Rodgers on Lucas' latest injury: "It was bitterly disappointing...because he's one of the disciples, I would say."
On Glen Johnson: "Glen's arguably been the player of the season in the Premier League - never mind at Liverpool. He's been absolutely outstanding when you consider he's played a lot of the season at left-back. He is a world-class full-back. I look at him and Daniel Alves as the two best right-backs in world football."
He knew to fuel their delusions from the start: "When you are a club that is the size of Liverpool then that criticism comes. Everyone has their opinion on Liverpool and I understand that because of the standards set by this club in the 1970s and 1980s."
Rodgers also hinted that their won’t be the massive investment that took place under Dalglish and Damien Comolli: “If you’re not going to have a massive investment to make it happen quickly, you have to develop it. That’s where we’re at”
"It was probably as disappointed as I've been. We're not always going to get the results, it happens in football. But the one thing I never, ever want to see, is the home supporters walking out of Anfield, with fifteen, twenty minutes to go. That's not acceptable. It's not acceptable that they don't believe we're going to get something from the game. That was something that hurt."
"The backing I've had from supporters has been incredible considering and that is the most important group really."
"Any comparisons I don't really focus on and it is difficult to compare the two groups because there is a lot of youthfulness in this group but yet still a lot of growth left in the team."
"That is what is going to take a bit of time. I always say it's like a good meal - I'm not a great cook but a good meal takes a wee bit of time but also to offer a good meal you need good ingredients."
"That is something we will do over time and hopefully put a nice meal on the table for supporters."
"We certainly won't be able to do everything in January that would help us, but we'll be able to make some additions that will help the group"
"We won't be spending a great deal of money. It'll be between January and the summer time that we can look at progressing the group and then hopefully go again."
“That’s what we are trying to piece together here – a group who are mentally on the same wavelength.”
Rodgers on Suarez at Ajax: "He played as a reverse winger from the left side so he wasn’t quite out wide,he was tucked in round the corner."
"It is all about the materials. I am not a magician. I will be able to improve players – that is my work and I have confidence in that. If I look at the first six months, I believe there has been improvement in a lot of the players. I will be able to rinse everything that I possibly can out of them, but the bottom line is about talent. If you don't initially have that then it can be difficult. That is also why I was brought in here, because we will get talents and we will try to maximise what we can out of players."
"You look at Jordan Henderson, Stewart Downing and José Enrique since the start of the season and we have added value back to them. Absolutely. That is the job of the manager and the coach, as well as winning games. My job is to improve players in every aspect of their game and that is something we will look to do because we don't have the resources of the top clubs who are out there paying big money. We won't have that. So we have to find the difference through coaching."
"We will always be governed by budget, always be governed by restrictions on certain things within the club because if you haven't got the money you can't spend it."
That explains the 50 million losses in recent seasons then.
“It’s no coincidence we’ve won seven of our last nine games since the Europa League stopped. We’ve had one game a week. That’s why I said when I came in for us to succeed it’s about building a competitive squad. The squad has to be stronger."
“We’re as good as any team in the league, but we have to turn consistency into results,”
"We're 24 points behind United now," he said. "But we're not 24 points behind in terms of quality. The points difference is due to the squad. Once we close the gap in the squad in the coming transfer windows, I've got great faith that we'll be able to challenge."
“One thing I would say about Borini and if you ask people about him, they’d say his biggest attribute is his physicality. His power and aggression – that’s what he’s renowned for. That’s something he needs to improve on because that’s his strength. That’s where his qualities are."
And that was just the first 6 months. :lol: