Roy: It is a very sensible decision they have made

Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson has thanked FIFA and UEFA for their decision to shift international matches to Friday and Tuesday nights. The Reds boss believes it gives clubs more time to prepare their teams for matches just after the international break:

“A day is a day and an extra day helps enormously. In the past it has been very problematic when our game has been on a Saturday because players played Wednesday and then sometimes didn’t get back until the Friday, so you’d hardly see them before a game. This week we got most of the players back on Wednesday which gave us Thursday, Friday and also Saturday to prepare. It’s a huge advantage and a very sensible decision that FIFA/UEFA have made and I think we thank the elite coaches who go to these assemblies every year for making the suggestion and having the suggestion adopted.”

Hodgson also thanked the Spanish coaching staff for managing the fitness of Fernando Torres:

“I spoke to the coach, Vicente del Bosque through Fernando Hierro and luckily they listened to my plea not to over play him. They explained it wasn’t possible for him to skip the trip. If he’d done that then a lot of other big name players, like Xavi, Iniesta, Fabregas might have wanted to skip it as well. Through fairness they felt obliged to take everybody, but the fact he played no part in the game hopefully means he will come back in good shape and be able to work with us instead.”