Roy on Masch omission
Roy Hodgson has revealed that Javier Mascherano was not in 'the right frame of mind' to play in Liverpool's 3-0 defeat at Manchester City.
The Reds midfielder was omitted from the squad for the clash at Eastlands after he was the subject of a bid from Barcelona.
"Javier isn't in the right frame of mind at the moment to play," Hodgson told his post match press conference.
"His head has obviously been turned by the offer from Barcelona but unfortunately, at the moment, the fee that the club thinks is the correct fee and the fee that is being offered is very far apart. Unless that can be resolved he might be unhappy for a long time to come.
"The discussions between Barcelona and the club are being held at high club level and as a result I don't want to say things that may or may not be true.
"I have got no wish to create headlines out of the Mascherano situation and it's not the first time that these things have happened.
"In fact, we have quite a lot of clubs at the moment suffering from players being courted by other clubs and players therefore being unhappy at being required to fulfil their contracts. It has happened to us now.
"This matter has developed over the last three days."
The Reds went down to a heavy defeat after goals from Gareth Barry and Carlos Tevez (2) gave Roberto Mancini's team their first league win of the season.
Hodgson conceded his side didn't perform to their level but felt the scoreline flattered the hosts.
"It doesn't matter whether the result is harsh or not - the result is the result," he said.
"I didn't think we were under the cosh to the extent that 3-0 may suggest.
"I think we were a bit unlucky with that wonderful double save from Hart which might have got us back in the game at 2-0, but we defended poorly for the goals.
"They took their chances well. I thought they played very solidly throughout and they were very strong physically and took charge of the game.
"We were always fighting to get back into it so you just have to accept that it wasn't our night tonight, but we were unable to produce the level of performance necessary to get a good result from this game."
He added: "We are talking about two teams at a similar level, we played away from home tonight and City played well.
"Last week we conceded a goal in the 90th minute after playing for 10 men for 45 minutes of the game.
"We don't think we did too badly in that (Arsenal) game but we didn't do well tonight because we didn't get the result we wanted."
Quizzed about the return of Fernando Torres and the striker's level of fitness, the boss added: "He came back to training three weeks later than everybody else so of course he is still in the middle of a preparation period."
SOURCE
Also just saw that Masch is close to a deal with Barca, in which case, good riddance. I'm sick of this dude, TBH, and Fernando Torres says it best:
The Reds midfielder was omitted from the squad for the clash at Eastlands after he was the subject of a bid from Barcelona.
"Javier isn't in the right frame of mind at the moment to play," Hodgson told his post match press conference.
"His head has obviously been turned by the offer from Barcelona but unfortunately, at the moment, the fee that the club thinks is the correct fee and the fee that is being offered is very far apart. Unless that can be resolved he might be unhappy for a long time to come.
"The discussions between Barcelona and the club are being held at high club level and as a result I don't want to say things that may or may not be true.
"I have got no wish to create headlines out of the Mascherano situation and it's not the first time that these things have happened.
"In fact, we have quite a lot of clubs at the moment suffering from players being courted by other clubs and players therefore being unhappy at being required to fulfil their contracts. It has happened to us now.
"This matter has developed over the last three days."
The Reds went down to a heavy defeat after goals from Gareth Barry and Carlos Tevez (2) gave Roberto Mancini's team their first league win of the season.
Hodgson conceded his side didn't perform to their level but felt the scoreline flattered the hosts.
"It doesn't matter whether the result is harsh or not - the result is the result," he said.
"I didn't think we were under the cosh to the extent that 3-0 may suggest.
"I think we were a bit unlucky with that wonderful double save from Hart which might have got us back in the game at 2-0, but we defended poorly for the goals.
"They took their chances well. I thought they played very solidly throughout and they were very strong physically and took charge of the game.
"We were always fighting to get back into it so you just have to accept that it wasn't our night tonight, but we were unable to produce the level of performance necessary to get a good result from this game."
He added: "We are talking about two teams at a similar level, we played away from home tonight and City played well.
"Last week we conceded a goal in the 90th minute after playing for 10 men for 45 minutes of the game.
"We don't think we did too badly in that (Arsenal) game but we didn't do well tonight because we didn't get the result we wanted."
Quizzed about the return of Fernando Torres and the striker's level of fitness, the boss added: "He came back to training three weeks later than everybody else so of course he is still in the middle of a preparation period."
SOURCE
Also just saw that Masch is close to a deal with Barca, in which case, good riddance. I'm sick of this dude, TBH, and Fernando Torres says it best: