Dusic

Cardiff's two home games versus Watford and Everton will be key. We need their momentum to stall pretty quickly. Fulham and absolute must win for us. Lose or draw and we will need to beat either Arsenal, Spurs or United (at least).

Although it has changed a bit in the last 3 months, the OP is pretty much accurate I think. Yes Brighton are in poor form but they only Spurs who are decent until the last two games. I struggle to believe they will pick up less than 8 or 9 points before the end of the season. Burnley are in good form and don't look like going down. Something like 6th best form in the last 10 games (far better than us) Palace are not a poor side IMO and always score goals. If Hudds (100%) and Fulham (80%) are down then its between Cardiff, Saints and Newcastle. Newcastle are hard to predict but have a good Manager and may get a boost from Almiron. To have given Cardiff 25% of their points is possibly going to send us down. To be below such a limited side after this many games is gutting.

He is absolutely dreadful. Does nothing on the ball and today gave away the needless free kick that lead to their winner. For me a worse signing than Carillo, possibly the worst of the Reed era.

Not really IMO. He has got more out the squad so far than I thought was capable. Not his fault that some players aren't good enough nor that we struggle to sign players. If we stay up it will be entirely because of Hasenhuttl.

We had Shane Long starting and our three subs were Charlie Austin, Moi Anonymous and Sam Gallagher. None of those players are PL quality.

In the second part of the presser Ralph all but confirmed the back 5 will be the same. Said he has been happy with Stephens and Yoshida knows he won't automatically come back in. Assume the same with Bertrand from what he said.

He does in the penalty area. He won't need to press as Cardiff we play long anyway. Long is useless against deep lying defences as his touch is obviously dreadful. Gallgher isnt a genuine option to start such a big game. Austin a no brainer IMO.

I'm not an Austin fan, far from it. But in a game like this he is the best option to start IMO. We will have most of the ball, little space to run in behind and in the box Austin is far better than Long, Gallagher etc.

Ings is miles better than Austin. Besides, we clearly have to sign him so hopefully a full pre season helps him. If we had better backups then we could rest him for midweek games if that helps.

Hopefully and end of season rest and then a proper, full pre season (which he didnt have this year) would really help him. For £16m he is good value IMO. You don't get much for that and he is a quality player, plus clearly has a connection with the club. A bigger problem is the other strikers when he isnt available.

Bertrand is better than Targett whose joint best attribute (alongside his excellent crossing when stationary) is that he came through our Academy. We are in a relegation battle. Its pretty obvious Bertrand should play.

Correct. Was at that one also. So many good away days that season- not so much this game though. Remember Lallana's persistent groin injury forcing him off and then BWP equalising. If N'Guessan had started the game instead of being rested for Chamberlain then we would have won IMO. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_2/9429089.stm

Typical January panic signing, a few days before deadline day in 2011. Signed on loan from Leicester with high hopes but in reality he was always going to be **** and wasn't anywhere near the level of our other attackers: Chamberlain, Lallana, Barnard & Jonno Quick. However, his debut was one to remember and arguably the highlight of his entire career. Away to Exeter, wearing the coveted 32 shirt, he hit the bar early on when it seemed easier to score and then scuffed a lovely cross for Lambert to equalise. Rickie then scored again in the 90th minute in front of an away end that was about 4 rows deep. One of my favourite away games, thanks in no small part to Dany N'Guessan. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_2/9377234.stm He only played about 5 more games and ended his illustrious career in 2017 playing in Norway for IK Start.

IMO its not must win to stay up but it is must win if we want to somehow get into April in a relatively comfortable situation. We are in the middle of four games versus direct rivals and haven't won either of the first two. If we don't win then, given the respective fixtures in the next 5 or so, Cardiff will likely go ahead of us during that period. Its as big as the Huddersfield game in December IMO - and that totally changed the fortunes of both teams.

Seems clear to me that we are missing a football administrator, i.e a replacement of kinds for Les Reed even if given a slightly different remit. Currently, aside from the Manager we have: Ralph Krueger - brought in to grow our presence in North America but inexperienced in football (soccer) Ross Wilson - Head of Recruitment who has overseen a spell of largely terrible recruitment and almost laughable failed transfer windows. Does anyone have any real faith that these two will deliver the change that is required to our squad this summer? I have total trust in RH, I think he gets our shortcomings and knows what is needed to be competitive in the PL. However, he can suggest and ask for certain things, but ultimately we have two specialists in failure that will be tasked with delivering it. Would feel more comfortable if we apppointed, shortly, a more experienced football administrator. Krueger suggested there would be some change in thenrecent fans forum - to hit the ground running in the summer it is needed ASAP.

By an absolute mile. If he gets injured we are in big trouble. Assuming we stay up we really need to get his contract extended. Will be interest in him for sure.

We aren't good enough to leave him out when he is fit.

This. Good revival but if we want to be comfortable in April and May then we have to win. Hopefully Bertrand comes back in - we aren't good enough to not pick our best players.

Personally would prefer a Palace win. They won't be going down in my opinion. Better for Fulham to get as few points as possible.

In addition we are still liable for the transfer fee installments of Carillo, Hoedt, Boufal etc until we have paid what we contractually agreed to. The fees don't go away just because the players do.

I make it about 3 weeks full training he has had. Missed about 2 and half months but not exactly coming back from an ACL operation. RH vague when asked in yesterdays presser. Said he needs to get match fit but when asked how without playing matches he kind of sidestepped the question and talked about intense training. I have a feeling Targett will play til the end of the season and we will look to sell Bertrand in the summer. Personally really like RB and think Targett consistently struggles at PL level but one is an Academy player and the other isn't. Club will probably feel they can save on Bertrand's wages.

A weird one. Nice to be ruthless regarding the outgoings. The only arguable one there is Cedric - as we are left with raw options and little cover. Otherwise - good work. Shame we couldn't shift Austin. Incomings...odd. i just don't trust Ross Wilson to get deals done. Throughout the window RH has said he expected us to be active and a couple of weeks ago said we would definitely get one player. Wonder what went wrong? Wonder if it has ****ed off our best Manager in ages? Also wonder what will happen to the £200k + a week that we have saved in wages - will this be reinvested next season? Or will it disappear? Overall - we are unquestionably weaker than in December squad wise, but our team is playing well and hopefully have enough to get to the summer and have a major rebuild. Our best signing has been Hassehutl, without whom we would be ****ed.

So from Ralph's comments he clearly expects somethig to be done....over to wee Ross and the hockey lad. Boost this roster.

Would be amazed if we committed to more summer spending now, given we already have Ings on that basis. Expecting no ins and no outs personally. If we don't want to loan out Gallagher and Austin doesn't go anywhere permanently then we would have six strikers already (Redmond, Ings, Long, Austin, Obafemi, Gallagher) so no room for another.

Hodgson tactically schooled us. Made it impossible for us to attack through the middle and feed Redmond and Ings. Very happy to let Valery and Targett have the ball and they are our two weak links. The sooner Bertrand is back in the team the better. Overall good result as we were so poor, but hope RH has learned from that as the other teams at the botrom will setup similarly at St Mary's - we need to be better at creating against these kind of teams. Nobody was good, but JWP less poor than others second half and kept a cool head for the goal.