Supporters, LFW and our resident bookie put their heads together for the first of two forum pieces reflecting on the season so far and what lies ahead.

The fans say…

With a three day work trip to Prague sprung on me at the last moment, ideas for populating LoftforWords had to be thought up quickly at the end of last week. Our hastily arranged but nevertheless distinguished panel of supporters was only too happy to help. Rob Gilbert from Blog and White Hoops, Dave Barton from Dave’s Unofficial QPR Site, regular LFW columnist Chris King and LFW official photographer and writer of the QPR Today blog Neil Dejyothin give us their thoughts…

Why are we struggling? Where are we going wrong?

Rob - Perhaps the best way to look at why we are struggling is to compare us to last season. A year ago we had a team who would run through walls for each other. The away win at Reading with ten men epitomised that. Now, 12 months later, we have twice gone down to ten men and subsequently lost from winning positions. We lack a team spirit and more importantly a team identity. Last year we were grafters with one outstanding talent in Taarabt. Warnock isolating him earlier in the season looks like being a poor move. Our identity right now is non existent. I also think we threw the cash around with very little thought as to who or what we were buying. Swansea and Norwich have both proved that shrewd lower league purchases can have a big impact on The Premier League. As good as our signings appear to be on paper I can't help but feel that had we thought outside the box and looked at players like Jonny Howson or Jacob Butterfield (pre injury) we might have fared better. In addition perhaps we were too quick to write off last season’s heroes.

Chris - We are struggling because the team is not performing to its full potential. Having chosen the path of big names, high wages and previous reputation, we are suffering from a chronic lack of players that are hungry to succeed and feel the need to put in that extra bit of effort that Swansea and Norwich’s mostly lower league-sourced players do. Our organisation is abysmal, and as a club we possibly put far too much emphasis on making signings in January at the expense of putting hours in on the training ground to organise ourselves at the back, and work out a system for filling the gaping hole left in midfield by Alejandro Faurlin’s injury. Rangers’ tendency to concede when ahead is extremely damaging, as is the recent trend of indiscipline in the ranks. Cisse’s sending off lost us the game against Wolves, Barton’s dismissal was to blame for our defeat to the Canaries. To put it bluntly, we have lost a series of games we couldn’t afford to lose, and from here on in every match is a must-win. Unless the defence suddenly tightens up, players return from injury and our big names begin to live up to their billing, we could be bottom by mid-March.

Dave - It’s hard to know where to start with this one. We’re not a bad side but through a mixture of poor play and bad luck we find ourselves in this position. It is though pretty obvious that any side who builds a team for the first day of the season, then a new one two weeks later and then another new one in January is set up to struggle. Just two of the team that started the opening day (Kenny and Taarabt) would consider themselves regulars now. I doubt any other club in the division have seen that much of a turnaround in personnel. It all looks very West Ham of last season at the moment.

Individual errors have cost us, we’ve seen poor goals given away, missed chances and had sending offs, all very similar to the 95/96 season really. When we get ourselves into winning positions - which we had against Blackburn, Man City, West Brom, Sunderland, Norwich and Wolves at home - we’ve done our level best to gift the game back to the opposition rather than go for the kill.

In the past few weeks the problems have all been basic errors in games gifting team’s goals and giving the ball away to put us under pressure. It seems with Rangers that once we fix once side of the team and start scoring goals the other part falls apart. You can be sure once we tighten up at the back the goals will dry up again.

A club of our size needs certain things to survive and flourish and having a different back four every game and playing two or three different systems in every game is a recipe for relegation no matter what division we are in. QPR also can’t go on signing a new team every transfer window with no one really leaving, we still have most of the signings we made back in January 2008 sitting around doing nothing, that transfer policy has to change and quickly but we all know that no matter what the outcome this season we’ll be looking for another five or six players in the summer. We also don’t seem to put much thought into how players will mix together, Anton Ferdinand for example is a good defender but for me needs to play next to a dominating centre half whilst he sweeps up alongside, instead we put him next to Hall, Gabbidon or Onuoha who are pretty similar types of players and then wonder why teams dominate us in the air.

What do you make of Mark Hughes so far?

