Hughes seeks home comforts

Manager Mark Hughes says Queens Park Rangers need to improve their home form if they are to survive in the English Premier League.

Hughes took over at Loftus Road on January 10 following the sacking of Neil Warnock.

QPR – promoted after winning the Championship last season – sit 18th on the English Premier League table, inside the relegation zone on goal difference.

Hughes feels the key to securing top-flight survival will be to pick up more points at home; QPR have managed just one win from 10 league matches in front of their own fans.

“From my point of view, certainly, we need to improve our home form,” Hughes said.

“I think if we can do that, it will have a marked influence on whether or not we’re able to get as many points as we need.”

“So, obviously, if we can make trips to Loftus Road more difficult for our opposition teams than possibly they have been up until this point, then that will help us.”

According to former Fulham manager Hughes, the new coaching staff have taken a cautious approach to altering the team’s structure, as they seek to turn around a sorry run of nine league matches without a win.

“We’re conscious of the fact that we don’t want to overload them with too much information, because players can only take on so much in a short space of time,” he said.

“But, ultimately, as the weeks go on, they’ll get better at retaining that information and the performances will improve, I’m sure.”

Hughes also clarified his concerns about the prolific Twitter activity of Joey Barton, with the QPR captain prone to causing controversy by expressing his opinions on the social media website.

“The issue most managers have with Twitter and Facebook is basically whether or not issues or details that should be kept in-house are broadcast to a wider public, and that’s the only concern from my point of view,” he said.

“I don’t think that Joey has been guilty of that in the past, and I don’t anticipate he will be in the future – so that would be the only concern from my point of view.”

“It’s part of his life, he enjoys that. Some guys like a game of golf, some guys go playing snooker, Joey seems to Twitter all day – I haven’t got a problem with it.”