Brendan Rodgers hit back at criticism of his team selection in Liverpool’s 1-0 defeat to Real Madrid, insisting he was right to leave out so many key players and rejecting the allegation from Gary Lineker that he “threw in a white towel”.
Rodgers insisted Steven Gerrard had no problem with being made a substitute and revealed he had told the Liverpool captain a week ago he intended to leave him out of the game here. Some of the other players, Rodgers said, had been dropped because of their
performance at Newcastle on Saturday and the Liverpool manager was unimpressed to learn Lineker had described it as “
unbefitting of a club of Liverpool’s stature”.
“Gary is a figure I respect, he has been a top player, but he has never been a manager so he does not know what you’re up against with planning and training,” Rodgers said. “It was far from throwing in the white towel. Cristiano Ronaldo has scored in every one of his last 11 games so my players put in a performance that did befit this club with the quality and spirit. I think the performance says it.
“I am not really bothered by criticism. We do not have a team with a consistent run of form winning five or six games consecutively so the changes were to get a performance and result. That is what happens. As the manager you are open to criticism whether it is deserved or not – and I do not worry what people think or say, I worry about my players.
“This was my idea. I had to go with my gut feeling, and my gut feeling
