Soccer Football - Pre Season Friendly - Queens Park Rangers v Crystal Palace - Loftus Road, London, Britain - July 23, 2022 Queens Park Rangers manager Michael Beale Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Couldridge
Micky Beale has turned to one of the oldest excuses in management.
Taking over in mid-season presents a variety of challenges as you pick up on the mess that led to the previous boss getting the sack.
Beale was full of praise for Giovanni van Bronckhorst when he first took over but with real football less than a week away he knows that he is in the firing line if things don’t pick up instantly.
Blaming the previous regime for leaving players short on fitness is a time served favourite, speaking to The Sun after the friendly against Bayer Leverkusen Beale said:
There are a couple of red flags we want to iron out. We want to press and be more aggressive, and that takes a different type of fitness than what we have right now. We are going to need to keep using the subs and keep the energy on the park.
After the match with Hibs there are away trips to Aberdeen and Ross County on December 20 and 23 to test the fitness of Alfredo Morelos and his team-mates.
Sounds to me he wants to turn them into Celic.
Giving his tactics away?! We’ll accept that, fair enough! Reminds me of the new teacher arriving at St. Trinians, though!