Let’s be sixy! Harry Redknapp: QPR have to play like a top-six side
Posted Saturday, December 01, 2012 by The Sun
THINKING BIG ... Redknapp speaks to the Press yesterday
HARRY REDKNAPP insists QPR must start playing like a Champions League side to avoid relegation.
Rangers sit rock bottom of the Premier League, eight points adrift of safety and without a win in their 14 games so far.
Centre-back Ryan Nelsen this week claimed they need 10 wins from their remaining 24 games to drag themselves out of the bottom three.
New boss Redknapp, who takes charge of his second game when fellow strugglers Aston Villa visit Loftus Road today, refused to set a points target.
But he insists the Londoners have to play like a side chasing a European spot. SunSport’s ’Arry said: “It’s got to be top form. We’re talking top-six or top-seven, that’s what we have to do now.
“We have given a points start to everyone and have to play catch up.
“It’s like a handicap because we are way, way off.
“It will be hard, no one is kidding themselves about that — but it’s not impossible.
“I’m optimistic. I think we can do it. I’ve not come here to age myself another 10 years.
“I think it can be done — if I didn’t, I wouldn’t have come.”
Redknapp must wait for the transfer window to open on January 1 before he can start tinkering with his Loftus Road squad.
That means he must rely on a bunch of players dogged by reports of rifts in the final weeks of Mark Hughes’ reign.
Redknapp said: “We all start together. Until somebody takes a diabolical liberty with me, they’re a part of it.
“I’ll only upset people when I leave them out, then we’ll see a change in some of their characters maybe.
“I’ve got to pick a team that will win games so I’m not too worried about upsetting people.
“They got themselves into this situation and have to get out of it.”
Redknapp insists the next six weeks will determine whether it is worth owner Tony Fernandes splashing any more of his cash — or if he should start making plans for life in the Championship next season.
Former Tottenham boss Redknapp added: “By the time January comes around we are going to know.
“We’ve got to make sure we’re not cut adrift and we’re back in there with a chance.
“What’s the point of the club spending money bringing more players in if you’re adrift?
“We don’t want that situation, they aren’t going to put themselves in a position where they are overloaded next year with a lot of big wages.
“What we do in the next six or seven games will decide where we go in January.”
Former England keeper Robert Green is expected to start in goal if Julio Cesar fails to shake off a groin injury.
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