Boss demands boost for next season
Reds boss Brendan Rodgers believes a strong finish in the 11 remaining games of 2012-13 can give his Liverpool side the perfect platform to challenge for trophies next season.
The Barclays Premier League is now the club's sole focus for the current campaign after a gallant exit from European competition despite a marvellous 3-1 victory over Zenit St Petersburg seven days ago.
League fixtures resume at Wigan Athletic on Saturday teatime and the Northern Irishman delivered an optimistic assessment at his pre-match Melwood press conference today.
"We're going into the final run-in now and we really want to push on in these last 11 games," he told reporters.
"When you play as well as we did against Zenit, of course you want the next game sooner rather than later. But it wasn't to be.
"We had a period of time to recuperate physically and mentally. The players have been outstanding in training, some of the intensity and quality has been great to see from a coaching perspective.
"I really felt like the Liverpool manager after the Zenit game, having experienced a European night. I was disappointed that we didn't have more. In the future, we're looking to be fighting on more than one front.
"Certainly it gives us a reflective period to look at the league and focus solely on that, because that's ultimately the consistency we want to have.
"If we can come up with that over these closing months, it will provide a springboard for next season. Finish this season as strong as we possibly can, as high as we can, and then we'll be in a much better place come the summer to really push on."
Several questions put to Rodgers on Thursday concerned the fortunes of other clubs and the manager remained steadfast in his concentration on Liverpool's future.
He added: "We've got 11 games to go and our only focus is on ourselves - we just look at the next game. We've been brilliant at times and at other times we've been inconsistent.
"We played very well against Wigan at home; we know it will be a tough game, I watched them last week against Reading and they did very well. That's as far as we're looking.
"Hopefully we can finish the season strong and keep up the performance level and determination that we've shown in the last number of weeks. It gives us a great platform for next season.
"With the form that we've shown, with the Swansea game and in particular the Zenit game - we were knocked out of the Europa League but the performance level against a very good side was fantastic - we just want to keep that going.
"I've signed a deal here and hope to see that through. In that period of time I believe, along with the board, we can make really good progress here. Nothing has changed my mind on that - I'm ever so happy I made that decision to come.
"This is a great club that operates with huge dignity in everything they do; it's a very unified club at the moment in how we're working and we hope to put the ambition in place that can allow us to go forward and hopefully get trophies at the end of it."
The trip to the Latics this weekend is the Reds' first encounter for nine days and Rodgers revealed what both his squad and his staff have been working on during the extended break.
"I gave the players a couple of days to recover as we had a really busy schedule of games leading up to that. The staff went out looking at games, monitoring teams," the 40-year-old said.
"I watched Wigan last week at Reading and went abroad to watch a game.
"Some of the senior players went down to the Academy on Tuesday, which was brilliant. We had a great time after training - all the players joined in with the U8s, U9s and I know they really enjoyed it."
Rodgers also clarified his man-management of young Reds winger Raheem Sterling, who has recently spent time on the substitutes' bench and with the U21 team.
The boss said: "He's had a brilliant season. I've said it before and I'll repeat it again - if he never kicked a ball for the rest of the season, he's had an outstanding season.
"I don't know another 17-year-old in European football who has made the impact he's made in one of the five biggest leagues in the world. This is a kid who has huge talent.
"This is a really tough league for an experienced player - physically and mentally - and even experienced players, at times, will drop off their performance level because it's natural.
"So it's no surprise for a young kid of 17, now 18, if that happens to him. I've just got to make sure I protect him. It's getting to the period where he'll need a wee rest - mentally as much as physically - that's what we'll look to do, and take him out of the spotlight a bit.
"We hope he can be here for many years and he showed in that first six months that he's got the quality, intensity and fighting spirit to be here.
"Everyone is different. The management of a 17- or 18-year-old breaking into the Premier League is totally different to someone who is 22 and someone who is 32.
"You can't throw a blanket over everyone and treat them all the same - they're all individuals whose development plans are at different stages. His will be totally different to Steven Gerrard's.
"As a manager you've got to man-manage that and react accordingly to what will ultimately gain in the long term for the club. That's what we're doing at the moment with Raheem and he's getting a little breather, which is great for him."