Going into the last match against Newcastle Roy Hodgson ruled out a return for Stevie and the Liverpool Boss is taking a cautious approach to Saturday’s one against Fulham too. The strange thing about his comments last time were that he was saying he didn’t know where the talks of Stevie returning were coming from, when they were coming from those within the club.
Knowing the Liverpool captain like we do we’ll all know that he’ll be desperate to get back into the action and Roy says as much however the Reds Boss isn’t making any predictions about his availability for a return for the England international at Anfield, as he explained:
‘He is training hard, he trains every day and there are no days off for Steven.
‘He is desperate to get back but, with my recent history of saying things and not getting them right, I should be extremely cagey and say I have no idea if he will be there or not.’
I’ve previously said that I think Roy needs to start being a little more careful about what he says as if what he says doesn’t come off this gives people ammunition to use against him so no more “bold statements” will be made about players, having said ahead of the Utrecht match that Pepe Reina and Fernando Torres would start (when they didn’t), also adding:
‘There will be no more bold statements from me on any player, at least for the foreseeable future.’
Everyone will want Stevie back, Stevie wants to be back and Roy wants him back however if he did bring him back too soon and he broke down then Roy’s name would be mud. In many ways he’s in a no win situation as if he doesn’t bring him back then he is open to attack. In my honest opinion, given the importance of the midfielder, we’ve got to be completely sure before thrusting him back in.
Roy also has a time frame in mind for Daniel Agger, who is making progress as he bids to return from injury, however again (and rightly once more I think) this isn’t being shared for fears of this being wrong and being used against him.
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