Liverpool cruised to a 4-1 victory over Steaua Bucharest on Thursday as we kicked off our Europa League group stage with a good win. Only three players that faced Birmingham last Sunday started this match however Roy Hodgson insists (and he’s right) that players need to be rested at stages during the season and this was a good time to do this, and the result (along with the Premier League match against ManU this Sunday) justifies his decision, as he explained:
‘I think it is important you make decisions and make them for the right reasons.
‘I had no doubt that, given the fact we have so many players who play international football, this was the moment to give them a rest and allow them to prepare properly for Sunday’s game.’
The win made Roy’s decision all the more valid however he also insisted that even had we not got the resounding win it was something (resting players) that needed to be done anyway. For the moment though he will enjoy the win and then start thinking about the decision that some players have given him having come in and performed well, as he also explained:
‘The ones who came in did a good job and got a good result and in my opinion the decision would have been just as valid even if we had not got a good result.
‘They made us work hard to contain them but even in that period Joe showed some good touches.
‘I’ll start thinking about the weekend come tomorrow. I’ll just enjoy the victory tonight.’
Joe Cole’s goal after less than 30 seconds got us off to a flyer and even though the Romanian’s drew level a double from David Ngog helped us on our way with Lucas scoring a brilliant goal as well. All three came in for praise from the Reds Boss, in particular Cole and Ngog:
‘I thought Ngog’s confidence grew after the penalty but I don’t think he looked that confident in the first half.
‘But certainly his confidence grew the longer the game went and we had so much possession in the second half that for forwards it is good when you have that much dominance in the midfield.
‘It was nice for Joe Cole to get his first goal for the club, I thought he was lively.
‘We substituted Lucas because we wanted to make certain we shored up the midfield and to give Ryan Babel a rest – the decision was made for defensive rather than offensive reasons, it is just a coincidence Lucas scored a great goal.’
This was a good warm up ahead of the ManU match however this will be completely different from their draw against Glasgow Rangers and our win here.
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