Houllier's snipe at Fowler

Gerard Houllier's insistence on having four top-class strikers will prove no obstacle to him letting Robbie Fowler leave Anfield.

Houllier said bluntly yesterday, after leaving Fowler out of the squad which travelled south to meet Crystal Palace in tonight's Worthington Cup semi-final first leg: 'If one striker leaves, then I will bring in another one.'

Fowler looked a forlorn figure as he drove from Liverpool's Melwood training ground, signing autographs at the gates but keeping his gaze away from the coach waiting to take his teammates to London.

Houllier said: 'Robbie is not available for the Palace game because I decided he was not. When I told him he was not travelling with the team, he was OK. But it was my decision, anyway, and you do not bother about the player's feelings.'

And, although denying Fowler's exclusion was connected to the incident last week in which the player was attacked, he added: 'Robbie would acknowledge that being outside a city centre bar at two in the morning is the wrong place and wrong time for any professional footballer. I feel strongly about that and have pointed it out, but there was no punishment in playing him in the reserves on Monday. He is not being frozen out.

'What happened to Robbie was an unprovoked attack. But he had not done anything since playing against Southampton on New Year's Day, so you have to take into account his physical condition and the fact that he needed a game to build up his match fitness.'