ROY HODGSON is threatening to further clear the decks at Liverpool as warned players who have nothing to offer the first team risk being shipped out of the club.

Hodgson has already overseen a vast reshaping of the “unbelievably over-staffed” squad inherited from predecessor Rafael Benitez since taking over at the start of July.

Alberto Aquilani, Emiliano Insua, Philipp Degen and Nabil El Zhar have left on loan while Albert Riera, Diego Cavalieri, Krisztian Nemeth and Damien Plessis have departed on permanent deals, along with wantaway duo Javier Mascherano and Yossi Benayoun.

The cuts have also affected areas beneath the reserve team, with Lauri Dalla Valle and Alex Kacaniklic exiting in the swap deal that brought Paul Konchesky to Anfield.

And Hodgson says there is no place at the club for any players simply treading water without ambition or sufficient standard to break into the senior side.

“We were unbelievably over-staffed when I came to the club and, if the truth be known, we still are over-staffed,” said the Liverpool manager.

“It was just as big a job making sure some of the players who never feature for the first team move on and that we limit our squad to players who are either in the frame to play first-team football or who have a bright future who are still anxious to play academy and reserve team football.

“We don’t want that middle group who are too old for reserve football but are not serving any purpose for the first team because they never feature.”