The boss has admitted he has one eye on Sunday's league game at Man Utd and so will use his fringe players for this evening's game.
"I shall make changes to the team for the game against Steaua. There's no question of that - it's something I've planned all along," said Hodgson.
"I don't think there is any point of having a squad of 25 players, many of whom are internationals, and then just trying to play the same 11 every game.
"It's going to be important to keep everybody on board and it's also important for me to get to know players better. I learn a lot from games and I learn a lot about the players because I've not had an awful lot of time working with some of them who were at the World Cup.
"I shall be using these games in the Europa League and the Carling Cup to try and get a better knowledge of the players to make certain as time goes on that I have no doubts about what our best 11 is.
"We've still got to wait for Dirk Kuyt and Fabio Aurelio, but luckily so far we're not picking up injuries, so I've got quite a big squad to choose from.
"It's up to me to try and choose a team tomorrow that will firstly win the game and secondly possibly give some of the players that are going to be needed to play against Manchester United a well-deserved break.
"If I do change the team in some ways tomorrow, I want the players to go out there and perform against top-class opposition. It's no good me watching them play against poor opposition because that might fool me into thinking they're better than they are."