Roy Hodgson Admits He Does Not Want To Sell Javier Mascherano After Manchester City Humbling

Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson still hopes to keep Javier Mascherano at the club after the midfielder was left out of the club's 3-0 loss to Manchester City.

The Argentina international was not included in the squad and not present at Eastlands as Hodgson revealed prior to the game that his mind "isn't right" following speculation linking him with a move to Barcelona.

But Hodgson still wants to keep Mascherano on Merseyside, and hinted offers for the player are thus far below the club's valuation of one of their most prized assets.

"It'll get resolved as quick as it can get resolved, I would like Mascherano to stay, that's my wish, that's my hope," he told Sky Sports.

"We don't want to sell him, certainly we don't want to sell him for the type of fee that's being suggested at the moment.

"I'm hoping, maybe hoping against hope, but still hoping that Javier Mascherano will still play for us because he's such a good player and he'll make us into a better team."

One player definitely staying with the club for another season is Fernando Torres, who made his first start of the season in the disappointing away defeat.

Hodgson admitted the Spain striker is far from full fitness currently, and believes the best is yet to come from him.

He said: "We are forcing him [Torres] back into action earlier than we would have liked.

"He showed moments of what he's capable of but of course he's way below the type of performance he'd want to give and we know he can give, but we've got that to come."

On the game itself, in which Liverpool succumbed to two Carlos Tevez goals and a strike from Gareth Barry who nearly joined the club before settling for City, Hodgson felt his side did not deserve to lose by such a wide margin.

"I thought we were a little unlucky to get beaten so heavily," he said. "I don't think we really deserved to get beat by three goals.

"Pepe Reina wasn't called into action that often, I thought we had one or two good spells in the game and we played against a very strong and effective Manchester City side and of course they scored the goals at the right time.

"The second goal from the corner made it an uphill task for us. [Joe] Hart made that incredible double save, at 2-1 it might have put some more life back in the game.

"In the end of course we paid the price for conceding the penalty...and there's not much else to say but to congratulate Manchester City on a good performance and a good win.

"I thought we lacked the cutting edge in the box. I thought we passed the ball around quite well, I thought we lacked the cutting edge and unfortunately we lacked the organization I would have liked to prevent them getting through us down that left-hand side."

Despite the demoralizing defeat, the former Fulham boss insisted it is too early in the new Premier League season to start reading his players the riot act.