brendan rodgers
"To be successful you have to be able to lose." - Brendan Rodgers Reuters

Former England international-turned-pundit Gary Lineker wasn't so happy, to say the least, when Brendan Rodgers omitted his side's regular starters in the Reds' recent Champions League outing against Real Madrid.

Skipper Steven Gerrard, Jordan Henderson, Mario Balotelli, and Raheem Sterling were all riding the bench when the proceedings started.

"Rodgers has left out Henderson, Sterling, Balotelli, Gerrard and Coutinho at Real Madrid. He has, though, thrown in a white towel," the 53-year-old posted on his Twitter page.

"Selecting a weakened side in Europe's premier competition, especially against Real Madrid, is unbefitting of a club of Liverpool's stature."

"If I were one of Liverpool's star players, I'd be choked to be left out of a game at the Bernabeu against the European champions."

In spite of the Blancos' apparent dominance, firing 27 total shots, the Merseysiders were able to stay in the game even after conceding a goal at the 27th minute, thanks to Simon Mignolet's fine performance - saving 8 of the 9 attempts on target.

For his part, Rodgers defended his move, insisting that the selecting was made based on his objective assessment, while also returning Lineker some favour.

"I didn't see this as a big showcase game where I had to play the so-called names," said the Irishman.

"It might have seemed a gamble but for me it wasn't."

"I think the [1-0] performance says the words."

"Gary is a figure who I respect and was a top player in his day but he's never been a manager, so he has never truly understood what it is like in terms of picking players."

"I respect his opinion but I think the words were played out by my team. The performance was far from throwing the white towel in." "Right to the very end my players put in a performance befitting of the wonderful club this is. That would be my answer."

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