Planet Swans ArchivesThe Swansea City manager is preparing his side for the first leg against Nottingham Forest on Thursday night and he admits that he has some headaches on which of his in form players he has to leave out.
Speaking to the Western Mail, Rodgers said “We have some difficult selection problems because lots of players have been very, very good – and some have been brilliant
“But one of things I learned from my time out as a manager was that sentiment means nothing. You just can’t be sentimental making a decision.
“Maybe before, in my first jobs, I wanted to give people time and maybe I gave them too much because part of my reflection when I was out of the game was that no matter what people have done or not done for you, you have to pick the team that will win the game for you.
“That’s what I’ve done for every game this season and it’s worked well for us.
“Sometimes you can be unfortunate; Garry was fantastic in the draw at Portsmouth where we looked really solid and kept a clean sheet. But he was out when we went to Millwall where it was one of our best performances away from home, especially defensively.
“And where you can change other units in the side, you have to have that defensive consistency so that’s a decision I have to make.
“One of the beauties of this season is that the competition has brought the best out of players.
“If you are going to be a top player and you want to succeed you need to have that challenge against you and that’s what we’ve got with players pushing each other."
