Brendan Rodgers sending England a fitness dossier on Daniel Sturridge is laughable

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Liverpool fans are right to boo me if we're not winning, admits Rodgers

Daniel Sturridge withdrew from the England squad through injury
Sturridge has not featured since picking up a thigh injury four weeks ago
Reds boss Brendan Rodgers has picked a fight with Roy Hodgson

Published: 01:32 EST, 7 October 2014 | Updated: 09:36 EST, 7 October 2014

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These are tough times for Brendan Rodgers right now, and he will need to keep the fans onside. So is this why he has openly picked a fight with the England manager?

I don't think there is any empirical evidence to back this up but my guess, based on the views of football fans from the city of Liverpool that I have spoken with over the years, is that a sizeable number - perhaps even a majority of supporters there - don't care about the fortunes of the England team at all.

The former Swansea striker Lee Trundle was born in Liverpool but told me if it ever happened, he would even turn down an England call-up so that he could wait to play for the Republic of Ireland.

Brendan Rodhers is deflecting attention away from Liverpool's bad start by picking a fight with Roy Hodgson

Daniel Sturridge is still sidelined after getting injured on international duty

Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge is battling to overcome a thigh problem

Swansea City's Lee Trundle had no intention of ever playing for England should the call have come knocking

More from Adrian Durham for MailOnline...

Plenty of Liverpool and Everton fans have rung into my show over the years to express their apathy towards the national team.

Liverpool fans loved it when Jamie Carragher retired from England duty at a relatively young age, and then admitted in his book that he cared more about Liverpool: 'Defeats while wearing an England shirt never hurt me in the same way as losing with my club… the Liver Bird mauled the Three Lions in the fight for my loyalties.'

Most of us put club before country, there is nothing extraordinary about that. But as Carragher wrote, the Kop sing: 'We're not English, we are Scouse.'

There is a level of antipathy from a lot of Liverpudlians towards the England team that some might find shocking.

I personally understand it.

Steven Gerrard was overlooked for the England captaincy a few years ago, in favour of John Terry. Southern bias? Maybe.

Liverpool fans didn't particularly enjoy Roy Hodgson's reign at Anfield so perhaps some of them are quite keen to see him fail elsewhere.

The negativity towards England from Liverpool fans reached a new low when one of them rang into my show last summer to express his support for Luis Suarez's Uruguay ahead of the World Cup clash with England.

It is totally the right of any football fan to choose not to be bothered about the England team.

But Rodgers is a clever guy, he will know by now the anti-England feeling among some Liverpool fans, so it looks to me like he's played the club versus country card early, to endear himself to the fans through a tricky period of transition.

Players get injured in training and in games in domestic and international football – that's the reality.

Rodgers sending some sort of dossier of instructions into the England camp with Daniel Sturridge is laughable. If all club managers did that, no players would be able to train, play or even meet up with the England squad.

Roy Hodgson has escalated his war of words with Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers

Brendan Rodgers is trying to get Daniel Sturridge up to speed after four weeks out

Daniel Sturridge hasn't played since England's friendly win against Norway last month

It could be that Rodgers is upset that he was denied the opportunity to get involved with the England set-up – he could have been Harry Redknapp's assistant, but Hodgson got the top job instead. I'd like to think that bitterness isn't why Rodgers has caused such difficulty for Hodgson.

The fact is, if either or both of Rodgers' signings Mario Balotelli or Rickie Lambert had started the season on fire, the boss wouldn't be so upset about Sturridge's injury.

The Liverpool manager did superbly last season and he took the credit he deserved.

In more difficult times so far this season, Rodgers would earn far more respect if he took criticism on board, rather than tapping into the anti-England and anti-Hodgson sentiment on Merseyside, and loading some of the blame onto the England manager.