Star players to return at Anfield for Reds

By STUART BATHGATE
Published on Thursday 30 August 2012 00:00

BRENDAN Rodgers will restore some of his star players to the Liverpool line-up for tonight’s Europa League play-off game against Hearts and insists there will be no hint of complacency about his team, who lead 1-0 from last week’s first leg at Tynecastle.

The Liverpool manager could call on the likes of Steven Gerrard, Luis Suarez, Glen Johnson and Andy Carroll, all of whom missed the Edinburgh match. Rodgers’ selection was classed as his club’s second string by some observers, but he pointed out it still included seven internationals and said that, both then and this evening, he would choose a team designed to win the match. Lucas Leiva suffered a thigh injury in the weekend draw with Manchester City, and is expected to be out of action for two to three months. Other than that, Rodgers has a full squad to choose from, and he is sure they will apply themselves professionally to the task of claiming a place in the group stages of the competition.

“The game plan is very simple,” he said yesterday. “It’s to win. It was a difficult game last week – the atmosphere and the Hearts players were fantastic. But it was important for us to get a good result and, obviously, the win set it up nicely for us tomorrow night. Tomorrow we’ll be strong. Some of those players will come back into the game, the ones that were out. I don’t know what was written or said about our team for that game, but every side I send out respects our opposition.

“Every squad I send out, I believe can win the game, and that was the case last week. I used the opportunity to recuperate one or two players – some of those players that had played long summers. But I still had seven full internationals in the team, so we had a strong side. I put out teams to win. You’ll see the strength of our side on Thursday night. We want to go as far as we can in this competition. The most important thing just now is getting through against Hearts.”

Rodgers made it plain he was aware of the threat that Hearts could pose, and named three players by whom he had been particularly impressed during the first leg, in which the sides were separated only by an Andy Webster own goal with just 12 minutes to go.

“We’re certainly not going to be complacent,” he said. “We’re very much focused on the task, and one-zero can be a very dangerous score. I thought they did very well – the team and the crowd at Tynecastle. The crowd were brilliant and they really lifted the players up and carried them in some ways. David Templeton in behind was a threat, he has got good qualities. I thought Callum Paterson on the side did well and Ryan McGowan got forward well.”

Taken from the Scotsman