Hodgson left Fulham in the summer to replace Rafa Benitez as Liverpool manager.
“Sentiment has never played a part in my football life,” he said.
“I like to win with the team I am working with and it doesn’t really matter if the opponents are a team I happen to like or dislike.
“I have such respect for the club but I don’t know whether that adds spice.
“I have respect for the way they play and they are hard to beat – they have lost fewer league games than we have.
“But when match day comes around they are enemy number one. Hopefully we can win the game and then be big friends afterwards.
“The club was good to me and the players were excellent, a real joy to work with, and it was a wrench to leave them.
“But the job at Liverpool does not come along every day and I was lucky the people at the club understood this was something I should do and wanted to do.
“When you leave a club and you play against them there is only one thought in your mind – we want to win, we need to win because we are desperate to move up the table.
“My only thought now is ‘I wish they were a worse team than they are’ because I know it won’t be easy for us to beat them but I don’t have any sentiment at all.
“They, like ourselves, are desperate for points and I think it will be an intensive game.”
