LIVERPOOL -- Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers insists he does not need a victory over Chelsea on Saturday to justify his team selection against Real Madrid.
Rodgers made seven changes for Tuesday's Champions League Group B match at the Bernabeu, with captain Steven Gerrard and winger Raheem Sterling among those surprisingly on the bench.
Liverpool's manager revealed that he wanted to protect Gerrard's hamstring ahead of Chelsea's Premier League visit to Anfield. And he also indicated that he feels qualification for next season's Champions League takes priority over a long run in this season's competition.
He suggested that critics of his selection on Tuesday were being "unfair" to his players, and that football managers have to deal with "reality" rather than "Fantasy Football" and "picking teams on a computer."
Asked if he needed to beat the Premier League leaders to back up his decision to make so many changes in midweek, Rodgers said: "I don't have to, no. I think the players justified the team I picked the other night. They played very well.
"Managers up and down the country are dealing in the reality of being a manager. It's not Fantasy Football. It's not sentiment, it's not picking teams on a computer. We've got to deal with the reality of players and physical condition, and the tactics going into a game.
"Bear in mind that we're in a period of seven games in 21 days. You'll have seen teams this week that didn't make any changes, and still lost. We went really close in the game."
Rodgers said that his decision to start with Gerrard on the bench was driven partly by a wish to preserve his 34-year-old captain by ensuring he does not play too much football.
He told a news conference: "I think it was probably hard for you guys because you're not privy to some of the information that I have in relation to the team. You probably wouldn't have known that Steven had a scan on his hamstring on the Monday before we travelled out. But it was always in the plan where he was at in terms of his games."
He also launched a defence against the many critics who claimed his selection in Madrid was disrespectful to Liverpool's European traditions, but made clear that domestic league success has to be his priority.
He said: "What's key for this club is that we keep it at as high a level as it can be. For me, that's about fighting first and foremost domestically and -- also aligned to that -- competing in European football, which is where the great history of this club was formed.
"For me, it's important to ensure that the club, after a five-year absence, can retain its position at that level, and that's what we're striving to do."
Rodgers claimed that, while he had no problem dealing with criticism of him over team selection, he felt it was unfair to his players. He said: "I don't look into the criticism so much, because any criticism that comes is a part of what you take as a manager.
"But for the players, I didn't think it was fair, because to call Kolo Toure a reserve, or Lucas Leiva a reserve, or Adam Lallana a reserve player... I thought those boys put in great performances.
"I felt they deserved more praise than the criticism that came about the team selection. The idea was to make sure we stayed in the game for 60 to 65 minutes, control as much of the game as we could, and then in the last 20 to 25 minutes, open up the game with the quality of Steven's passing, Raheem's speed and Phil Coutinho's creativity.
"That's sort of how it worked out for us. Unfortunately, just towards the end, we couldn't get a goal."