Sunday 19 October 2014 17:48, UK
Harry Redknapp says Queens Park Rangers paid the price for being 'naive' during the closing stages of their dramatic 3-2 defeat to Liverpool.
The home side trailed 1-0 heading into the final three minutes at Loftus Road, with Richard Dunne having put through his own goal.
A thrilling finale then saw Eduardo Vargas step off the bench to net either side of an effort from Philippe Coutinho.
We didn’t deserve that. We were fantastic today. I think we swarmed all over them from the first whistle, won every tackle and every header. I thought we were much the better team.
Redknapp believes his side, after hauling themselves back into the game on two occasions, should have looked to close things out and settle for a point.
They went chasing a last-gasp winner, though, and were made to pay as Liverpool countered and the unfortunate Steven Caulker bundled a Raheem Sterling pass into an unguarded net.
Redknapp told Sky Sports after seeing QPR miss out on the opportunity to clamber off the foot of the Premier League standings: “I don’t need anyone to tell me that they were lucky, I could see that for myself. There is no way we deserved to get beat today.
“That’s the best I’ve seen us play since I’ve been at the club, including last year in the Championship. That was the best performance I’ve seen.
“We were naïve. We get a free-kick with one minute to go. We don’t send our big men up and chip a ball into the box for them to head it out and break on us.
“We need to make sure we don’t get beat today. We have got a point, we’ve scored with a minute to go and we don’t get beat. Have a shot, if it doesn’t go in the top corner then it goes in the crowd – not a problem, we’ve got our shape, we’ll win the ball back and we’re okay. We were naïve.”
Redknapp added on the final twist in the tale which came after Leory Fer had floated a late free-kick into a crowded penalty area: “When he was going to take it, I was screaming at people to get back.
“Suddenly they’ve all gone swarming up into the box. They are all little ones, who’s going to win the header? We haven’t got Bobby (Zamora) up there and left ourselves open to a counter attack in the last seconds of the game.
“We all want to win at home but when you come back with a minute to go and score as we did, you make sure we take a point. We’ve got a free-kick, see if you can hang one up in the top corner and if it doesn’t go in, then it goes in the crowd. You don’t do what we did. You don’t get caught on the counter attack.
“We didn’t deserve that. We were fantastic today. I think we swarmed all over them from the first whistle, won every tackle and every header. I thought we were much the better team.”
Redknapp was also quick to dismiss questions about the recent speculation over his future following the game.
"I couldn't give a monkey's about speculation, if you think I'm bothered, really, about silly people keeping writing rubbish," he said.
"I'm not interested: they can write what they want. You only do what you can do, your best, that's what you can do in life.
"If it ain't good enough, it's up to other people to make their mind up. I don't go home and worry about speculation, I'm 68 nearly.
"What am I worried about? I'm not 35 with five kids trying to pay a mortgage. I do my best every day, I come in early, every morning I'm at the training ground early and I leave late at night.
"I love my job, and I do my best: I can't do any more and there ain't no one could do any better here at the moment than me, I don't think.
"I hear other names mentioned, but they couldn't do any better than what I can do, that's for sure."
