by RED BEERGOGGLES » Thu Dec 16, 2010 3:13 pm
Dec 16 2010 by James Pearce, Liverpool Echo
I'm sorry over Torres U-turn, Roy Hodgson tells LFC fans
ROY HODGSON has apologised to Liverpool supporters for his “change of heart” regarding the selection of Fernando Torres for last night's final Europa League group game with Utrecht.
The Reds boss had vowed to start the Spaniard in the 'dead rubber' against the Dutch side, in the belief Torres needed a game to boost his confidence after a lean month.
However, Hodgson, whose side had already qualifed as group winners, was convinced by the club's sports science staff not to risk playing him. Instead Torres watched the dour 0-0 draw from the bench.
Several thousand children had been allowed in free of charge for the game at Anfield, following a gesture by new Anerican owners John W Henry and Tom Werner.
“I had a change of heart and I must apologise,” said Hodgson, who also apologised to the media for misleading them..
“I was certainly considering giving Fernando a start. I thought it would be a nice game for him but I also had a talk to our fitness people and they made me see sense that it wasn’t the wisest thing to do.
“We have already qualified and, if he played, he would be taking the place of a young player who needs the chance to stake his place in the team. And of course it would be very bad for us if he picked up an injury.
“They made me see sense, I listened to the reason around me and I changed my mind. I am a bit sad that, unintentionally, I tricked some supporters and a few journalists.”
Hodgson added: “After discussions with the conditioning people in particular they persuaded me to see the error of my ways.
“I had this vision of Fernando Torres going out there and having a great 45 minutes, being good for his confidence, maybe scoring a goal and giving him a little lift.
“And I was thinking he didn’t play against Aston Villa so I wasn’t exactly bashing him and he was quite looking forward to playing,
“But when we sat down at the club in the afternoon and started to talk about it again it seemed to me that the potential disadvantages probably outweighed any potential advantage, so I regret that I misled you. It certainly wasn’t intentional.
“There was 40,000 tickets sold anyway before the game so there was no need to sell the game.
“The physical people told me that any game is a risk of injury and we want to do a good training session tomorrow which was another factor.
“If he’d played 45 minutes he’d be doing a warm down now instead of a major training session with the boys who are going to play against Fulham.”
Hodgson also explained the absence of Pepe Reina, having said before the game that the Spaniard would also start.
“Pepe Reina actually helped me,” he said.
“He did say initially after the Steaua game he would give Brad a chance in the next one, then we found out that the Australian coach was coming to the Utrecht game so Pepe was happy to step aside even though he loves to play.
“The real positive is that by reneging on my first idea to play Torres and Reina it means I’ve got through with a totally fresh team – apart from Kyrgiakos and Skrtel who played a half each – to face Fulham on Saturday.
“That if I’m being frank is the ultimate satisfaction.
“If I’d had other centre-haves I wouldn’t have played either of them, either.”
Hodgson insisted there were positives to take from the tedious and uninspiring goalless draw.
“This is a side which was very short of match practice - even the experienced players have played so few matches – and some of the younger ones were playing only their second and third matches in the first team,” he said.
“There were one or two positives - the performance of Danny Wilson for example, Martin Kelly and Daniel Pacheco when he came on, while Brad Jones kept a clean sheet.”
However, he admitted Joe Cole had failed to shine once again.
Hodgson said: “Players like Joe Cole play on very small margins and he actually struck the shot very well. If he’s struck it less well he might have had more success.
“He sets himself high standards. he’s an honest lad and I’m sure he’ll come off the field feeling that wasn’t the performance I wanted to give. I’m better than that and I can do better than that.
“It was just unfortunate he wasn’t able to show that tonight but it wasn’t through lack of effort or want of trying. It didn’t go his way and that can happen.”
Even letting him take to the field for the last 5 minutes would have gone some way towards appeasing the Kids (and the Adults unfortunate to have actually paid to view this dross ) who had endured this torturous display ......
So what do we get yet another stomach churning apology from Mr Hodgson ...... is there anything left he can apologise for ?
Well please allow me to answer that question : Yes Roy you can offer your heartfelt apologies to the suffering supporters for ever believing you were competent, or had the capabilities to manage this GREAT CLUB ..... then you can leave us with the remnants of this season ,for a manager who wont have many reasons to be sorry .....possibly someone with a fucking clue what a top team should resemble
Last edited by
RED BEERGOGGLES on Thu Dec 16, 2010 3:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
hole at every turn know that he won't be the manager of LFC next season. 
...
