Roy Hodgson has defended Liverpool’s start to the season as he prepares to rotate his squad for the Europa League tie at home to Steaua Bucharest on Thursday (Liverpool – correct score 3-0 – 7/1).
Hodgson has come in for some criticism for the Reds’ slow start to the Premier League season – his side have won just one of their first four games – but the former Fulham chief is satisfied with the way his tenure has begun overall.
Liverpool have successfully negotiated two qualifying rounds of the Europa League to make it into the group stage and a record of five wins from eight competitive games in total means the boss is upbeat ahead of the Anfield clash against the Romanian side.
“We’ve played eight, won five, drawn two and lost one so far in all competitions – I don’t think that’s a bad start to the season by any stretch of the imagination,” he said.
“It’s a new team and a tough start to the season in terms of the programme. Like lots of teams at the moment, we’ve got less points than we would like and we’re firmly stuck in a group of teams between four and six points, which basically takes into account 90 per cent of the league at the moment.”
On this evening’s game, where Hodgson could bring back Joe Cole (9/2 first goalscorer), Ryan Babel, Sotirios Kyrgiakos and hand Raul Merieles his first start, the Liverpool chief admits he will make several changes.
“I shall make changes to the team for the game against Steaua. There’s no question of that – it’s something I’ve planned all along.
“I don’t think there is any point of having a squad of 25 players, many of whom are internationals, and then just trying to play the same 11 every game.
“It’s going to be important to keep everybody on board and it’s also important for me to get to know players better. I learn a lot from games and I learn a lot about the players because I’ve not had an awful lot of time working with some of them who were at the World Cup.”
Next up for Liverpool is one of the games of the season with a Premier League trip to take on bitter rivals Manchester United on Sunday.
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