Friday 4 March 2011

QPR danger man Taarabt has to be stopped - somehow!


QPR danger man Taarabt has to be stopped - somehow!
Kyle Naughton believes Queens Park Rangers' star man Adel Taarabt cannot be stopped when he is on top of his game.
The Leicester City right back was a team-mate of the Moroccan midfielder at Tottenham Hotspur, and knows first hand what Taarabt is capable of.
Like Naughton, Taarabt struggled to break into the Spurs first team, but he has been a revelation since joining Neil Warnock's Rangers and his performances have been a catalyst to the London club's rise to the Championship summit this season.
The 21-year-old has scored 15 goals in 34 appearances for Rangers since signing permanently from Spurs in the summer, and Warnock appears to have brought out the undoubted potential of the highly-rated youngster.
Naughton knows City must keep a close eye on his former team-mate tomorrow when City face the league leaders at Loftus Road.
"If he is on his best form then I don't think you can stop him," said Naughton, who could be given the task of marking Taarabt.
"I played with him at Spurs and I learned that when he was ready to play he was almost unstoppable.
"Let's hope he doesn't fancy it and doesn't have the best of games, and I hope all our players are on it and we get the win.
"I played in a couple of reserve games with him at Spurs, and a couple of friendlies, and he is a very good player.
"I think in the best way possible he was too good to play in the reserves so he used to turn up and say 'what am I doing here', when a lot of people said he should have been playing first team.
"You always know with a player that good that, when he is ready to play, he is ready!
"He has gone to QPR, they have made him captain and got the best out of him."
Naughton warned City must be at their best defensively if they are to get anything from tomorrow's game.
"They are top of the league so it was always going to be a tough game," he said.
"Their wingers are good players, but nothing I haven't played against before. I have played against them both before.
"All we can do as defenders is try to stop them and let our strikers show what quality they have.
"If they are lacking in any area, I would say it is in defence.
"That is not saying they are bad, it is just their strike force is so good it is the only area I can find a weakness in them."