Brendan Rodgers: 'Rest will help Liverpool players against Manchester United'

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers believes that the rest his regular first-team players enjoyed in midweek will help them against Manchester United at Anfield in the Premier League on Sunday.

Steven Gerrard, Luis Suarez, Pepe Reina, Daniel Agger, Martin Skrtel and Joe Allen all were left out of the Reds' trip to Switzerland for their Europa League opener against Young Boys on Thursday.

"I think they will hopefully benefit a lot from not having to travel," Rodgers told Liverpool's official website.

"Obviously they continued to work, but as we saw against Manchester City, we'd rested a number of players for the trip to Hearts, and in that game the players were fresh and put in a very, very good performance.

"We left a number of players behind and a lot of them will be involved in Sunday's game from the start, and we're really looking forward to seeing them put in a fresh, energetic performance."

Liverpool are currently third from bottom in the league table with just two points from four matches.