Neil - He is performing how I expected him to. He has historically been a slow starter and history is repeating itself here. The way I see it, the club needed a fast short term solution, but Hughes is applying a long term strategy to the problem as well as adding another layer of players (which in fairness, he needed to do). I think he hoped the players would have adapted more quickly, but he's quickly finding out that there's no magic wand and lots of issues to address. Is this a good or a bad thing? It depends on where you priorities lie. For the long term, it's a good thing, but it may be at the expense of survival if he's not careful. It's a balancing act he needs to get right for his own personal ambitions and those of the club. The shape, organisation and discipline of the team has generally improved across the board, but by the same token, it has reduced our creativity in attack and while that's all well and good, the defensive improvements have still not stopped us from conceding goals and losing games that we need to get points from.

If we can't stop the ball going in because we're simply not good enough, then we've really got to take more risks and go for it, otherwise the season will pass us by quickly and we'll surrender with a whimper and nobody wants to see that. The way his teams play also relies on individual brilliance and good form, but we've so many out of form that you worry whether they're capable.

I find him a bit uninspiring and dull from a media perspective, but that's not really that important. What I do like about him is that his assessment of our performances has been spot on. He's identified the good and bad traits relatively well from each match, but now he needs to walk the walk and show that he can do something about them.

Chris - Mark Hughes is certainly an impressive figure on the side-line. He looks like a Premier League manager should. But appearance is meaningless when the team are succumbing to mediocre opposition as readily as they did against Blackburn and Wolves, and looking so inept at the back. Hughes has been promised £1m if he keeps Rangers up, but as said before, the games are getting harder, and they are running out.

Dave - I’m not convinced so far, I like what he says in the media, he talks sense and has done well everywhere else but on the pitch in games I’m not seeing anything that different to the last two months of Warnock. We look good in patches, awful in other patches and still rely on Taarabt to do something special if we are going to win a game. We’ve started playing 4-4-2 but not all the players look comfortable in that system and it tends to change by half time in the games I’ve seen so far. We look like a side that are ready to crumble at any moment.

I don’t blame Hughes as he’s just walked through the door but it’s obvious he doesn’t know his best team and my biggest fear about changing managers was that we’d have a month or two of trying players and systems out until we found the right one and we simply couldn’t afford to do that but sadly that’s what is happening. I think given time he could be a very good manager for us but we don’t have time and personally I doubt he’ll be at the club next season probably through his own choice.

Rob - I like him. I have a feeling that he doesn't suffer fools, a trait which perhaps dogged Warnock is his final days. I think Hughes has gone about setting us up in the correct way with two banks of four, this is a relegation fight so nothing fancy is needed. Tellingly his substitutions appear to be having an impact, Smith v Wigan and Mackie v Blackburn. That's all positive to me.

What do you think about our January transfer activity?

Chris - On the face of it, QPR’s January transfer activity was overwhelmingly positive and impressive. Obviously, we are yet to see Diakite and there is a good chance that Cisse and Zamora, with some playing time together, could turn into a relatively decent partnership. Taiwo hasn’t looked especially solid thus far, and could well find himself without the time he would understandably need to bed into the English game and adjust to playing for a team scrapping for survival. Onuoha is also a good signing. The problem lies not in the players Rangers have bought, but in the way they are organised, trained, managed and deployed. This is where the fault lies. Here’s hoping that a fully-fit Zamora, a Cisse free from suspension and Onuoha can become the spine that the R’s are so sorely lacking.

Dave - We did pretty well overall, it’s the most the club have ever spent on players so you’d hope the quality is a big step up and it’s looked it so far. The signings of Zamora and Cisse were very good and done with forming a strike partnership which was a step forward. I like Onuoha and the loan signings of Taiwo and Diakate make sense and give us an opportunity to send them back if they don’t work out. Taiwo has looked ok to me so far, strong on the overlap and looks like someone who can get better the more he plays. I still think we needed a strong dominating centre half and our centre of midfield still looks very weak to me without Faurlin but I’ve yet to see Diakate so he could be the answer.

Rob - On paper it's phenomenal. Zamora, Cisse, Onuoha, Taiwo and Diakite (I'm choosing to ignore Macheda in the hope he will go away) are all great, athletic purchases. The one I was apprehensive about was Cisse, but his performances at Villa and pre red card versus Wolves were fantastic. As I mentioned earlier I think we went big when we didn't have too. Howson was sitting there at Leeds and was available, we were lacking in central midfield but missed our opportunity as we chased Steven Pienaar, I feel we missed a trick there. But to end positively Nedum Onouha has the potential to be an R's hero, he has everything needed to succeed at a club like ours.

