Young believes the battling Hoops must take four points from next two games

Luke Young believes QPR must emerge unbeaten from their matches against Liverpool and Sunderland this week if they are to stand any chance of Premier League survival.

Rangers entertain Carling Cup winners Liverpool on Wednesday night, before travelling to the Stadium of Light on Saturday, for two matches which Young says will prove pivotal to their season.

The right-back concedes that Rangers’ wretched form since Christmas has left them in a desperate position – although he believes they have enough in the locker to defeat a ‘vulnerable’ Liverpool.

Kenny Dalglish’s Reds have lost seven times away from home this season, and Young believes QPR’s striker paring of Djibril Cisse and Bobby Zamora could inflict another defeat on the Merseysiders.

“The next two games are both difficult but we need four points, minimum three,” Young told London24.com. “Going on from there I’m not sure. It’s going to go right down to the death.

“Liverpool at home is a massive game in our season. We’ve missed out in a few games where we felt we should have picked up points, so now we have to try to win where people wouldn’t expect us to.

“You hope that Liverpool have one of those off nights that they are prone to, especially this season. I’ve seen them play and they’ve been excellent, just haven’t put the ball in the net, and other times I’ve felt they look a bit vulnerable. We have to make it difficult for them and play our own game.

“There is definitely a feeling that we can go out there and put things right. The difference for us now is our attacking power up front. Even when we’re not playing so well in games it looks like we could score on the break. That always gives you the feeling that you can go out and win a game.

“Djibril Cisse and Bobby Zamora look sharp together up front; they could be the difference for us.

“We really only have ourselves to blame. Just after Christmas we ear-marked a block of five or 10 games which we felt were winnable. Unfortunately that hasn’t happened, and we face the prospect of the last 10 games where we have got to turn over some of the best sides in the league.

Young has not played since picking up a hamstring injury against Wolves on February 4, and with Nedum Onuoha filling in impressively at right-back, he accepts he must fight to win back his place.

“It was difficult for me because when the manager changed over I had kind of hit a brick wall, I had played a lot of games before Christmas and I was probably looking for a bit of a break,” he added.

“I tried to carry on, and it was inevitable I was going to get injured. I wasn’t at my best and I knew why I wasn’t, but now I’m fit and ready to go. If I get the chance I’m ready to take it.

Young might have been lining up for the visitors had he not declined a move to Anfield during the summer of 2010, when he turned down Roy Hodgson in favour of regular football at Aston Villa.

The 32-year-old insists he made the right choice. “I got the feeling that I would be going there as a squad member and that I had more chance of starting for Villa than I did for Liverpool,” he said.

Do I regret it? Not really. My roots are in London, I’m settled; all my kids are in schools. The only disappointment is where we find ourselves in the league.”

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