Tim Sherwood: QPR have more 'men' than Aston Villa

Sherwood's Villa are desperate for a win against QPR. Credit: PA

Tim Sherwood has urged Aston Villa to man up as he labelled their clash with relegation rivals QPR the club's "biggest game" for years.

They host Rangers on Tuesday with Sherwood admitting he does not have the players to grind out results.

Victory would move Villa five points clear of the Premier League drop zone but they will return to the bottom three if QPR, three points behind with a better goal difference, win.

"I think this is the biggest game that a lot of these players have ever played for this football club," Sherwood said, with Villa in 17th.

"This is without doubt the biggest game of the season for Villa and possibly one of the biggest in a number of years.

"This is the biggest (of my managerial career)."

But the boss believes he must instil a different mentality into his players as he tries to keep them in the top flight.

"We've got different types of players, you look through QPR's side and they've got a lot of players who are men - with a lot of experience in there," he said.

"We've got a few men in there - but we've got a lot of pretty much icing-on-the-cake players and I'm trying to get that mentality into them to forget about digging out results. It's not what we're cut out to do.

"I haven't identified many players who can't cope with the pressure, but you don't know until they get out there.'