Neil - I'm not pleased about how we've conducted our business in both the windows for this season. It's been a real kamikaze approach and not the smartest way to build a club. But it is the QPR way. Nedum Onuoha was the most sensible signing in terms of price and fit for the club at this stage, while Djibril Cissé was the eye opening one. I think these two will do well, but I'm less sure about the others and don't think they've provided us with value. We've spent an awful load and while we have improved, it's not by a great deal and if we had a whole season to play with, the improvement still might only be worth a couple of positions or so in the table.

LoftforWords says…

A running theme for QPR fans this season has been the success of Swansea and Norwich who both finished below us last season but have taken to the Premiership far better than us and both look like they’re going to survive with something to spare. If we survive, it’s going to go right to the wire.

People seem mystified as to why this has happened, after all it only seems like yesterday that Rangers were tearing Swansea apart and beating them 4-0 at Loftus Road with Adel Taarabt in sumptuous form.

The difference between the three clubs is short term and long term planning. Norwich and Swansea have been steadily building success for several seasons. In the last three years they have had three managers between them, QPR have had five to themselves. The fourth of those, Neil Warnock, built a Championship team for the Championship division last season with players like Clint Hill and Shaun Derry absolutely key. Norwich and Swansea have both kept faith with the majority of their Championship players this season, and looked down the divisions for reinforcements when they have spent money, but people like Wes Hoolahan, Steve Morrison, Danny Graham and Scott Sinclair were all bought with the future in mind whereas Hill, Derry and others at QPR were bought with the next 12 months in mind only.

Having won promotion the team needed rebuilding, whereas Norwich and Swansea already had the nucleus of success. The summer at Loftus Road was beset with more short termism. First Flavio Briatore didn’t want to spend any money because he knew he was about to sell the club, but did see fit to jack up the ticket prices all the same, then when the takeover did go through Rangers scrambled to get Premiership players in through the door in a rather desperate and frantic manner. More of the same this January – another managerial sacking, another rush to sign five players.

The massively bloated QPR squad is made up of layers of six or seven players signed in each transfer window by different managers, and now we have a Mark Hughes layer on top. The six that Neil Warnock brought in 18 months ago added a spirit and togetherness to the team that I’m simply not sure is there any more in the same way it is at Norwich and Swansea. There’s a degree of ‘only here because nobody else would have him’ about Barton and Gabbidon, an element of looking for a final pay day with Wright-Phillips and Zamora. When the going has been tough in recent games, that will to dig in and see the job through simply hasn’t been there – Norwich H, Wolves H, Villa A, Blackburn A. The body language of many of them is dreadful.

For all the big name arrivals it’s the Championship players – Jamie Mackie, Heidar Helguson, Alejandro Faurlin – who have put their hands up and done their bit for the cause the most. In amongst all the short termism we’ve forgotten the importance of leadership, and players who actually have a bit of feeling and history for the club they’re playing for.

Three reasons for pessimism:

Rob

1 Since mid November we haven't looked like stringing a run of form together.

2 We are relying on a Malian lad who has never played in England before to save our central midfield woes.

3 The run in. Who are we kidding that there are a plethora of points available?

LFW

1 When we play badly we get beaten easily, when we play well we find a way to throw the points away.

2 Our last ten games are frightening. We needed to take points from the run of games we’re in now but have suffered damaging defeats against teams around us and won’t have Cisse back until the last of the ‘winnable’ games at Bolton.

3 The body language in the first half at Blackburn was that of a team staring relegation in the face.

Chris

1 Games are running out and we’ve dropped points in crucial matches against teams around us in the table. Come mid-March almost every game is extremely tough, and if between now and then Rangers don’t pick up points, relegation could become more than just a strong possibility.

2 We have too many egos and not enough players who are actually capable of, in the time-honoured cliché, getting stuck in and giving their all for the club. Shaun Wright-Phillips and Joey Barton are two of the biggest offenders, but sadly we don’t have the players to replace either with. Perhaps this explains their complacency, but it certainly cannot justify it.

3 The R’s simply cannot keep a clean sheet. The defence is hopelessly disorganised and there isn’t the strong spine you need to mount a proper battle against relegation. QPR have thrown away more points than any other side from winning positions in the Premier League, and eventually, we will get punished for this profligacy.

Dave

1 - Our last four games of the season are horrible and no matter how well we play we’ll do well to get more than three points from those twelve available meaning we’ve probably blown our chances with the last four results.

2 - When so much goes wrong so often you have to wonder if it’s just not meant to be, if I wasn’t a QPR fan I’d have us down as relegated.

3 - Just look at Portsmouth for all the reasons we need, over spent on players small stadium and when the billionaire pulled out they were finished. You can tick two of those boxes already for us.

