Brendan Rodgers gave an injury update on Andy Carroll as he reflected on a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Hearts in the first leg of the Europa League play-off.

The manager explained how Carroll was set to start at Tynecastle on Thursday night; however, after completing a scan on his hamstring, he was withdrawn from the side as a precaution.

"Andy was due to start but he had a slight twinge in his hamstring and he had a scan on it," said Rodgers. "It didn't show a tear, he just has a slight disruption.

"We tried to give him 48 hours. He travelled up here, he trained yesterday and it was still a bit tight. The medical advice was that it was still too much of a risk for him to play. It was unfortunate because he has worked well and he was desperate to play.

"Hopefully missing the game tonight will allow him to be fit and recover for the weekend."

An Andy Webster own goal means the Reds take a 1-0 advantage into the home leg of the play-off at Anfield in a week's time.

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And Rodgers admitted that whilst he was delighted with the overall performance of the side, he was most pleased with the way the players' positional play improved over the course of the game.

"It was a good win for us," said Rodgers. "In the first half we showed some good moments. But I think there was a problem with our positioning. If you are going to have good possession you've got to have good positioning on the pitch and I don't think they had that in the first half.

"Second half we were much better. There was good tactical discipline in the team, we worked the ball better from side to side to try and penetrate and that led to the goal which was a well-worked move.

"We've got an awful lot of work to do but I was delighted for the players tonight. I thought the commitment was great and when they got the positioning right in the second half, I thought they were excellent at times."

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The game gave the manager a chance to hand Raheem Sterling a place in the starting line-up as well as experiment with Stewart Downing in the full-back role.

"It was great for me to see some of the players who haven't been playing as much and some of the young talents as well," said the boss. "It gave us a chance to experiment with Downing in the left back position for half an hour or so.

"We had another clean sheet as well which was important. I thought we arrived in some dangerous areas tonight but we didn't get that crucial touch in the final third.

"It was a tough game, Hearts are an excellent side. And they started the season well. The atmosphere was fantastic and it was good to get a win in a European game and now we hope to finish it in the second leg."

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