Rodgers: I want to say thank-you
Brendan Rodgers today thanked Liverpool fans for the support they have provided him, his staff and the players over the course of 2012-13 and insisted: 'We want to make you proud.'
The Reds bring the curtain down on 2012-13 with an Anfield clash against Queens Park Rangers this afternoon and the boss is grateful for the backing received from Kopites over the course of the campaign.
Rodgers told Liverpoolfc.com: "They've picked us up and carried us at times this season. It's been a huge honour and privilege to manage the club with these great supporters.
"It's been probably a mixture for them this year of delight and disappointment, but there's no doubt they are going to play a huge part for us going forward because we really need them.
"The club is in a transitional period. We need to have long-term success, of course, but short-term we want that success as well and for us to do that, we have to be one club. There has been a lot of great work gone on here over the course of this season building up our base, and next season I expect us to make another step forward.
"Instrumental and integral to that success will be the supporters.
"I'd like to go on record to give them a massive thank-you for what they've given me, my staff and the players here this season.
"As I said, it probably hasn't been easy for them at times, but I feel the way their support has grown all the time for what we're trying to do and our fight is for them to make them proud of the football team."
Liverpool cannot alter their league position regardless of the outcome of today's game with a seventh-place finish guaranteed.
Nonetheless, Rodgers has stressed the significance of ending the campaign with three points.
He stated: "It's very important. We want to finish the season strongly - that was the objective coming into the final games and that's what we've done.
"The performance level and results in the main have been good. We've had a couple of draws in games we should have won, but we're looking to finish with a win and then hopefully take the last six months' momentum into the beginning of next season."
It promises to be an emotional occasion at Anfield as Jamie Carragher plays his 737th and final game for Liverpool ahead of his retirement.
Rodgers says there will be an element of wanting to 'do it for Carra' among the Reds squad, but insists once the game gets underway, everyone's focus will be firmly fixed on getting three points for the team.
"Jamie is the ultra-professional and he wouldn't want anything to get in the way of what he wants and first foremost, he will want three points from the game," he said.
"For us as a football team, we want to do that and as the manager of the team, I want to let him leave the football club with that happy memory.
"But there's no doubt [the team will want to win for Carragher]. The group has the ultimate respect for Carra and what he's achieved. To play that number of games in your career is a great achievement - but to do it playing for Liverpool, I don't think anyone across the country could fail to be impressed by Jamie Carragher."