The bookies say…

LFW asked professional odds compiler Owen Goulding for the bookies’ take on the season and relegation battle so far:

The 2010/12 Barclays Premiership has thrown up many surprises so far. It is true that Man Utd and Man City were expected to battle it out for the title, and even with Spurs sniffing about still, this seems to be the case. However, the relegation market has thrown up many surprises. The biggest surprise this season has been Norwich.

Bookmakers - me included- have been left with egg on our faces so far from the form of the Canaries. To put it into context, Norwich started the season at 8/13 to be relegated. This means the bookies rated them as having a 62% chance of relegation. Their current price for relegation is 50/1 - a less than 2% chance. Those lucky punters who backed Norwich pre-season on the handicap market (getting 48 Points on Man Utd) - are currently sitting very pretty.

Swansea have far exceeded expectations as well. We all knew they enjoyed passing the ball and may look pretty, but their defensive abilities have come as a surprise to many a bookie. They started the season 8/15 for relegation, (65% chance of relegation) and are currently 20/1 to return to the Championship (less than 5% chance).

Now onto the Superhoops. It may come as a surprise to many, but QPR are currently less likely to be relegated than they were at the start of the season. They started the season Even money (50% chance) for relegation and are now currently 5/4 (44%) chance of relegation. It has been a turbulent season so far, but will it improve?

Wait, stop, put the gun down. Tomorrow the panel turns its attention to the remainder of the season, what lies in store for QPR, reasons for optimism and where you may be able to make money from the remainder of the Premier League Season. So that’ll cheer you up some I’m sure.

Tweet @loftforwords, @neildejyothin, @robgilbz, @chriskking,

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Photo: Action Images

qpr_ox added 22:10 - Feb 20 I still don't get the obsession with Faurlin. At this level, he is lightweight. Never seen him win a header, he's slow at getting back, positioning in-front of the back four is poor, and I have never, ever, seen him communicate to other players. The number of times I've seen him collide with Derry, Barton, or a.n.other is countless. Having said that, better than Buz* or Derry. *Of course, Buz was key to the season...for the one game against Wigan.

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JAPRANGERS added 22:25 - Feb 20 superb chaps! great analysis.
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adhoc_qpr added 22:47 - Feb 20 Very good article and sums up a lot of what i've been feeling over the past couple of weeks. I think we are going down but i am pretty philosophical about it - we could be the new pompey or we could be another WBA or Newcastle and bounce right back stronger! We can't predict what TF will do, so why try? I'll look forward to reading the reasons to be positive piece, but i feel it may be a much shorter article... Also to qpr_ox look at the OPTA player stats to understand why people rate Faurlin so highly, he's still in the top 5 tacklers in the league 5 weeks after getting injured!

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e1337prodigy added 23:56 - Feb 20 Wow, from what I have read; Great analysis/article. I always wait to read your articles, as I think they are true to the word. I will read the rest tomorrow... can't wait. C'mon you RRRR'sssssssss!!!
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ozexile added 03:26 - Feb 21 Great article. You can gave the best players in the world yet 80% of football is what you do off the ball. Our players have no desire to do the ugly stuff. Look at how hard man utd or Barcelona work to get the ball back. Then look at our first half against Blackburn!
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timcocking added 04:36 - Feb 21 We're in serious trouble.
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themodfather added 04:46 - Feb 21 when faurlin is at liverpool we'll see how lightweight he is! barton and swp have been so poor, despite wages and contracts. where's the captaincy, the leadership??
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qpr_vienna added 08:51 - Feb 21 I can't understand managers ... no matter whether it's Warnock or Hughes ... bringing in new players and immediately playing them in the starting eleven. It happened at the beginning of the season, and it happened again after the January transfer window - signed on Friday, playing on Saturday. First, I do not think players can adapt that quickly and can play to their full potential without proper training with the others. Second, it is a strange sign to the players already there, when some new face gets a debut handed hours after signing without any training or integration into the team. I may understand that for some fantastic and influential midfielder or for a goal scoring machine, but not for the players brought in in August and January. Your thoughts?

