LIVERPOOL MANAGER BRENDAN RODGERS has warned supporters it will take time to revive his squad and that they may have to endure more “pain” before things get better.
The sale of Luis Suarez, an injury to Daniel Sturridge, and the arrival of a raft of new players have contributed to Liverpool taking only seven points from their first six Premier League games.
They also lost 1-0 to Basel in the Champions League in midweek, and Rodgers admits that it is frustrating to see the team toiling after they pushed Manchester City all the way in last season’s title race.
“I think the pain is for now. I think it’s unfortunate,” he said, in comments carried by several British newspapers on Saturday.
“It’s hard for the supporters and I understand that. It must be so difficult at the moment to see a team that for 18 months has been so fluent and dynamic.
“Now they probably look and see a team with maybe no resemblance to that in many ways. I understand that and there is no-one more frustrated than myself.”
With new signing Mario Balotelli struggling to fill the hole left by Suarez’s move to Barcelona, Rodgers concedes that Liverpool’s football has not been up to scratch.
“We look at our game, which is based a lot on possession, but we were also a big threat in transition when we won the ball back and we were on the break,” he added.
“We don’t look a threat on the break at the moment. We could argue that we don’t even play in transition. We’re getting no-one in behind, no-one breaking lines.”
He added: “Once we lose that movement and speed of Daniel Sturridge, and the link-up of other people within that, it has broken the dynamic a little for us.
“We just have to persevere until I get the squad back, until we get Emre Can back, Joe Allen, Daniel and the others. Then I think we will return to that level.”
