambitious tactician at the helm in Julien Stephan

PA

Fast starts have been a fixture of QPR’s early push for the promotion places, with the play-off positions extended to include seventh and eighth in the Championship at the start of this season.

The Rs have scored 13 of their 21 league goals in the first half and after an injury-disrupted start to the campaign, Burrell is eager to contribute to the chaos alongside Kone.

“I cannot wait until I am able to play again. Last season, me and him up top, it was a very good duo,” Burrell continues.

“I like the way that we play together, just because our styles are different. He's coming short, dragging the centre-halves. I'm running behind, dragging the centre-halves to give him more space. We are always playing off each other.”

Burrell and Kone are different characters. Kone is more outspoken, parading his match ball from the Swansea game around the training ground, while Burrell is more reserved and takes a keen interest in PC gaming. He even spent his first professional wage on a PC.

Despite this, though, their connection on and off the pitch is blossoming, and they combine shopping trips to Westfield with extra shooting practice after training with assistant head coach Kevin Betsy.

“The sessions he puts on are really specific,” Burrell says. “He says you've got super strengths that we are always trying to get better.

Promotion is the main aim and now we have an even better opportunity

“So we always do specific things and try and nail it. I am always trying to get in behind the backline, so having extra sessions to work on that and increase the different types of finishes that I can do. Maybe I will go for a chip, or maybe I will try and slot it.”

QPR have not finished in the promotion spots since their relegation to the Championship in 2015, yet their ambition is clear and undeterred by last weekend’s heavy 4-1 defeat at Southampton.

Despite finishing 15th last season, promotion to the Premier League is not a target Stephan’s side are shying away from and pre-season conversations centred around how they were going to achieve it.

“Having it be the top eight now obviously gives us an even better opportunity and that is the main aim,” Burrell says.

QPR were a team of marked inconsistency last season. They lost as many games as they won at Loftus Road and never sustained a winning run longer than three matches.

QPR’s inconsistency boiled down to their transitional style, and Burrell admits a lot of work has happened behind the scenes to develop a more defined and proactive way of playing that does not lean so heavily on Stephan’s impressive in-game management to bail them out.

Rumarn Burrell is enjoying his attacking partnership with Richard Kone at Loftus Road

Getty

“I feel like that has really just helped us in games,” he says. “Just being able to control the game instead of the other team controlling it.

“A few times last season we gave away some silly points, not controlling the game towards the end. (We were still) trying to transition when we could just get into a good shape and lock down and see out the game.”

QPR are young and imperfect, following up impressive wins over Derby and Swansea with damaging defeats by Birmingham and Southampton.

They have work to do if they are to underline their promotion credentials. Yet there is a strongly held belief that whether it’s Kone and Burrell’s goals, Pierce Charles’ elasticity between the sticks or Stephan’s intelligence and focus, QPR are in with their best shot in years of climbing back to the Premier League.

Stephan wants to take his players into uncharted territory and uncomfortable positions. His ambition has gripped QPR’s squad, and 13 matches into a 46-game season, they have suffered and celebrated as a “family” to leave themselves sitting just outside the promotion places.

After years of instability and uncertainty, quiet optimism is building in this corner of west London that QPR could be the team to take advantage of the most open Championship promotion push in history.