LFC.TV: Roy's Europa preview

Liverpoolfc.tv:

Roy Hodgson admits he will face something of a balancing act to keep Liverpool fighting on all fronts if they're to progress in Europe this season.

The Reds take on Trabzonspor in the first leg of the Europa League play-off tie at Anfield this evening aiming to take a big step towards the group stage of the competition.

It's a tournament Hodgson holds fond feeling for, having guided former club Fulham to the Hamburg final last term against all odds.

However, he acknowledges an extended European jaunt - in addition to the international scheduled - can have a knock-on effect on a team's domestic aspirations, such is the demand it places on players.

But the manager will be doing all he can to ensure that does not happen at Anfield this season.

"I had a good squad at Fulham and we didn't have too many injuries, so I was quite fortunate in that respect," Hodgson told a pre-match press conference.

"But, quite frankly, if you're at a club like Liverpool or Fulham, you've got a lot of players playing international matches and I think asking a player to play 70 matches a year is totally out of the question.

"I don't think any club can carry the strength or depth of squad to deal with 70 matches, so you'd need an awful lot of luck to go all the way.

"I thought last year's experience with Fulham in getting to the final cost us several places in the league."

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LFC.TV: Roy on Arsenal

Liverpoolfc.tv:

Roy Hodgson was full of praise for the battling performance of his Liverpool players - but admitted to being left frustrated by the manner of the 1-1 draw with Arsenal at Anfield.

With the scoreline still goalless, Joe Cole was sent off on his league debut for the Reds on the stroke of half-time after a challenge on visiting centre-back Laurent Koscielny, who himself was later dismissed for a second bookable offence.

Nonetheless, David Ngog fired the hosts into an early second-half lead - but Pepe Reina's 90^th-minute own goal rescued a point for the Gunners.

Hodgson told a post-match press conference: "It was a fantastic effort but points are hard to come by in the Premier League and when you get so close, you can't avoid the feeling of disappointment.

"Maybe that second-half performance deserved all three points and not just one, albeit if at half-time someone had said we'd get a 0-0 or 1-1 draw I probably would have accepted that.

"But to concede so close to the end to a rather scrappy goal was tough on us. The boys did everything they could do and it was an excellent game of football. I hope the fans enjoyed the spectacle.

"It was a wonderful goal (by Ngog). It was a good piece of pressurising between Glen Johnson and Dirk Kuyt to set him up and David took the chance superbly. We had a couple of other chances in second half as well. Both goalkeepers were called into action and there were goal-mouth incidents at both ends.

"We were playing with nine men for a short period of time towards the end after Danny (Agger) had to go off with concussion and unfortunately the game lasted just four or five minutes too long for us."

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