The point of international friendlies is not to rest Liverpool players. It's plain as day what people want but back in the real World, the players want to play for England and the England manager wants to be able to play his best side, for what, i think at least, are fairly obvious reasons. The more pitch time these players have together before the World Cup the better. At the same time he wants to remain sensitive to the sensibilities of club managers. Playing Gerrard for 45 minutes strikes this balance.