Here goes tin hat time you ain't going to like this

[uptheR's]

I dont see how anyone can say we haven't progressed. Barring a terrible start and on a bad run at the moment, but in between that we have showed top 6 form, played some good football, built a good team spirit, youngsters gaining experience and Loftus Road is actually fun to go to and watch games now. League position hasn't improved thanks to us losing 5 in a row, but I feel like things are so much better than last year

Edit: got furthest in fa cup for 22 years, and could go even further with a good result friday, which is not completely impossible

[Bill]

Look to Sunderland and Coventry etc. and feel "blessed". At least that is how I see it.

Exactly Shania at least we are still around.

[Shania]

Yepp

[bushcelt1]

The football Is far better to look at and there is a bit of a buzz around Loftus rd compared to last year and even if we have fallen short in the last few games i think the general feeling is at least we seen to be gtving it a right go

[Ginger Ninja]

I dont see how anyone can say we haven't progressed. Barring a terrible start and on a bad run at the moment, but in between that we have showed top 6 form, played some good football, built a good team spirit, youngsters gaining experience and Loftus Road is actually fun to go to and watch games now. League position hasn't improved thanks to us losing 5 in a row, but I feel like things are so much better than last year

Edit: got furthest in fa cup for 22 years, and could go even further with a good result friday, which is not completely impossible

Totally agree.

[72bus]

a big problem for us is our 1st eleven can give anyone in this division a game , injuries to cameron , angel and hemed haven't helped . our replacements maybe not as good , also the amount of games of late doesn't help , bristol yesterday we will of got back late last nite , probably given the players today off then we have thursday and friday morning to tactically get ready for watford , i can see us been tired friday nite ...

[Timmy the Doc]

I'm worried about our current form and difficult fixtures in February. We may lose 9-10 games on the trot and be only 4-5 points above relegation zone in the beginning of March

[1973 ranger]

I agree 100% with bushcelt.

[QPROslo]

Difference between this and last season ? All in that Birmingham game for me. We'd have lost that 7-0 under Holloway with Lynch up front and Scowen at CB.

We played Birmingham three times under Holloway:

18 February 2017: B'ham-QPR 1-4
16. December 2017: B'ham-QPR 1-2
28. April 2018: QPR - B'ham 3-1

That's 9-3 over three matches so I cannot see where your logic is coming from.

If you look at QPRs results last season you will see that we rarely imploded like we occasionally do this season. We conceded more than 2 goals on just four occasions last season, while we have done it six times already under McClaren and a third of the season is still left. It is simply way off to suggest that we would have lost 7-0 under Holloway. You can say a lot about Holloways reign, but the fighting spirit was second to none and we very rarely fell apart the way we do every now and then this season

[Abseits]

I thought at start of season we'd finish below Millwall and Brentford. I still think this season is a million times better than last season. There is no financial difference between finishing 3rd and finishing bottom in this league (assuming play-off failure of course) so I don't really care where we finish - things are clearly far more settled with our young developing squad.

[Sleeping Giants]

People cant seem to grasp this basic concept greg, honestly how ironic considering you and everyone else was bashing our last manager as he was trying to deal with our situation and using youngsters, yet now itsok to roll excuses out when our current manager has players like wells on loan , and was supposed to be this great coach/manager, yet here we are started to struggle, players look knackered and hes sent the fringe players out on loan, for all macs organisational skills, we`re still in the same position atm in the league we ended with the youngsters.

No, don't agree at all...Steve Mc has to primarily keep us from getting relegated and also has to bring on the youngsters...he's doing that by getting the youngsters experience elsewhere whilst loan players keep us from going down.

[QPROslo]

I dont see how anyone can say we haven't progressed. Barring a terrible start and on a bad run at the moment, but in between that we have showed top 6 form, played some good football, built a good team spirit, youngsters gaining experience and Loftus Road is actually fun to go to and watch games now. League position hasn't improved thanks to us losing 5 in a row, but I feel like things are so much better than last year

Edit: got furthest in fa cup for 22 years, and could go even further with a good result friday, which is not completely impossible

We finished last season as number sixteen and now we are seventeen, and that is not progress, as simple as that. The cup is a very welcome boost but progress is primarily measured by our league performance over an entire season and not over a couple of cup matches.

However, the most serious issue I have against McClaren is the shift in focus from youth to experienced loan players. Given the financial constraints we are facing we are heavily dependent on developing young players and picking up gems on the cheap. Last year a number of young players had their breakthrough under Holloway. These players are one year older now and should have flourished this season. However, players such as Smyth, Oteh, Chair, BOS and Manning have seen much less game time - very contrary to what I would expect. We have built a team that is heavily reliant on loans or short term signings such as Cameron, Rangel, Wells and Hemed. When they are injured we fall apart like a card house. This simply isn't progress. It is the opposite. These loan players will likely not be here next year and is not our future.

We finished 2017/2018 very well based on a very young team. Look at the team we fielded against Birmingham last year (3-1 win): Lumley, Furlong, Bidwell, Kakay, Freeman, Scowen, Manning, Chair, Eze, BOS, Sylla. How do you think this team would have done under McClaren this season? I bet you would say we would not stand a chance. More than anything this tells me we have gone backward, not forward.

