Rodgers applauds unselfish Suarez
It wasn't Luis Suarez's match-winning brace against Cardiff City which impressed Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers the most on Saturday – it was the Uruguayan's double act of humility at Anfield.
The Reds' No.7 opened the scoring with a precise volley, created a second goal by unselfishly passing across to Raheem Sterling and curled a delightful third as the hosts climbed to top spot in the Barclays Premier League.
His assist for Sterling when clean through to finish himself, plus his personal decision to pass the captain's armband to substitute Daniel Agger when he joined the action on 82 minutes, caught the boss' eye.
Asked for a new superlative for Suarez, Rodgers responded: "The one for today is unselfish. First of all, it is for the second goal, he's through on goal and you don't see too many strikers do that.
"It shows you the team player that he is. I thought he showed great humility as well, when Daniel Agger came on the field, he brought the armband straight to him because he's the vice-captain.
"It shows you the humility of the man. Two brilliant goals, a genuine world-class player. The pivotal point of the team is really exciting and dynamic at the moment.
"It was an outstanding team performance. In the first half, we were exceptional - some of our movement and fluidity in our game was excellent.
"We controlled the game, scored three and maybe could have had one or two more. In the second half, we started brightly and looked like we were going to continue that momentum.
"We gave away a slack goal, it was a poor goal, and that gave Cardiff a bit of momentum. We had to defend with a bit more aggression and more regularity. But overall, we scored three and could have had one or two more. A great win for us and outstanding goals.
"Last year, it took us a while to even get into the top 10. People are talking about a good start; you can trace it back, you see from January this has been a team on the up.
"What you see now is a set of principles and footballing ideas that we have been implementing over the course of 18 months here. They are coming to fruition and the players are enjoying playing in it.
"It's an aggressive, attacking style of football, but with hard work as the core value within it. It was pleasing and I think we can get better."
Liverpool have now claimed victory in four consecutive Premier League fixtures and will remain at the summit of the division over Christmas if Arsenal fail to overcome Chelsea in their heavyweight clash on Monday.
Next on the agenda for the Reds is a double-header against Manchester City and Chelsea and, given the scintillating recent form of his squad, Rodgers is already anticipating the top-of-the-table encounters.
He said: "We're really looking forward to the games. At Manchester City last year, we should have won and ended up drawing the game.
"Manchester City have a great squad of players; everyone looks at them as Manchester City's title to lose because of the squad they have. For us, it's just about taking each game at a time.
"We have been on a fantastic run, the quality of our football is at a really high level - we're pressing the game very well, our aggression to get the ball back is good. We'll arrive there on Boxing Day in a really good moment. It's a game I'm really looking forward to."
Three more goals in front of the Kop made it 23 in six successive clashes for Liverpool on home soil and the Reds have slipped to just two defeats in L4 throughout 2013, as only West Bromwich Albion and Southampton have left Merseyside with a victory.
Rodgers believes reinstating Anfield's reputation as a fortress has been an essential goal for him as manager - and it's one his side are edging ever closer to achieving.
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"We've been trying to get the supporters back into that mentality," said the boss. "This is a club that was brought up on a style of football. Today was always going to be a difficult game because of the effort and the work-rate that Cardiff put in.
"But at 0-0, they understood the nature of our game. Last week at Tottenham was a really defining game for our principles and of how we could play.
"We just needed that bit of patience today. It's great for the supporters. They've had five hard years here of real tough times. I sense that they skipped into the game today and they'll go away very happy with another good result.
"We're just trying to reclaim that mentality back here at Anfield - that this is a really difficult place to get a result."
It took Rodgers' side 25 minutes to open the scoring against stubborn opposition in the afternoon clash, with Suarez's 18th goal of a phenomenal campaign breaking the deadlock.
"I felt it was important for us to get a good start," said Rodgers. "I thought it was always going to be competitive. I've been really pleased with the consistency.
"But I only really focus on ourselves. There are some outstanding teams, players and managers in this league. But my job is to focus on us and improve our game, so that we can take this aggression and this attitude and this footballing mentality into every game, home and away.
"Now you can see that the players have real confidence in that way of working and, for us, it's brought us consistent results. We just can't ever think that we have cracked it. We can't become complacent. We've just got to keep focused and move onto the next game.
"We're very calm. We're focusing on improving our performance - that is the nature of our work. We know that the natural consequence of that will be to win games and if you win games then you are going to be in a good position.
"I said before now and I'll repeat again - I think it's unprecedented for a club to go from seventh to first. But I think in this moment in time, as we're sat at the top of the table, it shows the great work that the players and the football club is aligned to. We've got to just keep this momentum going."