BR: Starts can be misleading

Following promotion to the Barclays Premier League in 2011, the Welsh club failed to win or even score in their opening four matches, but nevertheless recovered to defeat the odds and secure an 11th place finish.

Now the Northern Irishman is confident of doing the same with Liverpool, despite the fact the Reds have yet to register a victory from their first three league fixtures. "It doesn't concern me," said the manager.

"Last year, I think it was our fifth game before we got a win when I was Swansea manager.

"I had all sorts of statistics thrown at me in the first few games, we hadn't scored a goal and whatnot, and obviously those statistics changed come the end of the season. It's just all part of it, it's the modern game, people will look into all these things.

"I'm fortunate. I work with the players day in, day out. I see their focus, I see their concentration. Sometimes your starts in leagues are dependant on who you play as well, there's no doubt we've had a difficult set of games."

One man who has not been finding life difficult is midfielder Joe Allen, who was voted Standard Chartered player of the month for August. Rodgers expects even more to come from the 22-year-old.

"Joe has been a revelation in these first few games and I'm sure that will improve and get better because he's 22 years of age, he's got an appetite and a desire to improve his game and I think over the course of the next coming years Liverpool will get the chance to see that.

"The biggest compliment, I think, everyone that has seen him play is that he looks like a Liverpool player. Liverpool supporters are educated, they really understand good footballers, people who can pass the ball and take pride with the football.

"He has been very good, and I think there's a lot more to come from Joe as well. A young player that came with a big price tag but I know Joe very well and I knew it wouldn't affect him."

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The Reds have been out of action since a 2-0 defeat by Arsenal on September 2, with many of the players representing their country during the international break, which Rodgers admitted came at the right time for the club.

"The international break probably came at a good time for us, in all honesty," he said. "After the Arsenal game, it gave us all a chance to go away and reflect but everyone has come back now re-motivated and got energy to go again.

"We know now we want to pick up some important results going forward and that starts on Saturday for us."

A journey to the Stadium of Light to face unbeaten Sunderland awaits on Saturday and ahead of the game the boss paid particular tribute to Black Cats manager Martin O'Neill.

He said: "Martin's a very experienced man and had great success in the game. He's done a terrific job since he's gone into Sunderland, it was a couple of really tough games against them last year.

"They've started off with a couple of draws and going to the Stadium of Light will always be a difficult game. But we're really looking forward to it."

The 39-year-old was also asked about goalkeeper Pepe Reina during his pre-match press conference and took the opportunity to reveal just how much he is enjoying working with the Spaniard.

"He's been brilliant for me," enthused Rodgers. "He's a key member of the squad here, absolutely first-class he has been. He understands what it is I'm trying to do, understands the philosophy and he's a really, really good guy.

"Off the field, he's important for the group, he's a big voice in the changing room and I've had no feelings at all that he's ever wanted to leave. I've good communication, I speak regularly with Pepe, he's one of the senior players I offer respect."

At 30 years of age and with 361 appearances under his belt, Reina is one of the more experienced members of the Liverpool squad. Young players have a significant role to play this season too, however, something the boss was keen to emphasise.

"There's money invested into our Academy here," he concluded. "We've got some wonderful people who work in the Academy and we've got some young talents.

"Sometimes at the big clubs, it's very, very difficult to get an opportunity and now some of these young players are going to get that opportunity to come and play in some games.

"So the platform will be there for them and I'll always look to what I've got from within before looking outside and we've got some young talented players here.

"The summer was always going to be a difficult summer for us. Moving forward, in the next number of months we're going to see some young players.

"The senior players have been brilliant since I've come into here and now we'll hopefully move forward and revisit it again in January."