In All Honesty..We Don't Look Like A Top 2 Team

[Sleeping Giants]

I know that we are undefeated and that 8 wins and 6 draws from 14 games, is what we craved for before the start of the season, it goes without saying that since we beat Palace away we have not been playing that well. Would add, I didn;t thinkwe we were that great against Doncaster or Millwall

I have seen a noticeable downturn in performances and that has allowed us to sneak draws, when in reality we could have lost at least one. Today, we went 1-0 up and should have gone on from that, instead we were outbattled and lucky to escape with a 1-1 draw. The best chances fell to Burnley and we just didn't turn up today.

I am normally very positive, but today like the previous few games we have shown that if we continue like this till end of season, we will fall short of automatic promotion. We simply don't thave the cutting edge and a goal poacher like say Phillips at Birmingham City and come the end of season, I think that will be our downfall. Admittedly Hulse has been out for some time and lacks match practice, but he along with Helguson are simply not going to score 20 goals plus to maintain our automatic push for promotion. The reason that we cannot get automatic promotion without a top striker is that with players like Derry and Faurlin whilst excellent defensive players in midfield they are not in the same mould as say someone like Nolan at Newcastle United last season, who scored plenty.

I am very confident that we will make the Play offs and think this will be the best way of any kind of promotion. I am absolutely delighted with the start of the season and anyone who told me, we would have this start after 14 games, I would have ripped there hands off.


I am a firm believer that home crowds influence referrees decisions and if Burnley had played at somewhere like Cardiff today, you would have seen Eagles sent off, yet we hardly react to his two fouls after he gets booked for diving. Add to that, it is disconcerting we simply don';t test the goalkeeper and never took hold of the game for long periods and haven't done at home for some time now. I have a feeling that after 14 games it slightly flatters us and think come Christmas we will see whereabouts we will finish in May.

I still think Tarrabt makes things happen for us and without him we resort to the long ball and become fairly predictable. I would love mackie to score a goal, because each game he goes without one must be effecting his confidence. I have hardly notice Hogan in the last few games and surely now it must be time to give Tommy Smith a start?

As shown against Norwich, Bristol City and today against Burnley we rely on players giving 100% and under Warnock they sure do give there all, but I am questioning tonight whether they are good enough to see us automatically promoted come May. We would have to win a number of home or away games against very good teams in this division and I am not sure whether we are good enoug for automatic promotion, but instead my money would be on a top 6 position.

Just my opinion of course.

I share your fear that the bubble is bursting but 4 of our draws were against teams currently sat in 3rd, 5th, 7th & 8th. 1 of the other 2 was against Millwall when they were on form (they were 3rd at the time I think)....Only Bristol City away could be seen as a bad result. When an away draw is your worst result from 14, things aren't going too bad for you! And remember that Fortress Loftus Road has only been breached once and that goal needed an overly generous penalty decision and an immaculate penalty taker to beat Paddy.

[Goddard]

I know the News of the World is a bit of a rag, and they often make stuff up... but I had a look at the sports pages this morning, and there is a league table in there.

I might have had a bit of a hangover, but it did seem to suggest that we are a top 2 team. Quite comfortably at the moment.
And that thing shaped like a ducks egg in our "Lost" column seems to still be there.. even if it is being blamed for our shocking form of late.

And that's before I get to the best goal difference in the league.

Now I don't want to sound all happy-clappy and patronizing, but I am stating facts here. Nothing more than that.

[Quaz]

I know the News of the World is a bit of a rag, and they often make stuff up... but I had a look at the sports pages this morning, and there is a league table in there.

I might have had a bit of a hangover, but it did seem to suggest that we are a top 2 team. Quite comfortably at the moment.
And that thing shaped like a ducks egg in our "Lost" column seems to still be there.. even if it is being blamed for our shocking form of late.

And that's before I get to the best goal difference in the league.

Now I don't want to sound all happy-clappy and patronizing, but I am stating facts here. Nothing more than that.

[Raj]

I can see why people are concerned, but I'm not worried at all. Except for Bristol City the draws have come against good teams who I expect to be there or thereabouts at the end of the season.

It's taken 5 draws from 6 games (and 4 straight wins for Cardiff) for Cardiff to overtake us and yet we still find ourselves 4 points ahead of 3rd place. We will start scoring more goals soon, I'm sure of it.

I just feel it's a great time to be a QPR supporter.

[PeterG]

Agree with much of the original post

I think its way too early to be judging Hulse, his scoring record is good but we need to give him the right service, thats not long straight balls from the back for him to challenge for, its getting the ball wide and deep to cross pack into the area, if we do that more often i dint think there is a more adept striker in the championship to take advantage.

regarding goals from midfield, getting Rowlands back in the starting line up will help he has a good strike record per game.

I think we are on the horns of a dillema, we are playing 4 2 1 3 to accommodate Taraabt but his performances are not in my opinion warranting his inclusion at the moment and I dont think this formation is the best to accommodate the rest of our squad effectively.

