Anton Ferdinand: Rome wasn’t built in a day, so lay off Mark Hughes

 
p61 Queens Park Rangers' Welsh manager Mark Hughes gestures during the English Premier League football match between Arsenal and Queens Park Rangers at The Emirates Stadium in north London, England on October 27, 2012. Arsenal won the game 1-0. AFP PHOTO/GLYN KIRK RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or ‚¨Slive‚¨ù services. Online in-match use limited to 45 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications.GLYN KIRK/AFP/Getty Images
9 November 2012

It has been a long, hard year for me but it’s nice to be able to focus on what I love doing again, which is playing football. Despite everything that has happened in the last year, I will not change for anybody. I still prepare the same way for games and I still conduct myself in the same way. Nothing will change me as a player and my professional attitude will always remain.

The main thing now is to help get Queens Park Rangers out of the situation we are in. Our performances have been much better than the table suggests. We are not getting played off the park by anyone and we are creating plenty of chances. Once we get that first win, I feel we will be okay.

The criticism our manager is getting is unfair. We are working hard for the club and trying to relieve that pressure on him. But people need to get a sense of perspective. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

We have brought in a lot of new players and it takes time to come together as a team but we have had plenty of injuries which means the gaffer has had to change the team even more. We haven’t had a settled side but we are working hard every day in training and we are confident of turning things around.

The quality in our team is there for all to see and it’s just a case of working hard to put everything together. We have been focusing more on our attacking play in the last few weeks and that is why we have started to cause teams more problems. I would be worried if we weren’t creating chances but that isn’t the case.

We face Stoke tomorrow and last season we beat them home and away. The game is another good opportunity for us to get up and

running this season but we have said that a lot over the last few weeks. It’s time to actually deliver the win we need because 10 games is far too long to go without a victory. This is QPR’s worst start to a season since 1968 but we have the chance to halt the slide starting tomorrow.

It won’t be easy at the Britannia. It has a reputation as a tough place to go for a reason. They have Peter Crouch up front and everybody knows how good a player he is.

Crouchy is their top scorer so far this season and he is a great player but I like facing great players because it is what being in the Premier League is all about. You know you aren’t going to win the ball very often in the air against him so you have to make it as hard as you can to put him off.

You can’t let Crouchy have a free header — this division is all about making people work for everything and just because Crouchy has the aerial advantage, it doesn’t mean you can’t make life difficult for him.

If we keep him quiet then that will give us the platform for our offensive players to go and do their thing. It is just a matter of time before we turn the corner and we’ll do everything to make sure that process begins tomorrow.

Twitter @anton_ferdinand

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