Town’s Head Coach previews Saturday’s game
- Head Coach Carlos Corberán previews the QPR game
- Town hope that Pipa, Pritchard & Bacuna could be available
- Corberán discusses the threats of the visiting team
Head Coach Carlos Corberán believes it is possible he could welcome back Pipa, Alex Pritchard and Juninho Bacuna for Saturday’s Sky Bet Championship game against Queens Park Rangers.
The trio of players have missed recent games through injury, but Carlos explained that they could be available depending on how they come through training on Friday afternoon.
“It’s positive in terms of the number of players, as we continue to have the same players available that we had in the previous game; we didn’t lose anyone who was with the team,” Carlos told the media at Friday lunchtime.
“At the same time, depending on training this afternoon, Pipa and (Alex) Pritchard are possible players who can add to the squad. They will have a last test and if everything is positive, they can be with the squad tomorrow.
“(Juninho) Bacuna is going to try to train today too. He didn’t train with the group until today, but depending on his feeling from training, we will test him a little more to see if he can be available tomorrow or if we need to wait a little bit more.
“(Richard) Stearman is going to be a long-term injury. I don’t expect to have him in the next months.”
Although he hopes for as strong a squad as possible, Corberán explained that the team cannot be reliant on individuals and that everyone must be ready to perform when called upon.
“We want to be a team that can face any type of opponent with any of our players. In the moment that we start to rely on some players, it means we are not working well enough.
“In this year, you can lose a player for a couple of weeks and they will miss three or four games. The most important thing is that all our players are ready to play with our idea and to face the Championship level, which is a high level.”
QPR arrive at the John Smith’s Stadium just behind Town in the Sky Bet Championship table, but Carlos rates Mark Warburton’s side highly.
“They are aggressive in the offensive half; they don’t usually play in a low block. In attack, they are one team who try to play from the back; they are one of the teams playing the better football in the league, for me.
“This game will feature two teams that have the same ideas and identities in attack. They will challenge us in terms of how we defend these attacks.
“I think they deserve more points than the table shows. I have followed the games they have played and seen the chances they have missed. They produce a lot of things.
“Our ideas are very similar, but we defend in a different way.”
Watch the full 25 minutes of Carlos’ pre-match press conference for free below on HTTV!
