Roy Hodgson has urged his players to put on a good performance against Utrecht for the many youngsters who will be at Anfield on Wednesday night, following the club's gesture to give free tickets to U17s.

The boss was quick to praise the club's owners John Henry and Thomas Werner who made this decision to give youngsters a chance to watch a first-team game at Anfield.

"I am very pleased the club has made this gesture and I think it's a very noble one and it's something that should be done," Hodgson told Liverpoolfc.tv.

"I am also hoping the youngsters who come will see a very good Liverpool team performance on the night and they will come and watch us again in the Barclays Premier League matches.

"We are looking to win this game as we always do - there's no question about that.

"Having said that we will only win if we play well and that's what I want to see from us."

Hodgson has revealed he will field a mixture of experience and youth against Utrecht in the final Europa League Group K came on Wednesday night.

The manager confirmed the likes of Joe Cole, Fabio Aurelio and Christian Poulsen are set for a recall against the Dutch outfit.

 "With all the games coming up over the Christmas period if this had been a Barclays Premier League game I would have been very concerned about playing anything other than what I consider to be our very best team," Hodgson told Liverpoolfc.tv.

"The fact we have already qualified does give me that luxury of using some players who have not played so many games and resting some of those who have played a lot of games.

"We've seen some of these young players come into the team in the Europa League and do well and that makes my selection process more difficult but I welcome that.

"I haven't picked the team yet but I've made it clear to the players that they can't expect it to be like when we played against Steaua on the Thursday and then used a totally different team against Aston Villa on the Monday.

"There's no guarantee that will be the case this time on Wednesday and it's quite possible that some of the players that started against Newcastle will also play against Utrecht.

"We have players like Babel, Aurelio, Poulsen, Joe Cole and Milan Jovanovic who need games and they will come into my thoughts.

"I expect some of the youngsters will get a chance but not necessarily as many as used against Steaua."