Roy Hodgson has made it clear he is willing to sacrifice Liverpool’s Europa League campaign this season to preserve his players for their assault on an all-important return to the Champions League.
The new Liverpool boss, who reached last season’s Europa League final with Fulham, is facing his first battle with the club’s owners and will beg them not to make him play his World Cup stars in next week’s qualifier.
No rush: Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher
He knows Liverpool’s season will be judged on the Barclays Premier League campaign and their ability to climb back into the top four. but he fears there is insufficient depth in the squad to fight on all fronts.
Hodgson has already been warned by the club’s sports scientists that it is too soon to risk players who only returned to pre-season training at Melwood this week. Steven Gerrard, Glen Johnson, Jamie Carragher and new signing Joe Cole will suffer burn-out if they are rushed into action, he has been warned.
Liverpool must enter the Europa League at the same stage as Fulham last year, after finishing seventh in the league. they go to Macedonia to face Rabotnicki next Thursday, with the home leg seven days later.
Hodgson knows gambling on an inexperienced side for the qualifying matches risks a humiliating elimination from Europe that would damage the club’s finances.
Admitting he is in a ‘lose, lose situation’, he added: ‘I worry a lot about not having enough players for next week.
‘These will be two unbelievably difficult games at this stage of the season but it depends where we put the Europa League in the grand scheme of things.
‘The sports scientists tell me it would be wrong if I use the World Cup players this early, if we want to use them throughout the season. but if we don’t throw them in, then we don’t have the players with experience to play these games, so it is a cleft stick.
‘It is a balance that I cannot sort out on my own. It will be adecision for the club to take on. Where in the list of priorities doesthe Europa League come?’
Hodgson knows the dangers of embarkingon a demanding European campaign with a small squad. a year ago, hetook his Fulham squad to Vilnius for their first European tie in sevenyears. Eighteen games later they reached the final in Hamburg afterdramatic triumphs against Juventus, Shakhtar Donetsk, Wolfsburg,Hamburg and Basle.
but while Fulham had fun on their way to alosing final appearance against Atletico Madrid, they paid a price byfinishing 12th in the league last season, unable to build on theirimpressive seventh-place finish the previous year.
Talking tactics: New Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson talks with Grasshopper coach Ciriaco Sforza
Hodgson can afford no such setbacks this season. The sad legacy of Rafa Benitez’s reign is that Liverpool’s season begins more than a fortnight before the rest of their Premier League rivals kick a ball.
At Craven Cottage, Hodgson was prepared for the early start and recalled his players at the beginning of July.
At Anfield, mindful of their exertions in South Africa, the majority of the big names in Hodgson’s squad have only just started light training, while others, like World Cup finalists Fernando Torres, Pepe Reina and Dirk Kuyt, are still on holiday. in short, Liverpool are not ready for the Europa League.
And while Hodgson knows his team will be among the favourites to win it if they reach the group stage – which start towards the end of September – he will try to persuade the Anfield board that he should field the likes of Jay Spearing, Martin Kelly and Jonjo Shelvey against Rabotnicki, with the only noticeable experience coming in the shape of Lucas, Alberto Aquilani and David Ngog.
Liverpool’s latest signing, Danny Wilson, the
