Mark Warburton is urging his players to impose themselves more in the final third after Saturday’s 2-0 defeat away at second-placed Leeds United.

The R’s put in a positive performance at Elland Road but left empty-handed after failing to find a response to Tyler Roberts’ 39th-minute opener, before Jack Harrison settled matters for United with a second goal late on.

The QPR boss believes fine margins stood between his team and a positive result, admitting Jordan Hugill’s wayward header was a huge missed opportunity to turn the game around.
“It’s a tough place to come and Leeds are a very talented team,” said Warburton.

“We probably didn’t create enough in the first half. In the second-half we started well and at 1-0 down with 20 minutes to go we had big, big chances. They’re the fine margins at this level.

“We didn’t quite have that belief to really go and get something out of the game.”

Rangers more than matched their hosts early on, enjoying a fair share of the possession, but were left ruing missed opportunities in the final third.

Warburton believes his side have the quality to beat teams like Leeds at the top of the division, but now he wants his players to have faith in their own ability.

“It’s a very tight league, we know the quality they possess but so do we,” he added.

“I thought the best player on the pitch was [Eberechi] Eze, I thought he was outstanding. In the final third, they were a little bit more ruthless and we just lacked that bit of quality to get something.

“We’ve got some young players who did well and they’ve got to understand how good they can be.

“We’re disappointed. We were very much the underdogs against a strong Leeds side, but we needed to impose ourselves more.”