" Should Cardiff fear them? "

Should Cardiff City fear QPR?

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Thursday 13th August 2015

Media Wales

How are QPR shaping up after relegation?

They lost at Charlton on opening day, and what a weary defeat it was after starting brightly.

Then they bounced back, with a largely second-string team, to comfortably beat Yeovil on Tuesday.



This is a QPR born of pragmatism.

Gone is the lavish spending on players who probably shouldn't have been bought in the first place.

The new dawn demands a cut-price model and a fit-for-Championship purpose squad, who should do OK.

Will Charlie Austin play against Cardiff?

He 'overstretched' a bit at Charlton and was subbed and rested for Tuesday's Capital Cup tie.

Charlie Austin scored 18 Premier League goals last season

Presuming nobody coughs up £15m in the next 24 hours, he should reappear on Saturday teatime.

Who's been signed since last season?

Sebastian Polter, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, Jamie Mackie, Ben Gladwin, Massimo Luongo, Tyler Blackwood, Tjaronn Chery, James Perch, Paul Konchesky.

Plenty of Championship experience with a good mix of exciting youth.

Former player Emmanuel-Thomas and former target Luongo are two names that Cardiff City fans will be pretty familiar with.


Jay Emmanuel-Thomas played in the same Cardiff team as Aaron Ramsey and Jay Bothroyd
Which big names have departed?

Richard Dunne, Bobby Zamora, Adel Taarabt (Benfica), Brian Murphy, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Rio Ferdinand (retired), Joey Barton, Mauricio Isla (loan ended), Eduardo Vargas (loan ended) Niko Kranjcar, Alex McCarthy (Crystal Palace), Steven Caulker (loan to Southampton).

Former Bluebirds captain Caulker won't be facing his ex employers after shipping out to Southampton on loan the week before last.



Some other big names like Joey Barton and Rio Ferdinand also departed for nothing in the summer.

Cardiff fans will also remember Adel Taarabt well from the 2010/11 season when he was the star as the R's beat the Bluebirds to Premier League promotion. He left for Benfica on a free.

Will Chris Ramsey have the R's challenging at the top of the Championship this season?

The $64,000 dollar question!

He would like to, but in truth, they'll settle for consolidation first rather than do a Wolves and get relegated for a second successive season.


"We’ve lost a lot of players and got in new players. We’ve not spent a lot of money and some came in at the end of pre-season.

“I’m not the only manager who will be saying that. But it’s more important we have a more pragmatic approach, and look as high as we can.”

Cardiff should not fear anyone. No point turning up if you are going to fear a side. Get stuck in that's what I say.

Still early days I don't think it's a bad thing playing potential front runners early while teams are getting settled with new additions.

Still early days I don't think it's a bad thing playing potential front runners early while teams are getting settled with new additions.

Agree.

No way am I scared. The should fear us, we have plenty of quality in our side. Not scared of any team on this division.

NO

They will beat us quite comfortably and will be up there challenging for promotion this season. No fear though, just realism.

Not fear, but RESPECT!!

QPR will not be pushovers and still have enough of a team to compete at the highest level in this league. Ignore their threats at your peril in my opinion! Slade has a difficult task to balance the attacking formation with a more conservative defensive approach. If he gets it wrong, there could be dire consequences.

However, it can be done!

We shouldn't fear them, but we will probably show no ambition to win the game and therefore lose as we aren't good enough to not concede for 90 minutes.