QPR manager Mark Warburton has dismissed suggestions that he tried to send a statement with his team selection for his side's League Cup win over Oxford on Tuesday.

Warburton's side comfortably secured their place in the third round of a cup with a 2-0 victory over their League One opposition.

However, one talking point from the game was Warburton's selection, with the QPR boss naming just four substitutes, Ody Alfa; Stephen Duke-McKenna; Joe Gubbins and goalkeeper Joe Walsh, all of who are still in the very early stages of their career in terms of game time.

But it seems that Warburton had no intention of making a point to those in charge at Loftus Road by making that decision around his selection of those substitutes.

Responding to questions about whether Warburton had named that bench to send a message to the QPR board that the club need to sign more players, the manager was quoted by West London Sport as saying: “There was no ‘statement’ going out. It’s not one of those ‘messages’ – far from it. We had a bit of a sickness bug. We lost Sam (McCallum) and a few others.

“Charlie Austin played 90 minutes on Saturday and we had to look after him, and Jordy rolled the ankle on Saturday, so I had eight or nine missing. There was no ‘message’ or ‘statement’. There was just a very tough injury and illness situation.”

Next up for QPR is the visit of Coventry City to Loftus Road on Saturday afternoon, when Warburton's side will look to continue their unbeaten start to the season.

The Verdict

This does seem to be a fair response for Warburton to provide to this sort of questioning.

The QPR boss has been well backed by the board this summer, not least with the extension of his own contract at Loftus Road, so it may have been a risk for him to try to make a point to them in a way such as this.

Indeed, given QPR have already brought in nine senior signings during the summer transfer window, there is an argument that the club do not really need to bring many more players, if any during the final week of the window.

That does however, mean that if QPR are still having to deal with these absences come Saturday, they could have something of a challenge on their hands against Coventry.