Queens Park Rangers host Burnley on Tuesday night needing to arrest a slide of four consecutive defeats. The Championship fixture at Loftus Road comes just days after a 4-1 loss away to Southampton on Saturday 31 October, where goals from Kuryu Matsuki, Cameron Bragg, Keven Schlotterbeck and Welington sealed the win for the hosts.
Marti Cifuentes, the QPR manager, will be forced into at least one change. Defender Jimmy Dunne is suspended after picking up his fifth yellow card of the season in the defeat at St Mary's. That result left QPR with a recent record of zero wins, one draw and four losses from their last five outings, a run that includes losses to Birmingham and West Ham and a draw with Preston.
Cifuentes told the club's media channels.
Richard Kone provided a rare bright spot at Southampton, scoring a 68th-minute consolation with an assist from Karamoko Dembélé. The striker had been in devastating form the previous week, netting a hat-trick in the 5-0 demolition of Swansea City on Saturday 24 October, a game where Jimmy Dunne, now suspended, scored twice.
Burnley arrive in west London sitting higher in the standings and will present a stern test. QPR's squad depth will be examined, with Cifuentes likely to turn to Jake Clarke-Salter or Morgan Fox to replace Dunne in central defence.
The team's recent results show a pattern of heavy defeats interspersed with a high-scoring victory. Following the Swansea win, they lost 3-0 at Birmingham on Saturday 17 October before the latest setback on the south coast. Their next match after Burnley is another home fixture, against Coventry City on Saturday, November 7th. Before that, the immediate focus is the visit of Burnley on Tuesday 3 November.