Edit: We are not 17th, we are 18th in the meantime.

[Itsonlyagame]

We finished last season as number sixteen and now we are seventeen, and that is not progress, as simple as that. The cup is a very welcome boost but progress is primarily measured by our league performance over an entire season and not over a couple of cup matches.

However, the most serious issue I have against McClaren is the shift in focus from youth to experienced loan players. Given the financial constraints we are facing we are heavily dependent on developing young players and picking up gems on the cheap. Last year a number of young players had their breakthrough under Holloway. These players are one year older now and should have flourished this season. However, players such as Smyth, Oteh, Chair, BOS and Manning have seen much less game time - very contrary to what I would expect. We have built a team that is heavily reliant on loans or short term signings such as Cameron, Rangel, Wells and Hemed. When they are injured we fall apart like a card house. This simply isn't progress. It is the opposite. These loan players will likely not be here next year and is not our future.

We finished 2017/2018 very well based on a very young team. Look at the team we fielded against Birmingham last year (3-1 win): Lumley, Furlong, Bidwell, Kakay, Freeman, Scowen, Manning, Chair, Eze, BOS, Sylla. How do you think this team would have done under McClaren this season? I bet you would say we would not stand a chance. More than anything this tells me we have gone backward, not forward.

I don’t mean to split hairs Oslo but you have completely contradicted yourself.
You say that progress needs to be measured over the whole season, but then say we havent made progress because last season we finished 16th and this season we are 17th, even though we still have nearly 3 months left of the season.

[mrbourne21]

We finished last season as number sixteen and now we are seventeen, and that is not progress, as simple as that. The cup is a very welcome boost but progress is primarily measured by our league performance over an entire season and not over a couple of cup matches.

However, the most serious issue I have against McClaren is the shift in focus from youth to experienced loan players. Given the financial constraints we are facing we are heavily dependent on developing young players and picking up gems on the cheap. Last year a number of young players had their breakthrough under Holloway. These players are one year older now and should have flourished this season. However, players such as Smyth, Oteh, Chair, BOS and Manning have seen much less game time - very contrary to what I would expect. We have built a team that is heavily reliant on loans or short term signings such as Cameron, Rangel, Wells and Hemed. When they are injured we fall apart like a card house. This simply isn't progress. It is the opposite. These loan players will likely not be here next year and is not our future.

We finished 2017/2018 very well based on a very young team. Look at the team we fielded against Birmingham last year (3-1 win): Lumley, Furlong, Bidwell, Kakay, Freeman, Scowen, Manning, Chair, Eze, BOS, Sylla. How do you think this team would have done under McClaren this season? I bet you would say we would not stand a chance. More than anything this tells me we have gone backward, not forward.

Also we won 6 from 15 , wouldn’t call that ending the season very well

[QPROslo]

No, don't agree at all...Steve Mc has to primarily keep us from getting relegated and also has to bring on the youngsters...he's doing that by getting the youngsters experience elsewhere whilst loan players keep us from going down.

If McClaren really wanted to develop young players through loans deals he should have done it during first half of the season, and played them in the Championship during the second half of the season once it was clear we would not get relegated. Holloway sent players such as Eze, Furlong and Lumley on loan in the first half of the season and gave the two first plenty of game time when they got back, and Lumley game time once it was clear that Smithies would be soon gone.

Holloway spent the limited money he was given on buying cheap players such as Freeman, Smith, BOS, Scowen, Goss and Wheeler. Some flopped (Goss, Wheeler), some have been important addition to our 1st team (Smith, Scowen) and two players have the possibility of bringing huge profit when we eventually sell them (Freeman for sure, and hopefully BOS if he just gets more game time). However, all players were bought with a long term view in mind. They were deemed good enough to help us stay up, but more importantly they were seen as part of a proper long term plan.

After lengthy discussions with Hoos and Les, McClaren convinced the club to change strategy and go for experienced loan signings. It is probably safer if you just look a season ahead, but not a good choice given that none of them will likely be here next season, and none of them will have any resale value. I am quite sure we have at least paid £1m each for loaning Wells and Hemed for a full season, plus high salaries given our new standards. Yes, it helps keeping us up, but it is shortsighted. Holloway kept us up without such loans.

It is the combination of lack of progress on the table and the shortsighted recruitment policy that makes me conclude that we are going backwards.

I am the first to admit that that it takes a long time to turn around a mismanaged club with financial difficulties. I was happy with how last season developed, with successful signings and lots of youth coming through. I was very surprised when Holloway was sacked, and McClaren was appointed. McClaren has done far better than I feared and we will not get relegated. Holloway took us from the verge of relegation in 2016/17 to a respectable 16th place finish the following season, with a particularly good finish when we played one of the youngest teams in the four professional leagues. There is no reason to think that we would not continue the progress under him this season, but hardly more than a mid table finish, given the quality of our squad. McClaren's strategy is different, and of the reasons I have outlined I simply cannot agree to the fact this can be called progress. However, I am prepared to give him a lot of time. His test will come next season when we once again probably need to rely on youth.