I would be looking at going back to a 442 formation, assuming buzsaky is still injured that would mean the defense staying as it is and then

Smith Derry Faurlin Rowlands
Hulse Helguson

Taraabt to come on as required as an impact player along with buzsaky

this is not the team i would have played starting in august but i think it is the line up best suited to the winter months muddy pitches etc

An alternative option if Rowlands isnt ready yet would be to bring walker to right midfield, smith on the left and bring Orr back in as right back.

we do have a decent squad which gives us options if we are prepared to use them

[acricketer]

I share your fear that the bubble is bursting but 4 of our draws were against teams currently sat in 3rd, 5th, 7th & 8th. 1 of the other 2 was against Millwall when they were on form (they were 3rd at the time I think)....Only Bristol City away could be seen as a bad result. When an away draw is your worst result from 14, things aren't going too bad for you! And remember that Fortress Loftus Road has only been breached once and that goal needed an overly generous penalty decision and an immaculate penalty taker to beat Paddy.

Let's not also forget that Bristol are starting to show some form. They beat Reading just before drawing with us and Beat Boro yesterday. We have had a tough run of matches and are still unbeaten.

Normally when you draw a few you don't start losing. We are hard to beat as the table shows. Roll on Reading!

[oldhoop]

Have a look at the table next week-end we will be back on top after beating the fake hoops on Saturday and the taffs sharing the points on Sunday! So keep the faith people we WILL go up as a top two team!

[G.T.P]

we are a very good play off championship side, and hulse isnt the answer imho.
and ive resigned myself to the fact we will not be automatic anymore.
dont give a shite if the rainbow rosy garden crew say its negative, its jsut how i feel after seeing the last 6 games, and i honestly think we wont do it.
play offs is our only hope, but its a good hope cos we dont get beat, so could well win them.

[Sotonsuperhoop]

We do have the squad to go up automatically minus perhaps another striker. Hulse , if not fit, should not have played yesterday. Obviously, an unfit Hulse was a better option than a fully fit Dave with 2 goals under his belt. People on here are slagging Hulse IMO they are right after yesterdays showing. Wont go into this again as it was discussed at length on here last night.

14 games, 7 home, 7 away - need to be on 28points for promotion. Aren't we on 30? Stop pannicking. Whats everyone gonna be like when we do eventually lose??

[stainrodisalegend]

Agree with much of the original post

I think its way too early to be judging Hulse, his scoring record is good but we need to give him the right service, thats not long straight balls from the back for him to challenge for, its getting the ball wide and deep to cross pack into the area, if we do that more often i dint think there is a more adept striker in the championship to take advantage.

regarding goals from midfield, getting Rowlands back in the starting line up will help he has a good strike record per game.

I think we are on the horns of a dillema, we are playing 4 2 1 3 to accommodate Taraabt but his performances are not in my opinion warranting his inclusion at the moment and I dont think this formation is the best to accommodate the rest of our squad effectively.

I would be looking at going back to a 442 formation, assuming buzsaky is still injured that would mean the defense staying as it is and then

Smith Derry Faurlin Rowlands
Hulse Helguson

Taraabt to come on as required as an impact player along with buzsaky

this is not the team i would have played starting in august but i think it is the line up best suited to the winter months muddy pitches etc

An alternative option if Rowlands isnt ready yet would be to bring walker to right midfield, smith on the left and bring Orr back in as right back.

we do have a decent squad which gives us options if we are prepared to use them

With the greatest respect find it extraordinary that you say Tabs isn't worth a starting place. He is the only attacking player in our entire team who looked like he might score! Why wd you poss prefer to keep Hogan "killer ball" Ephraim rather than him, to name but one non-performer. Baffling.

[Dazzer1977]

YAWN........ FFS we are hitting a sticky patch. All clubs go through it during the season and we normally always struggle in November. If this is our patch and all we keep doing is drawing then I'll ruddy take that! Get off the teams back and start supporting the team. For the first 20mins in the second half our support was soooooooo quiet. This is really getting boring now! Swansea will turn over Cardiff next weekend and we'll beat Reading, go back to top and this board will be a different place. FFS its a Marathon and not a sprint!

[G.T.P]

whos on their back, warnock said we are a play off side and he was right. thats exactly what we are.
anything else would of been the biggest bonus ever, but very sadly its not to be, but going up by play offs will still do very nicely.
that team is not top two, and thats a bona fide stone wall fact, which to all our hearts despairs will be proven.

[stainrodisalegend]

whos on their back, warnock said we are a play off side and he was right. thats exactly what we are.
anything else would of been the biggest bonus ever, but very sadly its not to be, but going up by play offs will still do very nicely.
that team is not top two, and thats a bona fide stone wall fact, which to all our hearts despairs will be proven.

So we are just a play off side. But in the next breath you seem sure we will go up via the play offs. What don't people understand about the play offs? Its really very simply but just to spell it out - if you have to rely on the play offs you only have a 25% chance of going up.

[G.T.P]

So we are just a play off side. But in the next breath you seem sure we will go up via the play offs. What don't people understand about the play offs? Its really very simply but just to spell it out - if you have to rely on the play offs you only have a 25% chance of going up.

thanks for that bit of maths advise man. how did you do that, are you o level standard?

no-one wants to rely on the play offs, but realisticly speaking with no goal scorer they are our only hope if we are going to draw every game, and by the way, we are the hardest team in the league to beat, thats proven, so shouldnt that mean if that no-one can beat us, chance is we wont lose in the play offs, dont know the arithmatical equation cos i didnt go college, but there probably is one.

[Rebel R's]

Great post,don't know why I didn't say that,oh actually I did and was slated for it