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hoops123 added 09:31 - Feb 21 Great read guys. Attempting to rebuild a team twice during the season means only one thing - relegation. our only hope this season is the poor form of the three teams below us. The Fulham game should tell us all whether we have enough quality, team spirit and belief to avoid the drop. Our mental preparation is now the key. Personally, I think we have missed Faurlin massively. Yes he is slow and poor at tracking back but, he is good in the air and his distribution puts Barton to shame. With him in the middle of the park Cisse and Zamora would receive the killer passes needed to get goal scoring opportunities. Whatever happens this season, we need a clear out in the summer and Hughes needs to rebuild from the ground up, and that doesn't necessarily mean splashing the cash again.v

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R_in_Sweden added 09:39 - Feb 21 qpr_ox Have to disagree on Faurlin. "Never seen him win a header" I don't want to start a quarrel with a fellow supporter but he has won plenty and against taller opposition. The only player from last season to cut it in the Premier League (the jury is out on Adel), he has stuck at it under several managers and has ridden out the turbulence surrounding his transfer at the end of last season. Valuable asset! Adel will prove his worth as well at some point if he stays in the country.

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HamptonR added 09:50 - Feb 21 qpr_ox I can only assume you are either facing the wrong way or you are the bloke who sits behind me and constantly moans about almost everything. Faurlin is one of the very few rays of sunshine that we have seen this season, he is a quality player at this level. He challenges for every header and wins most of them, his passing can be sublime and his work rate is second to none. He is sorely missed from the midfield.

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DesertBoot added 09:58 - Feb 21 We are going down. I've been saying that since the draw with West Brom which was a confidence sapping result. Ok we beat Wigan but one point from Villa, Wolves and Blackburn when perhaps seven or more might have been expected is the final nail for me. A London derby and an Everton team with new found confidence after their win over Chelsea - not home bankers by a long shot.

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TheChef added 10:50 - Feb 21 I assume qpr_ox is trying to get a rise out of everyone. Otherwise - great article!
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R_in_Sweden added 11:02 - Feb 21 Barton has a twitter ban and is aliasing as qpr_ox :)
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QPunkR added 11:18 - Feb 21 Does look increasingly like we're going down. However, while I don't think it's the end of the world, I'd have been a whole lot more confident of fighting for promotion straight back under Warnock than I am under Hughes (assuming he sticks around...)
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budaranger added 12:53 - Feb 21 Still cannot help feeling it was the comical pre-season that stymied our chances this year...if Fernandes had been in place by the end of June we would have had a more co-ordinated recruitment plan, and Warnock more time to turn them into a cohesive unit. As it was the post-takeover acquisitions were getting to know eachother during matches.... And the fact that Barton is not captaincy material, and in recent weeks, barely Premiership footballer material, doesn't help our cause either

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Monahoop added 13:38 - Feb 21 Some great analysis here. I'm not totally convinced that we will go down yet, much will depend on the next four or five games, then I will probably have a clearer idea in my head in which direction we are heading. Two managers, poor pre season preparations,disharmony in the dressing room, hasty signings not entirely gelling together, has the hallmarks of a recipe for disaster. Why do we have to be so bloody cavalier in the way we go about our business? It drives me nuts at times. 18th, 19th or 20th positions are looking like more distinct probabilities if we don't wisen up from now. Yes indeed, we do have a touch of last seasons West Ham about us.

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Irish_R added 13:46 - Feb 21 Right! Enough of the negativity! We have not been in the relegation places all year and the fact there are at least three teams worse than ourselves is another plus. Hughes is a better manager, our squad is greatly improved especially from an attacking front. Onouha has added more grit and determination with plenty of strength and Taiwo too looks very strong. These will only get better. Our new front pairing of cisse and zamora will reap rewards, i promise. Cisse's movement in his first to games was exceptional and we have not had that type of eye for goal tbis season. Also zamora will take chances when given to him where we have so poorly done this season. Its such a pity cisse's first career red card happened so early in his term here. He wi be much fitter when he returns for bolton. Now saying all that, our downfall has been our midfield or lack of more like. We need barton to step up and anyone who says swp does not try for the cause is dilusional. For his size, he shirks every tackle and always trys to stay on his feet. How he has not scored the goals his game totally deserves is beyond me. Derry is not a prem player, traore is still too raw, buz is very hit and miss, he can turn it on big time in one game and disappear for the next few games. Tarbs, well what can i say, big opportunity missed here. He should have been given more game time. Sitting behind the front two in a free role and some more patience and he would have been more influential in our season. Thankfully hughes has a lot of faith on him but does he have a choice...for me thankfully not. Now to Ali, he is legend, a great reader of the game, executes the somple things brilliantly and is tenacious. Sorely miss him which brings us too Diakite, I pray he us the answer to our midfield problems. Diakite, please stay fit, need you every game from here on in. Its still in our hands and as long as that is the case I will not give up on my beloved Rs!!!!!

