Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson stated in his new conference yesterday that he sees the Europa League as a secondary concern to the Premier League this season:
“If you are going to prioritise, you have to prioritise the Premier League over the Europa League, always. You’d like to do well in both, but if you were forced to choose one to prioritise, you’d always prioritise the Premier League – and I think that would possibly even go for teams playing in the Champions League.”
A trophy is a trophy at the end of the day though and nobody would be complaining if the Reds went on to lift the Europa League trophy in May. The big problem for any club playing in the competition is the amount of games that you have to play to win the thing. Fulham had to play 18 to get to the final last campaign, coming from the same stage as Liverpool have had to this season. Their league form did dip however. and while they finished 7th in the 2008/09 season, they came 12th last campaign as the number of European matches mounted up.
Such an inability to reconcile Premier League and European form though was said to be down to the lack of depth in Fulham’s squad. Liverpool should be able to play a competitive team in all the competitions they play in this season rather than having to chop and change like Fulham did. Roy however is considering changes for tonight’s match against Trabzonspor:
“You always have to have one eye on the Premier League games. We have got players who have played 90 minutes last week, 90 minutes on Sunday, maybe asked to play 90 minutes on Thursday, then 90 minutes on Monday, then 90 minutes on Thursday, then 90 minutes on Sunday. If you ask 11 players to do that then you are asking a lot of them. We have already lost two and I’m not sure how many more we are going to lose along the way. But we have a squad of players to deal with that.
No matter the ability of players at your disposal, the fitness of players is no different. The new Sport Science team at Anfield will be advising Roy who to play, and with the game against Manchester City in mind on Monday there is no need to risk Fernando Torres. The squad for the game against Trabzonspor tonight consists of players such as Alberto Aquilani, Dani Pacheco, Soto Kyrgiakos, Maxi Rodriguez, Ryan Babel, Danny Wilson, Jay Spearing and Christian Poulsen all of whom did not start against Arsenal at the weekend. Even though we are playing difficult opposition many of these players should be considered to start tonight; nearly all have something to prove.
Alberto Aquilani is one of those in the squad who especially needs game time. Although Joe Cole will be a certain starter because of his Premier League suspension, Aqua could replace Gerrard in the team and try to make an impact on the game and on his new manager. Maxi and Babel could play on the wings to rest Kuyt and Jovanovic, and both players would offer something different to the current first choice players. Pace and width would be the order of the day and it will be interesting to see the different style of play that would be engendered by starting the pair in contrast to the hard working, fast but centrally oriented pairing of the Serbian and the Dutchman.
Christian Poulsen could start instead of Javier Mascherano also, to give himself some much needed match practice although Lucas Leiva would be a more likely starter for me as although he didn’t play against Arsenal, he will have greater match fitness than the Dane. Kyrgiakos and Wilson could also be given chances at the back for the Reds, and especially as it is the home tie against the Turkish side, there should not be a great deal to worry about on the defensive front.
For me, the Europa League this season provides a great opportunity, if we stay in it to the groups stages that is, to give youngsters and squad members with something to prove game time, and going by Roy’s comments in recent days it looks to me that the manager subscribes to this point of view.
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I want to see Cavalieri start for the last time of his Anfield carrer.Aquilani,Maxi and Babel in my opinion should also start.Pacheco and Ngog.Roy knows more than we do so he will have a competitive starting eleven,with also a few changes.To bet the game,play Anytime scorer for Torres.
nemeth if fit should be in the squad, its madness selling him, ive not seen a better goalscoring prospect at the club, dont expect him to track back too much, he’s a poacher just the type to bring on late.
Make the changes necessary for a Man City win. I agree that a “trophy is a trophy at the end of the day.” However, putting Man City’s deep pockets in check brings an even bigger smile to my face.
What has happened so far at Anfield this summer Outs=Yossi Benayoun£5.5m, Mikel San Jose£2.7m, Albert Riera£4.3m, Philipe Degen-Loan with view to a £1m permanent deal, Diego Cavalieri£1.5m Total In-£14m Ins-Jonjo Shelvey£1.7m,Milan Jovanovic-free,Joe Cole-free,Danny Wilson£2m,Christian Poulsen£4.5m,Brad Jones£2.5m Total Out-£10.7m a small profit of £3.3m on transfer fees , what I would like to see happen in the rest of the transfer window is Outs-Alberto Aquilani£14m,Ryan Babel£8.5m,Emiliano Insua£5m,Nabil El Zhar£1.5m,Chrisztian Nemeth£2m,Damien Plessis£750,000,Charles Itandje£750,000,Daniel Ayala£2.5m Total In-£32.5m some of these players are good and could prove themselves but will we really miss any of them I don’t think so , youngsters like Nemeth and Ayala are ok but I prefer the likes of Eccelston and Kelly or Wilson and senior players like Babel and Aquilani could prove themselves with solid runs in the team but we need players who are consistent whether they are left out or not some people will argue every player needs solid runs to perform but I disagree top players perform no matter what, so know for the Ins-Rafael Van der Vaart£10m{ is available quite cheap after Real captured Ozil and he would add some much needed creativity while being versatile and being able to play anywhere in midfield}, Ashley Young£20m{ this signing in my opinion is the most important he would add so much he is what Babel could have been he has pace, creativity, trickery, two footed and good delivery , every thing you would want from a natural winger who is equally good on either side and would allow players like Kuyt and Jovanovic to play up top more often to cover for Nando while I feel N’gog is going to prove himself this year people forget he is only 21 and with players like Van der Vaart, Joe Cole, Steven Gerrard and Ashley Young behind them they would score a lot of goals, last but not least I would like to sign Paul Konchesky for £2m{ he might not start but he is a solid defender and with him in the last year of his contract £2m could prove a bargain} Total Out-£32m A lot more flare, pace creativity and most important goals for no loss of money. Roy is interested in these 3 but he will find it difficult to acquire them without raising funds but he seems to like playing Gerrard deeper with Cole in the hole behind Nando in a 4-4-1-1 system so Starting XI Reina-Johnson-Carragher-Skrtel-Agger-Kuyt-Gerrard-Mascherano-Young-Cole-Torres and plenty in reserve Aurelio, Van der Vaart, N’gog, Krygiakos, Lucas, Jones, Jovanovic, Wilson, Poulsen, Pacheco, Rodriguez, Spearing, Konchesky, Shelvey, Gulasci, Kelly, Dalle Valle, Darby, Amoo, Bouzanis, Eccelston,