ROY HODGSON apologised last night for “unintentionally tricking some supporters and a few journalists” after performing a last minute about turn in his team selection.

The Liverpool manager declared on Tuesday that Fernando Torres and Pepe Reina would both start the Europa League dead rubber against FC Utrecht, but a crowd of nearly 38,000 arrived at Anfield last night to find Torres an unused substitute and Reina not even in the squad.

“I had a change of heart,” said Hodgson. “I must apologise to the reporters. I was certainly considering giving Fernando a start, I thought it would be a nice game for him and a chance for him to get his confidence back. But I also had a talk to our fitness people and they made me see sense that it wasn’t the wisest thing to do.

“We have already qualified and, if he played, he would be taking the place of a young player who needs the chance to stake his place in the team. And of course it would be very bad for us if he picked up an injury. The same applied to Pepe Reina.

“They made me see sense, I listened to the reason around me and I changed my mind. I am a bit sad that, unintentionally, I tricked some supporters and a few journalists.”

A repentant Reds manager added: “After discussions with the conditioning people in particular they persuaded me to see the error of my ways.

“I had this vision of Fernando Torres going out there and having a great 45 minutes, being good for his confidence, maybe scoring a goal and giving him a little lift.

“And I was thinking he didn’t play against Aston Villa so I wasn’t exactly bashing him and he was quite looking forward to playing,

“But when we sat down at the club in the afternoon and started to talk about it again it seemed to me that the potential disadvantages probably outweighed any potential advantage, so I regret that I misled you. It certainly wasn’t inentional.

“I didn’t need to mislead anyone. There was 40,000 tickets sold anyway before the game so there was no need to sell the game.

“I did honestly think thst this might be a good thing, but I was persuaded to see the error of my ways therefore I misled you and I didn’t mean to do that.

“The physical people told me that any game is a risk of injury and we want to do a good training session tomorrow which was another factor.

“If he’d played 45 minutes he’d be doing a warm down now instead of a major training session with the boys who are going to play against Fulham.”

The late U-turn, however, meant that Hodgson was forced to name Torres as one of the substitutes, even though he was unused.

“One of the reasons for putting him on the bench is that we didn’t have anybody else, because they’d all gone with the youth team,” added the Reds manager.

“Pepe Reina actually helped me. He did say initially after the Steaua game he would give Brad a chance in the next one, then we found out that the Australian coach was coming to the Utrecht game so Pepe was happy to step aside even though he loves to play.

“The real positive is that by reneging on my first idea to play Torres and Reina it means I’ve got through with a totally fresh team – apart from Kyrgiakos and Skrtel who played a half each – to face Fulham on Saturday.

“That if I’m being frank is the ultimate satisfaction tonight.

“If I’d had other centre-haves I wouldn’t have played either of them, either.”

After a disappointing goalless draw Liverpool ended as Group K leaders, but Hodgson picked out a handful of positives.

“This is a side which was very, very short of match practice - even the experienced players have played so few matches – and some of the younger ones were playing only their second and third matches in the first team.

“There were one or two positives - the performance of Wilson for example, Kelly and Pacheco when he came on, while Brad Jones kept a clean sheet.”

But Joe Cole endured another anonymous evening and was denied a goal by a late block.

“Players like Joe Cole play on very small margins and he actually struck the shot very well. If he’s struck it less well he might have had more success.

“He sets himself high standards. he’s an honest lad and I’m sure he’ll come off the field feeling that wasn’t the performance I wanted to give. I’m better than that and I can do better than that.

“It was just unfortunate he wasn’t able to show that tonight but it wasn’t through lack of effort or want of trying. It didn’t go his way and that can happen.”

Liverpool reported no fresh injury worries, although Utrecht striker Ricky van Wolfswinkel sustained a suspected broken collar bone after falling awkwardly after an aerial challenge.