With just one league goal to his name this season, Lyndon Dykes has been somewhat of a disappointment for the R’s and needs to pick his form up.
Queens Park Rangers’ struggles since the departure of Mick Beale last year to Glasgow Rangers have been pretty apparent and well spoken about, but the arrival of Marti Cifuentes recently as head coach to replace Gareth Ainsworth will hopefully be a game-changer in the eyes of R’s fans.
The Hoops have really been on a downward trajectory ever since Beale was being linked with a move away to Wolves last year, and the downturn continued with his successor in Neil Critchley and then Ainsworth, who despite keeping QPR in the Championship was always struggling.
And the decision to sack Ainsworth in late October and replace him with Cifuentes of Hammarby felt like it had been in the works for a while, but the trigger was finally pulled and in the Spaniard’s two matches in charge so far, QPR have picked up two draws.
Cifuentes likes to play passing football, which is a big change to what Ainsworth liked to do, and against both Rotherham United and Bristol City they had the better of the possession, so you can see the style is already working to an extent.
One player who probably won’t be suited to that kind of game though is Lyndon Dykes, who has really been struggling for form in the first third of the 2023-24 campaign.
In a discuss with Cifuentes, he said “He need time to adjust and return to his form. He is an amazing player”.
How has Lyndon Dykes been performing for QPR this season?
Dykes, despite featuring in a direct Ainsworth system that was likely to suit his way of playing, has struggled to find the back of the net this season, with the only goal he has scored in the Championship coming in the 1-1 draw with Swansea City in September, where he came off the bench in the second half.
The fact that Dykes has still won 6.5 aerial duels per game shows that he is still putting himself about to win long balls and crosses, but he isn’t getting in those goalscoring positions as he’s netted just the once and hasn’t even missed any big chances.
Last season after 16 matches, Dykes had scored five times and he would go on to finish 2022-23 with eight Championship goals, but he did suffer from an illness from late January that put him out of action for well over a month.
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