Brendan Rodgers: It was really a good performance

Brendan Rodgers is ready to “embrace the challenge” of getting Liverpool’s season back on track as speculation mounts regarding his future.

The under-fire Northern Irishman has cut an increasingly isolated figure in recent weeks after a string of disappointing results has left his team 13th in the Premier League table and looking like a side short on both creativity and cohesion.

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has claimed he is “never complacent enough to think that” his job is safe but plans to be at Anfield for the long term. It does not affect me.

“But it doesn’t frighten me”. We’ve almost achieved great things. Some of the signings have been questionable given the form shown by Dejan Lovren and the signing of Mario Balotelli and you might struggle to find a player deemed a success. “I don’t shy away from the fact that you need ot get results and on top of that you need to be performing well in order to stay in work”. Probably what drives a manager on is fear, positive fear.

“You can take the West Brom game out of that. I always knew that call was going to come”. I will do what I will always do and do the best I can.

After his first win in 5 Premier League games some may have expected Rodgers to have quietly expressed pleasure in the result but buoyed by a victory the Liverpool manager went a little further.

I respect that the next 20 years may not be here. On Friday he accepted that, while he intends to remain in the game for that length of time, it will not be at Liverpool.

“We’ve created that expectancy here because of how we’ve worked”.

“I thought he was outstanding today”. Because this is an incredible football club and all I want to do is see it succeed. He’ll get through it, he knows how he wants to work. “We will look to start again“.

“I’ve followed Liverpool since 1984 after facing them with Roma in the European Cup final, when we lost on penalties“, Ancelotti said previous year when he visited Anfield with Real Madrid in the Champions League group stage.

Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood felt his side contributed to their own downfall in the 3-2 defeat at Liverpool on Saturday, having conceded after 66 seconds.

“The performances have been encouraging with a new group of players. We valued him at a lot more than that but the clause was in there for a reason and Liverpool matched it”. It’s frustrating when you have so many chances and don’t score, but I think the fans could see that we kept trying.