Saturday, 13th September, 2014



Raheem Sterling will feature from the start against Ludogorets Razgrad, Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has revealed.

Rodgers opted to keep Sterling on the bench from kick-off against Aston Villa today, only introducing the England winger to attempt to rescue the situation with Villa 1-0 up; Paul Lambert's men held on and won the game at Anfield.



Rodgers explained that Sterling's efforts for England in their recent international break were behind his decision, but insisted that he will throw the winger into Tuesday's Champions League clash against Ludogorets Razgrad.

"I said at the beginning of the season that I need to trust all the players we have", the Northern Irishman told a press conference after the defeat to Aston Villa.

"We've got a big couple of months – a really exciting couple of months – coming up. Looking at it, I felt this was a game we could do that. If he didn't have international football, it would have been a different case.

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"He came on and was bright. He's going to be, and already is, a big player for us, but we've built a squad here and I trust all of the players.

"As a team and a squad, we just didn't deliver today. He will certainly play on Tuesday night."

Rodgers turned to Sterling on the hour mark against Aston Villa, choosing to replace Adam Lallana with the winger.

However, the England international could not spark a Reds comeback.

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