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johann28 added 14:02 - Feb 21 So let's run through this Irish R ... 3 teams worse than ourselves? And how do we judge this? The league table doesn't lie - 3 teams on 21 points says it all. Taiwo 'very strong'? Not what i've seen. Potential, perhaps, but won;t do it for us in the short term, methinks. Cisse and Zamora have never played together, so a partnership may reap rewards, and then it again may not. You don't mention the defence, which has been vulnerable all year, but midfield I agree is now the problem. Agree that SWP tries for the cause but is low on confidence precisely because he hasn't scored; agree on Buz (hit/miss) and Derry (not a prem player), whilst Barton indeed needs to 'step up' but how long have we been saying this now? Diakite is a great unknown, and pinning our faith on him says a lot about our predicament. I'm of the view that the only player who can save us is AT, but where does he fit in Hughes' predictable and rigid 4-4-2? We need a lot of luck and/or a numner of miracles, and thus far these have been in short supply.

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probbo added 14:16 - Feb 21 A good point from QPR Vienna - throwing a bunch of strangers together and expecting instant gratification with stylish football is widely optimistic and doomed to fail. The Chelsea win aside it's been a wretched season so far. Realistically Premier League survival was the main aim this year but the way we are playing makes that far from assured. I watched Bolton at Millwall on the telly last week and they passed the ball better than we do. I've no confidence in Barton as a Captain and I think the problem is he does'nt either. We are light in midfield, weak at the back and the forwards are getting no service. And the confidence that was briefly there in September has evaporated and given way to a losing mentality. Not sure what this break in Portugal will do but i'd imagine Hughes is no mug and he will wield the axe on some of these regular under-achievers if they don't step up to the plate in the next few games. I can handle losing but not when the team just rolls over. Mackie has been superb this year - hope he gets a few more goals.

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adhoc_qpr added 16:15 - Feb 21 "Right! Enough of the negativity! We have not been in the relegation places all year and the fact there are at least three teams worse than ourselves is another plus." Actually we have slipped into the relegation places twice i think. As for 3 teams being worse than us being a fact is debatable given how close the table is! We may have strengthed the team significantly (not that we have ever been able to play our strongest team yet!) but we still only have 21 points on board. We either need to outperform 3 teams with kinder fixtures than us to stay up or hope that 3 other teams completely flop worse than us!

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Antti_Heinola added 17:20 - Feb 21 Great article, plenty to agree and disagree with there! Love Chris's comment: "QPR have thrown away more points than any other side from winning positions in the Premier League, and eventually, we will get punished for this profligacy." Er... that sounds like we HAVE been punished for our profligacy, many, many times, Chris ;). Dave saying Hughes 'doesn't know his best team' is a bugbear of mine. I'm not really sure what that means these days, and surely form comes into such thinking. Plus, I think he DOES know his best team, it's just that as soon as he got it together Cisse got sent off and Young and Buzsaky got injured. Hardly Sparky's fault. But worst comment of all is from qpr-ox who thinks Faurlin has never won a header and is too lightweight. First of all, Faurlin has won more tackles than ANY OTHER PLAYER IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE according to Opta. Some lightweight. Second of all, he wins an unbelievable number of balls in the air! He's probably the best central midfield header of the ball we've had at Rangers for 20-30 years! Ox, you really, really must be getting him confused with someone else, mate! This season, alongside Helguson, he was our best player - we've really, really struggled without him. Overall comment: we're going down. I thought we were after the Liverpool game, felt very negative after the Norwich game and after Wolves I became pretty convinced. 5 wins would probably be enough because the bottom 5 are all so bad, but I just don't think we'll do it.

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Irish_R added 23:43 - Feb 21 Johann, if you did not notice i am very much an optomist, you have to be to be a qpr fan with our last decade!!! Anyway I agree with much of what you are saying but i still take the stance that it is still on our hands. Two home games now and if we come out of those with anything less than 4 pts, I will admit we are gone due to the fact we have the mother of all run ins to finish the season. We do need some luck to go our way and we are overdue our fair share. Yes our defence has been shambolic but blame should be leveraged to the non existent midfield who give little or no protectiom to our back 4 with mackie being the exception. Mackie and Zamora for the next two games and then cisse and zamora from then on on with mackie marauding from midfield along side tarbs with barton and diakite protecting the back 4. Sounds so simple but oh the life of a couch fan, we always think we know best haha! Looking forward to the second half of this blog. Some optimism perhaps!

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