Pressures of fixture pile-up is making Championship standards suffer, says QPR boss Warburton

Warburton says the sheer volume of games in such a short time span in harming the quality of football on show in the Championship.

QPR were involved in a dull goalless draw with Birmingham City at the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium, and there will be no real time to work on the training ground before the players head up to Barnsley for the next match on Tuesday night.

Even with the international break, six league matches are being squeezed into October and it will be five games in just 14 days by the time Cardiff visit west London next weekend.

“I think you’re getting teams at all levels just trying to get through it,” said the Rangers boss.

“I’m amazed that the Premier League is scoring more goals than ever before, but the Championship is scoring less. We’re getting one-alls, one-nils and nil-nils. These types of games.

“You are surprised in the Championship now when there’s more than two goals. The players are just trying to get through games – and they are important games because every point is vital for every team. So, I think right now the quality naturally has to suffer, because of the demands and fatigue.”

Referring to the stalemate played out, Warburton added: “It was lacklustre, but it’s just the programme now. It’s just rest, recover, travel and you just have to work your way through this. It’s the same for every team, every player. It’s not a complaint, it is what it is.

“The games come thick and fast now and it’s a tiring, tiring programme and you’ve got to look after the players [through rotation] because if you don’t, you’re going to be in trouble.

“Do they come in Sunday? To come in and rub them down and all they’ll want to do is go home to rest. They come in Monday and you can’t do anything other than a little bit of strides and stretches and set pieces, then travel to Barnsley.

“We’ll get back at half two, half three on Wednesday morning. You never get a chance to do anything. There’s no coaching, it’s a maintenance programme.”

Rangers have now gone six without a win since the opening day success against Nottingham Forest, but the Hoops boss is not concerned.

“It’s a tough, tough league. We’ve got a young team with players developing still and they’ll keep on learning,” he said. “It’s only six games in, are you really going to worry about relegation? It’s absurd. Introducing new players, it takes time. But there’s no complaint, you’ve just got to get on with it.”