Monday 20 October 2014 13:19, UK
Harry Redknapp says Eduardo Vargas can save QPR from relegation to the Championship.
Chile striker Vargas twice thought he had rescued a point for Rangers in Sunday's extraordinary clash with Liverpool, only for Steven Caulker's dramatic late own goal to hand the Reds a 3-2 victory.
The result leaves QPR bottom of the Premier League but Vargas’ performance – and that of fellow-striker Bobby Zamora - gave Redknapp a reason to be cheerful.
The Rangers boss admits Vargas will be in his first-choice starting XI from now on and said: "I've got no doubts we'll be okay and that we'll stay up.
"And the little boy Vargas has given me even more confidence. To see him come on and get two goals, when he got two for Chile as well in midweek: he's a goalscorer.
"And he nearly scored another at the end with Skrtel, when he was coming in to dive in and head it.
"He'll score goals and he's going to be a big asset for us. It's going to be difficult to leave him out of the team."
Vargas came off the bench to replace Zamora - who also caused Liverpool real problems on Sunday afternoon.
Redknapp was full of praise for Zamora too, and his comments suggest Charlie Austin may be dropped to the bench for their next game.
"They couldn't play Bobby could they? That was our plan," said Redknapp. "I thought we played good football when we had to, dropped it up to Bobby and joined him when we had to.
"He was unplayable I thought for 70 minutes. They are a good group of lads, and they deserved something out of that game. I just feel sorry for them, they gave everything."
A frustrated Redknapp bemoaned QPR's injury run, with Rio Ferdinand picking up a groin issue and Sandro suffering a recurrence of his original groin strain too.
"Jordon Mutch came in, who I think is going to be a top player, but we can't get him fit at the moment, he's got a hamstring (injury), so he can't play," said Redknapp.
"Sandro's got a groin (problem) again, he came off on Sunday; it's been difficult to get a settled team.
"Joey Barton's out, has been for six, seven weeks, it's been difficult getting people fit. Rio had a groin problem as well, he had an injection in the week and hadn't trained."
