IT may be nearly 40 years since Bill Shankly declared the domestic league campaign as Liverpool’s “bread and butter”, but the maxim remains true to this day.
Just ask Roy Hodgson. The circumstances may be somewhat different – Shankly’s comments came in the wake of a championship and UEFA Cup double – but it is with one eye firmly on the Premier League that the Anfield manager approaches tonight’s Europa League qualifying play-off first leg against Turkish cup winners Trabzonspor.
That Liverpool are even in the competition in the first place is testament to the travails of the previous campaign that saw Hodgson parachuted in to club.
Of course, having guided Fulham to the final of the Europa League in May, the 62-year-old has recent experience of the effects a lengthy European run can have on domestic efforts.
And with Monday’s testing trip to title-chasing Manchester City sandwiched between both games against Trabzonspor, Hodgson admits Premier League points will take precedent over Continental aspirations.
It’s why skipper Steven Gerrard is among several players that started Sunday’s 1-1 draw against Arsenal who will miss out this evening, with Javier Mascherano nursing a calf strain and Daniel Agger yet to fully recover from concussion suffered at the weekend.
