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Posts Tagged ‘daniel-pacheco’

• Liverpool manager expects he will have to rotate his strikers
• He says Babel has not fulfilled his potential at Anfield

Roy Hodgson has challenged Ryan Babel to save Liverpool the expense of signing another striker in January after conceding he must ease the burden on Fernando Torres. Torres returns to Birmingham City on Sunday, where he was withdrawn by Rafael Benítez with Liverpool being held 1-1 last season, as the club’s only fit and proven forward after Dirk Kuyt’s shoulder injury compounded the failure to sign a new striker before the transfer deadline.

Hodgson defended that decision today as he revealed that, despite claims of a £12m transfer budget in place when he arrived, “it was only after the sale of [Javier] Mascherano that it would have been possible for me to have the money available to do a transfer at a high enough level”. He added: “Quite frankly I didn’t see the players out there that really excited me to spend the amount of money those players cost.”

The Liverpool manager must now put his faith in the improving David Ngog, Babel, who Hodgson tried to offload on deadline day, and Daniel Pacheco to provide back-up for Torres until the transfer window reopens. And, despite the furore that followed Benítez’s decision to withdraw the Spain international at St