Boss wants QPR to be ruthless in survival bid

Dubai: Queens Park Rangers boss Harry Redknapp has urged his side not to be too respectful of their opponents over the remaining 12 games of the season.

Bottom of the English Premier League and seven points from safety, Redknapp’s QPR are looking to salvage around 20 points from now until May, starting with an unenviable home tie against table-topping Manchester United on February 23.

The Hoops took just four points from the first 12 games of the season under Mark Hughes, who was sacked and replaced with Redknapp in November. Since then the former Tottenham manager has guided the team to 13 points in 13 games.

There remains a mountain to climb if they are to better that with a further “six or seven wins”, according to Redknapp, who spoke to Gulf News on the sidelines of his team’s training camp at the Jebel Ali Centre of Excellence in Dubai on Wednesday.

“It’s going to be difficult, but we can’t have too much respect for anybody at the moment,” said Redknapp. “We’ve got to go out and think about what we can do to them. If we go out and worry too much about what they can do to us, we’ll drive ourselves crazy.”

Renowned for his impressive spells in charge of West Ham, Portsmouth and Tottenham, Redknapp failed to save Southampton from the drop in 2005 in circumstances markedly similar to QPR’s current predicament. He joined the Saints in November 2004 with the club on eight points from 12 games but could not beat the drop.

“It’s a massive task,” said the former candidate for England manager. “We have 12 games left to pick up 20 points in order to give ourselves a chance. It’s not impossible, so while it’s still possible we’re still in there with a chance. I’ve still got a feeling we can do it.

“I knew the club was in trouble. When you have four points in 13 games there’s obviously a problem and Mark Hughes is not a bad manager so obviously there’s something wrong.

“I think the biggest problem was that they lost Bobby Zamora and Andy Johnson at the start of the season with injury and that killed them. They were short of two big front men who would have made a big difference to them.”

In defence of his chairman Tony Fernandes, who has absorbed much of the blame for the club’s current plight, Redknapp said: “You couldn’t get a nicer guy, he’s fantastic. He’s just ended up in a difficult situation. He bought a lot of players in the summer and it just didn’t work out for him. That’s why things didn’t go well. But no one can try harder than what Tony does, I couldn’t have a better chairman.”