QPR boss Julien Stephan impressed with Rayan Kolli’s improved attitude

QPR boss Julien Stephan insists Rayan Kolli’s purple patch is down to the young forward showing an improved attitude in training.

Kolli has been overlooked for much of the season, but the 21-year-old’s goal in Rangers’ 2-1 win against Watford was his third in two matches.

Stephan said: “When a player deserves it, when a player trains well and trains with intensity, when he is in good form and has talent, no problem – 16, 17, 18, 20 years’ old, he can play.

“If he didn’t play more before it was because probably he didn’t do enough during the training sessions.

“Now he plays a lot because during the training sessions he shows a lot of qualities. For me there is always a link between what you do during the week and what you do in the game. Always.

“If you train well, you have more chances to do some good performances. If you train not very well, not with enough intensity, no chance to perform. So when they understand that, OK.

“I think the main step for Rayan in the last weeks is that.”

Kolli put Stephan’s side ahead in the 26th minute and Paul Smyth doubled their lead shortly after the hour.

Imran Louza pulled a goal back with a superb 85th-minute free-kick, but Watford were unable to find an equaliser.

Stephan enjoyed Rangers’ performance more than their display in a 6-1 thrashing of Portsmouth before the international break, when they scored with all six of their attempts on goal.

The Frenchman explained: “If I have to compare the two games, I prefer this one to the Portsmouth game, even if the score is only 2-1.

“How we played today, defensively and offensively, no comparison for me. I prefer this game.

“We deserved to win the Portsmouth game, but probably not 6-1. If we continue to play like today, we will have a bigger chance of getting more points.”

Watford boss Ed Still conceded that his side had been punished for poor defending in the build-up to both QPR goals.

“We’ve given ourselves too much to do in the last part of the game,” Still said.

“In terms of the content of the game, what feels like an instinctive explanation of the result is that we’ve not defended the box well enough.

“It’s one of the things we’ve done really well – defending our box. We’ve been really strong on that and the players have adapted to how I want us to defend the box.

“We’ve done it really well and been consistent there, but we’ve not done that today. Both goals were down to our lack of quality in those moments in the defensive box.

“We knew we had that capacity in the last part of the game, with the players that we had on the bench.

“You just want to be in the game at that point. We’ve left ourselves with too much of a mountain to climb.”

The defeat seemingly ended any realistic chance of Watford reaching the play-offs.

Still said: “With one game less, and having not picked up a point, your chances are reduced. Fact.

“All we can do is bounce back on Monday (against Charlton). If that’s too little, too late for the play-offs, we’ll see.

“I want us to compete and we didn’t do that hard enough today. It’s up to us now to react positively.”