What Shaun Wright-Phillips thinks QPR need to seal play-off finish - Julien Stephan may be relieved | OneFootball

Former QPR midfielder Shaun Wright-Phillips believes that a good run is all the Hoops need to finish in the top six

Former QPR midfielder Shaun Wright-Phillips thinks that, despite the lure of new signings in January, it's actually momentum which will carry them in a push to finish in the top six.

The 44-year-old's career in England came to a close at Loftus Road whilst the club was in the Premier League, but after Wright-Phillips departed in 2015, the Hoops have dwelled in the Championship's mid-table in the decade since.

However, the second tier is wide open this year, and some people are perhaps looking at QPR, led by new manager Julien Stephan and being fired forward by fresh, exciting attackers such as Rumarn Burrell and Richard Kone, as potential outsiders for a top six finish.

With the January transfer window on the horizon, it's common knowledge that if teams are productive throughout the month, they can get a big boost for the second half of the campaign with new arrivals.

However, Wright-Phillips doesn't believe that this is the key to a play-off push at Loftus Road this season, which Stephan will be hoping is also the case so that the Frenchman doesn't have to run the risk of potentially disrupting the harmony of his squad with a flurry of mid-season signings in the January window.

Shaun Wright-Phillips outlines momentum as the key for QPR

It's been an up-and-down campaign for Julien Stephan so far as he adjusts to life managing in the Championship.

When QPR win, they win impressively and look thoroughly entertaining going forward. However, when they aren't on it, things can quickly spiral, as seen through winless runs earlier in the campaign and when they lost 7-1 against Coventry City in August.

Wright-Phillips believes that, if the rest of the campaign can have more of those ups, QPR could wind up in and around the play-offs when it comes to the final few weeks of the campaign.

Speaking to BestBettingSites, the former England international said, "I wouldn't necessarily say it's signings [which will help them go up], although, when you're down there in the Championship, and January is coming, you do think about what players they can bring in to add that little extra spark.

"But I think if they can win two or three games on the bounce, their position changes and the outlook on the season changes completely, too.

"Watching the Championship nowadays, if you get three straight wins, you can jump from 12th to sixth or fifth.

"So, I think if they can pick up a bit of momentum, they can bounce right back up there, and then the picture changes, confidence changes, belief in the players changes.

"That's when they can start flourishing and playing football, picking up the results they need."

Consistency is important for QPR amid unlikely play-off push

QPR have been the definition of a streaky team so far this season. After three games without a win to kick off the campaign, conceding 10 goals in the process, Julien Stephan's side went on a six-game unbeaten run to wind up in the top six come the October international break.

Then, they won just one of their next six games, losing four of them, and bounced back from that with back-to-back wins in the two games after the November internationals.

Given pre-season expectations, this season probably was not expected to end in a play-off campaign, and with QPR finishing in the top 10 just once since their relegation back to the Championship a decade ago, a lot of people at Loftus Road will likely be happy that the football there is exciting once more.

But, they've had their taste of the top six so far this season, and this year truly embodies the "everyone can beat everyone" nature of the Championship, barring Coventry, it seems.