Roy Hodgson today confirmed he does not anticipate any imminent move away from Anfield for Javier Mascherano and admitted the midfielder is in contention to face Arsenal on Sunday.
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The boss last month revealed Mascherano had expressed a desire to leave Liverpool - but Hodgson insists no offers have been received for the midfielder and stressed new signing Christian Poulsen hasn't been brought to the club as a replacement for the Argentina captain.
Hodgson told a press conference at Melwood: "I don't want to let Javier Mascherano go. At the moment, Javier Mascherano has shown no signs of going, so it's not a question of replacing him.
"I believe Javier is going to play for us and I believe Christian is going to play for us. I am happy to have both players.
"This is a big club, a club with hopefully a lot of games to play this year and we're going to need a lot of players.
"We didn't bring Christian in to replace anybody. We brought him in to improve the size and quality of our squad."
Asked whether he felt Mascherano was in the right frame of mind to face Arsenal, Hodgson said: "Yes."
He added: "There is no point in me commenting on things Javier has either said or supposedly said.
"I work with him whenever I can. Obviously he came back very late from the World Cup and has been away on international duty, but I've had seven or eight training sessions with him now.
"We talk about football and he's made no indication (of wanting to leave) since our very early meeting, where he made it clear if possible he'd prefer to leave. Since then he's been getting on with his work and training and playing properly.
"As far as I am concerned, he is a Liverpool player and will be until the day somebody signs him - that day does not seem to be imminent.
"At the moment I can quite categorically state there has been no offer from any club for Javier Mascherano and, as a result, I don't see why I should - every day - put his loyalty or desire to play for the club in doubt.
"We made it clear to him that if the offer he wanted came along, we probably would not stand in his way. But that offer has not come along and he's working hard to play for Liverpool."
Reporters quizzed Hodgson on the reception Mascherano could receive from Liverpool fans should he feature against Arsenal.
"I think the fans will judge him by what he does on the field of play," said the manager. "If he plays well, does his job and is part of a winning Liverpool team then he'll be very popular.
"If he plays badly and costs us games then no doubt he won't be too popular at all. I don't think it is much more complicated than that."
Hodgson continued: "He is a realistic player and is playing at Liverpool Football Club. He is not looking for a move to a Spanish second division club. There are very few clubs in the world that could even consider having Mascherano on their books - but one of them is Liverpool Football Club.
"If he wants to leave Liverpool, he'll be expecting a club of similar stature and ability to come along. At the moment, that club hasn't come along so I am presuming he's very happy to stay here, but you'd have to ask him."
Meanwhile, Hodgson admitted most of his remaining transfer activity could involve players leaving.
He said: "The bulk of the work has been done. The major changes will be players needing to leave because of the new 25-man rule. We've got too many players who, if they don't make the 17 foreign-man allowance, are not going to want to play in the reserve team for the rest of the season."
Asked if he was trying to bring Stephen Warnock back to provide reinforcements at left-back, Hodgson said: "No."
