QPR boss Mark Warburton has told young midfielder Ilias Chair to be patient about his lack of game time as minutes will be coming.

Speaking to West London Sport, the former Rangers boss was quizzed on why the Morocco U23 player has not been playing recently with the emergence of players such as Bright Osayi-Samuel and Marc Pugh being fancied over him.

Warburton was quick to reveal that it was anything personal, insisting that Chair will be getting his chance and he hasn’t forgotten about him.

He said: “I’m only allowed to play 11 players. I’d love to play 12.

“If I play Ilias you might say ‘why isn’t Bright playing?’ The games are coming thick and fast and it’s about the squad being ready to play as and when they’re called upon.”

Within the story, Warburton gets quizzed on whether his recent omission from the first-team has anything to do with the player stating his personal ambitions to play in the Premier League.

“He’s 21. They all want to play in the Premier League. But right now you have to work hard and bide your time,” Warburton added.

“Marc Pugh, who has played in the Premier League and in the Championship, has had to be patient.

“Ilias is a very talented boy and is working hard. He’ll have more than enough pitch time.”

Given that Rangers have been off the back of eight matches without the win before they beat Preston, it is isn’t a surprise to see the QPR boss make changes and try things differently.

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So far this campaign, Chair has been a pretty consistent regular. He has started 13 out of the club’s 20 matches so far, coming on in four. Statistically, he has been okay – but nothing there quite suggests that he has been good enough to warrant discussions about being a Premier League player.

The 22-year-old (Warburton was incorrect with 21) has managed to register three assists so far this campaign – the joint second-highest in the squad and has an average rating of 6.46/10 according to WhoScored. Furthermore, when he plays he averages a pretty impressive 1.7 shots per match – the fourth-best in the squad – as well as a decent 84.3 per cent pass completion rate and he makes 1.2 key passes on average per game.

While his stats show that he is a very capable player, you can see why Warburton would rotate as a player such as Osayi-Samuel offers something much different. Chair’s ability to pass, for example, is far better as you can tell from the difference in key passes (0.9 to 1.2), whereas Osayi-Samuel is much more effective at running at players and winning fouls, as his 2.3 dribbles and 2.4 fouls won per game, compared to Chair’s 0.4 dribbles and 0.8 fouls won.