Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson's big risk

ROY HODGSON is ready to gamble with his Liverpool future by resting the clubs two biggest stars.

Hodgsons job at Anfield is hanging by a thread and he knows an upturn in results is the only thing that will spare him the axe.

But the Kop boss is willing to put hisposition on the line by leaving out big guns Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres this month.

Liverpool face a possible nine games in January and Hodgson admits he will have to wrap the pair in cotton wool.

Anfield skipper Gerrard returned from a five-week lay-off with hamstring trouble to play a starring role as substitute in the New Years Day win over Bolton.

Striker Torres, meanwhile, runs the risk of aggravating a knee injury if he is over-used in a busy fixture pile-up.

The Bolton game was the first of a January list that could extend to nine if Liverpool have an FA Cup replay with Manchester United and progress to the fourth round.

Hodgson says that he will now have to seriously consider leaving the likes of Gerrard and Torres on the bench for certain games.

He said: I think we will have to do that and have to hope that the fans and supporters understand that.

Fernando had a very serious knee injury, which seems to be in the past, but when youve had an injury theres always the little risk of re-occurrence.

And Steven, of course, is susceptible to muscle injury if he plays too many games one after the other. !

So Ive got to hope that the ones who seem to keep going the Duracell bunnies like Dirk Kuyt and Lucas can keep us going.

That can give me a chance of giving a rest to the others. Its going to be disappointing not to have them all the time.

Our good fortune is that we dont have that many injuries.

So, going into it, our squad seems quite big and we probably have a little bit more chances of changing things around than some other teams.

But if we are going to win games it is the likes of Torres, Gerrard and Pepe Reina who are the people that are going to get us up the table.


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