EFL pundit George Elek believes Queens Park Rangers are the team that the bottom three will be gunning for at the moment rather than Cardiff City and Rotherham United, speaking on the Not The Top 20 Podcast.
Gareth Ainsworth's men haven't managed to secure a single league win in 2023 and have endured an unsuccessful start to life under the former Wycombe Wanderers manager.
Blackburn Rovers consigned the West London outfit to a 3-1 defeat during the latter stages of last month courtesy of two excellent assists - and the latter were unable to respond to that setback at the weekend as they suffered another 3-1 loss - this time away at Rotherham United.
Winning no points from a possible six, Ainsworth has his work cut out in his quest to secure survival with his team, with their injury situation not exactly helping their current situation.
Considering the form they have been in since the latter stages of Mick Beale's tenure and these injury woes, they are in a vulnerable position and currently sit in 20th, one point above Cardiff and seven above the drop zone at this point.
Despite the Bluebirds being below them in the table though, QPR's poor form has led pundit Elek to believe that they are the team Blackpool, Huddersfield Town and Wigan Athletic will be chasing at this point in their respective quests to get out of the drop zone.
He said [40:32]: "We know that QPR are in the midst of a terrible run of form. No signs as of yet that Gareth Ainsworth has been able to improve that.
"They’re probably the team right now that if you’re one of the three teams in the drop zone, it’s not Rotherham, it’s not Cardiff you’re looking to chase down, it’s QPR because they are the team who are basically just not picking up points at all."
The Verdict:
It's not as if they only have a couple of key players out - they have a huge number of players unavailable at the moment and with this in mind - they will probably just want to get to the international break.
However, QPR have three great opportunities to get points on the board before then when you look at their upcoming fixtures.
Slaven Bilic is under a lot of pressure at Watford following his side's poor performance against Preston North End at the weekend, so the West London side will be looking to take advantage of that.
An away tie against Blackpool also gives them an opportunity to get points on the board, although Burnley's 0-0 draw there on Saturday just goes to show that this clash at Bloomfield Road won't be easy.
Their final game before the break comes against Birmingham City, who have been inconsistent this season and could be there for the taking.
They will be disappointed if they don't come away with at least four points from those games, although they should be aiming to claim all nine despite their poor form in recent months.