Hodgson Ready To Offload Fringe Players

Roy Hodgson is still looking to
further trim his Liverpool squad
despite presiding over a
considerable revamp of the
playing staff since his arrival at
Anfield.

Presented with the task of
resurrecting the fortunes of a
club that finished in seventh
under Rafa Benitez last season,
Hodgson has seen Javier
Mascherano, Alberto Aquilani,
Albert Riera, Emiliano Insua,
Philipp Degen, Diego Cavalieri,
Nabil El Zhar, Damien Plessis and
a number of youngsters leave
Anfield this summer.
In their place have come Joe Cole,
Danny Wilson, Milan Jovanovic,
Christian Poulsen, Brad Jones,
Raul Meireles and Paul
Konchesky. But Hodgson has
identified further areas in which
he hopes to make adjustments
and wants to cut out the
deadwood at Anfield.
"We were unbelievably over-
staffed when I came to the club
and, if the truth be known, we
still are over-staffed," Hodgson
said.
"It was just as big a job making
sure some of the players who
never feature for the first team
move on and that we limit our
squad to players who are either
in the frame to play first-team
football or who have a bright
future who are still anxious to
play academy and reserve team
football.
"We don't want that middle
group who are too old for
reserve football but are not
serving any purpose for the first
team because they never
feature."
One of Hodgson's notable moves
in the transfer market was to
bring left-back Fabio Aurelio back
to the club after his departure on
a free transfer over the summer.
The Reds have also signed
Konchesky from Fulham as their
first choice in the position, and
Hodgson admits his former
player at Fulham forced his
departure from Craven Cottage.
"It was difficult because Fulham
were anxious to keep him and
were against letting him go," he
said. "Our good fortune was he
was in the last year of his
contract and he made it clear
that if they didn't let him go he
wouldn't sign a new contract.
"That was useful for us because
otherwise it would have been
very difficult to get him. There
aren't many quality left-backs
around in the world, never mind
in England, so to find an English
one who can go straight into the
team without any adjustment
problems is a big advantage."