English Premier League: Hodgson says he is facing a selection crisis
The new Liverpool manager, Roy Hodgson seems to be at odds with club’s medical staff as he faces a crisis in terms of selection for Liverpool’s upcoming matches. Liverpool play their first competitive match of the 2010-2011 season as they attempt to reach the group stages by defeating FK Rabotnicki in Macedonia.
Liverpool have had an extremely unstable off-season, they replaced their manager Rafael Benitez with Roy Hodgson. Despite winning the UEFA Champions League with Liverpool in his first season at the club and the F.A Cup during his second season, Rafael Benitez always struggled to turn the squad into a Premier League winning outfit. His closest finish to the top was a second placed finished which the reds achieved during his second last season at the club i.e. 2008-2009.
Benitez and his improper squad rotation greatly harmed Liverpool’s chances to compete simultaneously in many competitions. The former-Valencia manager was also criticized for spending money on sub standard players such as Lucas Leiva, Emiliano Insua, Albert Riera, Andrei Voronin and Dossena.
Roy Hodgson, Benitez’s predecessor at the club is still to make an impact at the club as he lost his first match with the club against a Swiss club named Grasshopper. Hodgson is still to meet club’s world cup stars such as Torres and Mascherano as well, because most of them are still on holiday and are due back in the last days of July or early august.
However, Liverpool have already done some smart business in the transfer market and have signed up Joe Cole, who fell out at Chelsea because of his extensive wage demands. Club’s captain, Steven Gerrard has also committed his future to red half of Merseyside for now.
Roy told Liverpool’s official website that the medical staff at Liverpool has told him that players returning from the World Cup namely, Mascherano, Torres, Carragher, Gerrard, Krygiakos, Johnson and Reina are not supposed to play because they need extended rest due to their participation over the earlier half of the summer in the World Cup.
Hodgson is hoping that the players will be fit enough to play for Liverpool on August 5th against Rabotnicki F.C but is also worried that he might need to use these players extensively during the later on in the upcoming season.
The former Fulham manager also told the website that, Liverpool have to be especially careful with the younger players because it is not in the club’s best interest to burn them out before the season even starts. He hinted that he might play Liverpool’s World Cup stars in the first half and then withdraw them during the second half of the match.
Hodgson is looking to add more players to his squad; one of his priorities is to fill the left back position because currently Liverpool do not have a recognizable left back in their squad as they parted ways with Insua and Aurelio recently. The former English champions have also sold Albert Riera to Shaktar Donetsk and Yossi Benayoun to Chelsea.
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