Roy Hodgson today played down his proud achievement of becoming the first Liverpool manager to win his opening five European games after Thursday night's 4-1 victory over Steaua Bucharest.
"It is a proud night but I must emphasise that the first two matches were qualifying matches for the Europa League," Hodgson told Liverpoolfc.tv.
"To really start saying I've done something special as Liverpool manager I would need to win the next couple of European games and beyond."
The Reds boss instead preferred to praise his much changed line-up who produced an excellent performance to start their Europa League group stage in style.
"I was pleased with the team," he added.
"We got a great start which was good pressurising from the team and we showed the right intent. We got the early reward.
"After that our opponents showed how skilful they were and kept the ball quite well. They didn't really cause us that many problems defensively, but having said that we had to work very hard.
"I thought the movement from our midfield players was very good and in the second half it paid off for us."
Hodgson also revealed David Ngog had volunteered in the dressing room before the game to take a penalty, and the boss was delighted to see his confidence pay off when the Reds got a spot-kick at the Kop end.
"It was good to see David score the penalty," he added.
"He regards himself as a penalty taker and he volunteered to take it in the absence of Steven Gerrard, so we were pleased to give him the responsibility and he took it with great aplomb.
"We scored some good goals and created lots of opportunities. I'm delighted with the people that came into the side because they all came up trumps.
"For us the league is of vital importance and because we've got so many players playing international football we have to give them a break from time to time because I fear by Christmas if we didn't some of them would be burnt out - particularly those that went to the World Cup.
"It's great for me to see that the players who came into the side against Steaua can do the job."
The manager also had words of praise for Raul Meireles who enjoyed his first 90 minutes in red colours at Anfield.
Hodgson added: "He's a quality player and we need quality players at this club.
"We hope the more we work with him and the more he gets to know us that he will give a lot of quality to the side."
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