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Posts Tagged ‘world’

• Argentina midfielder keen to join Internazionale
• Mascherano set to be reunited with Rafael Benítez

Javier Mascherano returned to pre-season training at Liverpool yesterday, accompanied by his agent, and told Roy Hodgson that he wants to leave Anfield.

The midfielder’s request will have come as little surprise to the manager. Rafael Benítez, Hodgson’s predecessor at Liverpool, is trying to sign the Argentinian for Internazionale and Mascherano has spent several weeks agitating for a transfer. His agent, Walter Tamer, has stated that it would be a “dream” for his client to move to San Siro.

Mascherano, who has been unsettled at Anfield for some time, missed Liverpool’s pre-season training camp because he was given time to recover from the World Cup. Hodgson is expected to demand at least £25m for the 26-year-old, who was Argentina’s captain in South Africa.

Hodgson is more concerned about the possibility that Fernando Torres could also leave the club, with Chelsea leading the hunt and Manchester City having renewed their interest since Benítez’s departure for Inter.

Jamie Carragher, though, believes the Spain striker, currently recovering from a groin injury he suffered in the closing minutes of the World Cup final, will join Steven Gerrard in deciding to be part of the Hodgson era. “I’m sure that Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres will still be involved at the club next season,” the defender told Zoo magazine. “If they are, then the aim for Liverpool must be to get back into the Champions League.”

They finished seventh in the Premier League last season and the 32-year-old said: “Liverpool aren’t a club like Real Madrid, who can just throw £100m at it if we don’t win the title. For clubs like Real Madrid and Inter, it’s a disaster if they don’t win the league, so they go out and spend big money on new players. Liverpool can’t do that – we have to build.

“Next season, rather than thinking too much about the title, we have to concentrate on getting back into the top four. It’s a rebuilding process again and hopefully we can get ourselves right up there.”

A key position for Liverpool to fill is left-back – Fábio Aurélio was released at the end of his contract and Emiliano Insúa is on the verge of joining Fiorentina – during a period of financial hardship that, in the words of Carragher, has shrouded the club in “a lot negativity and it’s been like that for a while”.

But the club denied they were set to sign Royston Drenthe from Real Madrid after the Dutchman posted a message attributed to his Facebook page saying a move to Anfield was imminent. “I will soon be joining Liverpool,” the message says. “I hope I will have a good season with my new club.”

Drenthe is among the players José Mourinho would allow to leave the Bernabéu. The former Holland Under-21 international, who can play as a full-back or winger, is a close friend of Liverpool’s Ryan Babel but Hodgson does not appear to regard him as the solution at left-back. He has failed to fulfil the potential of his early years at Feyenoord since a €14m move to Madrid three seasons ago, at the age of 20.

Liverpool’s new signing Milan Jovanovic says the players are keen to get the season started on Thursday, when they play a Europa League qualifier against Rabotnicki in Macedonia. “I know we will be ready to play in Europe,” he said. “I am really looking forward to it. For all players all over the world, you have to be proud when Liverpool come for you.”

LiverpoolFernando TorresJamie CarragherTransfer windowDaniel Taylorguardian.co.uk

• Liverpool manager fears burnout ahead of tough season
• FK Rabotnicki ties will be ‘unbelievably difficult’

August is still a week away and Roy Hodgson has yet to oversee his first competitive game at Anfield but, already, Liverpool’s new manager is talking darkly of burnout and “unbelievably difficult” challenges ahead.

The first arrives on Thursday in Skopje, the Macedonian capital, at the home of FK

• Hodgson told it would be ‘very foolhardy’ to field tired players
• ‘You have to follow the guidance,’ Liverpool manager says

The Liverpool manager, Roy Hodgson, may have to choose a squad for the club’s Europa League third qualifying round tie without any of the players who appeared in the World Cup.

Hodgson today said he would not risk damaging the club’s Premier League campaign for the sake of progress in Europe. The Reds face either the Macedonian side Rabotnicki or Armenia’s Mika in their Europa League third-round qualifier, with the first leg to be played at Anfield on 29 July and the return on 5 August.

“Possibly none of our World Cup players will play in the early Europa Cup games if we listen to the advice of the sports science people,” Hodgson said. “They are telling me we would be very foolhardy to use players who have only been training for three or four days on the back of the World Cup that early on because that will affect us further on down the road.

“If we feel we are endangering our chances of doing well in the Premier League by risking players in the early stage of the Europa League, it will be a decision the club will have to take. You have to follow the guidance.”

Liverpool’s England contingent of Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher and Glen Johnson, Denmark’s Daniel Agger and Slovakia’s Martin Skrtel will return to individual programmes at the club’s Melwood training ground in the coming days while a squad made up largely of reserves are still at their Switzerland training camp.

The Argentina duo of Javier Mascherano and Maxi Rodríguez are due back a week tomorrow while Spain’s World Cup winners Fernando Torres and Pepe Reina, and the Dutch beaten finalists Dirk Kuyt and Ryan Babel, will not return until after the first leg.

“Their [medical staff's] advice is to not use these players,” added Hodgson, who will have his new signing Milan Jovanovic available. “If we have enough players to put a team out without them is another question. Things can happen before 29 July.

“We will not be speculating on that and there is no point in me making predictions of what the team will be like for that game. The sports science people are advising me not to use the players from the World Cup. Therefore new signings would become important for the Europa League.”

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