With Mark Warburton having seen his Queens Park Rangers side get off to something of a slow start in their Championship opener last weekend, the 58-year-old will undoubtedly be hoping his team put on a much more dominant display in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday evening.
Indeed, while a 1-1 draw with Millwall is not the worst result in the world, considering just how impressive QPR were in the second half of last season, in addition to the remarkable transfer business they have carried out this summer, hopes of a successful campaign appear to be extremely high at the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium.
With that in mind, the Carabao Cup may not be overly high on the list of Warburton’s priorities this season, however, the competition will provide the Rs boss with an opportunity to field some of his first-team fringe players, as well as up and coming youth prospects.
One such player is Andre Dozzell, who, after featuring for just 22 minutes in the Millwall clash, the 58-year-old coach must start from the off against Leyton Orient.
While the 22-year-old did not have much time to impress last weekend, he nevertheless proved with Ipswich Town last season that he is a player who can make a significant difference for QPR this term.
Indeed, over his 43 League One appearances for Paul Cook’s side last year, £810k-rated central midfielder made an average of 1.5 interceptions, 1.7 tackles, 0.8 clearances and won 3.6 duels per game.
The player Paul Lambert dubbed an “incredible” talent also impressed in a creative capacity, registering one assist and creating a whopping 10 big chances for his teammates, as well as making an average of 1.3 key passes per match.
These returns saw the £3.5k-per-week man earn a highly impressive seasonal SofaScore match rating of 6.98, ranking him as the club’s joint seventh-best performer in the third tier of English football.
As such, affording the 22-year-old his first start for QPR on Wednesday evening could well prove to be the beginning of an extremely exciting career for Dozzell in west London, with the former England U20 international clearly boasting the potential to become a regular in Warburton’s first team this season – if he is given the chance.
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