Raheem Sterling

[DannyMan2006]

Maybe it would have been too much a risk to start him? We can't have him getting injured. Night have needed a break after playing the international games.

[G]

Pretty much what Rodgers intimated afterwards.

[Mattimetal]

I agreed with the decision to rest him as he's played 3 big games with no rest - starting with Spurs away. He actually looked a bit tired today and Brendon needs to get into his ear about this playing for Eng **** - do a Fergie & pull our players out of internationals

[gentingfrmhell]

I just don't think you can rest him with Sturridge out as well. We could probably cope without one or the other but coming off the back of a season with Suarez, we have to have at least one of our most potent attacking talents in the team. Especially until the new guys settle in.

Mario for me needs to integrate in to our system of play as he seems to drift out wide a lot, so without an attacking presence - whether being right up there with Sturridge or spring from deep with Sterling - his contributions can be limited or even negated. But I'm sure with time and allowing the other guys to settle in, Mario will be great.

In summary, without suarez, sturridge and sterling we have a toothless attack.

IMHO we need time for the new players such as mario and lalana to play together and gel, before things get back to normal.

[Fredo]

Toothless? I don't think so.

[Boogs]

They all should be made to follow Flannos example and stay behind for shooting practice

[G]

Losing Sturridge is bad enough but after him our most potent force is Sterling so to choose to leave him out when Sturridge isn't around was madness.

[Fredo]

Don't think it's madness based on the fact that Sterling needed a rest. Rodgers is doing this to protect him. Can we expect Hodgson to rest him? No.

[RedReet]

It's understandable why we rested him, but in his first season at about Christmas time, he was in poor form, seemed to lose all his pace and spark, so clearly needed resting, yet we still played him (for a while). This is the only 4th game of the season, surely he was fit enough to play 60 mins, then start him from the bench on Tue?

F*cking England, shafted us right and good.

[dom9]

The difference in the squad from two years ago until now is like night and day.

If you look through the pre match and match threads, a lot of people were happy with the attacking options in the starting line up. It just didn't click on the day m

[Fredo]

There's nothing to worry about IMO. Sterling is in great form at the moment but we have the strength in depth to cope without him. Yesterday the replacements weren't ready just yet. It will be a different story in 2 months time, with Balotelli, Lallana and Markovic all closer to match sharpness and acclimatised to the way we play.

[G]

It's understandable why we rested him, but in his first season at about Christmas time, he was in poor form, seemed to lose all his pace and spark, so clearly needed resting, yet we still played him (for a while). This is the only 4th game of the season, surely he was fit enough to play 60 mins, then start him from the bench on Tue?

F*cking England, shafted us right and good.

He's 19. It was clear he was going to be brought on so if he can be brought on he can start and be brought off if needs be. Rest him midweek.

[RedReet]

The difference in the squad from two years ago until now is like night and day.

If you look through the pre match and match threads, a lot of people were happy with the attacking options in the starting line up. It just didn't click on the day m

Well if you are suggesting that we couldn't drop him 2 years ago despite needing a rest because we didn't have good enough players to come in, then I would argue that under different circumstances he shouldn't have been dropped now either. Yes, we may have still fielded a strong line-up, but with so many question marks over the team (no Sturridge, Balotelli sick, too many new players etc.) the risk was just as big IMO.

If we rested him for fear of burn out as Rodgers has indicated, then that's fair enough, even though we seemed to push him harder in the past. I just hope we wasn't rested to keep him fresh for Tuesday, because that would have been a mistake IMO.

[G]

In any case if he does burn out by 26-27 it won't matter anyway cos he'll be playing for Madrid by then

[Fredo]

We pushed him harder in the past because he needed to prove himself. And the expectancy was nowhere near as high as it is now, so it's a completely different situation and not comparable at all.