Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has defended his starting line-up for the Champions League game with Real Madrid.
The Reds boss was heavily criticised by the club’s fans for selecting several fringe players and leaving the likes of Steven Gerrard, Raheem Sterling, Jordan Henderson and Mario Balotelli on the bench.
But, he insists that he was not resting players for the upcoming game with Chelsea, although he admitted that the Premier League was his priority during the build-up to Tuesday night’s 1-0 defeat.
“I knew what I was doing, I knew what the team would be tonight in order to hopefully get the result, we’ve seen that we nearly got that, we certainly got the performance,” he told ITV. “We’re disappointed with the result but performance-wise there are many positives. Some of the young players did very well, they’re adapting to Liverpool, and we’ll take the positives from the game.
“There’s every chance [we can qualify], that’s what we probably looked at [losing to Madrid]. We felt we would need to win at Ludogorets and we were hoping then that it would come down to the last game against Basel at home, that hopefully will be the case. We’ve got some important games before that but at least it’s in our hands.”
Rodgers also countered his comments prior to kick-off about fans being disappointed at the starting eleven.
“I think [disappointment] is maybe understandable, because I think most people read into names on a team-sheet, but I’ve got to manage a squad that’s got seven games in 21 days and we’ve had a real tough one tonight.
“We didn’t rest players for Saturday, I picked what I thought was a team that could get the result for us tonight and I think the performance showed that. We might have lost 5-0 [with a different XI], I had every confidence that the players tonight would do well and I don’t think that any of the other players tonight would’ve put in the performance that we put in.
“I think it’s the first game since the Super Cup that Cristiano Ronaldo hasn’t scored in, so it shows you how well we defended and I think our possession in the game was very good.”
