Liverpool have taken a relatively inexperienced party of 20 over to Macedonia for their Europa League 3rd qualifying round meeting with Rabotnicki Skopje.


Though have been able to include a sprinking of recognised first team players amongst the squad from which Roy Hodgson will select his first competive side.



This includes a number who have been out at the World Cup. Martin Skrtel, Daniel Agger and Sotirios Kyrgiakos are amongst that number but given the nature of the squad a large number of debuts seem inevitable.


Those who could make a bow include new signings Milan Jovanovic, Danny Wilson and Jonjo Shelvey.


Despite a slight knee problem Alberto Aquilani has been declared fit.


Though Hodgson said he could not rule out including the quartet to represent England in South Africa Steven Gerrard, Joe Cole, Jamie Carragher and Glen Johnson have remained on Merseyside to continue their pre-season preparations.


So too Maxi Rodriguez and Javier Mascherano.


Despite acknowledging the Argentina captain has asked to be allowed a move Roy Hodgson insists Mascherano will be treated no differently to any other player at his disposal when selecting teams.


Though the Liverpool boss admitted there was no prospect of the English quartet being called upon for this journey.


"We were never close to that because they have only been training for four days," he said.


"It would have been folly to try to play 90 minutes' football in an important competition in difficult conditions with players who have only been training for four days."


Though Hodgson did confess some of those under his charge have been asked to come back quicker than preferred adding: "We have pressed one or two players into service who were back one or two days earlier than that.


"But in an ideal world we would not have used any of the players that played in the World Cup.


"Quite frankly, we are not in a strong enough position to do that."





Rabotnicki from: Bogatinov, Belica, Sekulovski, Dimovski, Muarem, Carlos Z, Todorovski, Adem, Gligorov, Tunevski, Wandier, Kandikjian, Marcio, Silva, Carlos R, Petkovski, Misevski, Sinkovic





Liverpool from: Cavalieri, Aquilani, Agger, Jovanovic, Kyrgiakos, Lucas, Wilson, Ngog, Spearing, Darby, Shelvey, Kelly, Skrtel, Eccleston, Ayala, Hansen, Gulacsi, Amoo, Dalla Valle, Ince.



Kick off is at 8pm on Thursday evening.

Is anybody else tired of hearing from Roy how supposedly shite we're going to be tonight? I know we've got a half arsed team out but for fuck sake we're playing a pub team from Macedonia. Wouldn't do him any harm to speak positively about his new club and its young players who may well need to be called up on in the near future given the size of our squad.

Roy is telling it how it is.
We have a shite squad due to penny pinching by the Yanks.

Good for Roy. He's impressing me. He's not a yes man.

Proving what we all knew - The manager is not the problem at LFC.

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SOS 3489
http://www.spiritofshankly.com

I think its good not to lull ourselves into a false sense of security.You only have to look at what happened to Ingurland at the world cup to see what trying to convince yourselves of how good you are can do to a team.It must be hard to find the balance between confidence and over-confidence.

What happened to Ingurland?

They are a top-16 team at best. They played a top-8 team in the last 16 and lost.

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SOS 3489
http://www.spiritofshankly.com

FUCK ENGLAND

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Though a quarrel in the streets is a thing to be hated, the energies displayed in it are fine; the commonest man shows a grace in his quarrel.

SOS 2762

Telling it how it is? He's almost saying we shouldn't be surprised if we get turned over which is complete bollocks. Don't get me wrong, he's impressed me too (and I didn't want him here) but to suggest this is a tough tie we should almost be grateful coming home without a defeat doesn't quite sit right with me.

Im with Danny on this tell, it how it is and the yanks might not like it.

* adjusts tie. Sits Smugly.

darmonds agrees with me.

_________________
SOS 3489
http://www.spiritofshankly.com

We won convincingly, never were that lot going to get any sort of result. And him saying we might struggle is nothing to do with getting at the Yanks!? I don't get that point at all.

Anyway, we're on the march....