Different owners might have sacked Rodgers last season, says Joe Allen

Sterling, along with Philippe Coutinho, was arguably Liverpool’s most threatening attacking player last season and his departure has raised question marks about whether Rodgers’ side can compete for the top four without replacing him.

The 6-1 demolition by Stoke city in the final match of Captain Steven Gerrard fare well should have been have been the straw that broke the Carmel’s back.

“Yeah, of course, some owners may have been less tolerant after the way the season went”, Allen said.

However, the owners stuck by their man – although coaches Colin Pascoe and Mike Marsh were less fortunate – and the Northern Irishman, who Allen has been with since their Swansea days, will be the man to lead us into the new season. But he has all the traits we want from a player.

“At the end of the day we were the ones who let the supporters down, the manager and the staff down and ourselves down”, Allen said, as quoted by the Liverpool Echo.

“It’s as simple as that”.

Nathaniel Clyne, the £12.5million arrival from Southampton who got first 45 minutes in the 4-0 win over Thai All-Stars, is hoping a switch to Anfield will provide him with the chance to cement his position as England’s first choice right-back.

“In the last two months we dropped off again”.

The forward completed his big-money move to the Etihad earlier this week, bringing an end to one of the summer’s longest-running transfer sagas.

Five of the six Liverpool summer signings got a run out on Tuesday evening, with only Roberto Firmino – still on his holidays – not having taken part.

“There’s a lot of work to be done between now and the start of the Premier League season”, he explained. We don’t need extra motivation.

“The door has now closed on last season”.

“Pre-season has been tough so far which you’d expect. I think he has got all the attributes to be a great player for the club, for sure”.

“Obviously we played two different teams in either half and I thought both teams played very, very well”. “We enjoy the kindness of everyone”.

“But, thankfully, we came through it unscathed and now we look forward to the next game in Brisbane on Friday”.