Rodgers: This team plays with no fear
Brendan Rodgers insisted his table-topping Liverpool team will continue to 'play with no fear' after downing Manchester City on Sunday, beginning with their trip to Norwich City next weekend.
The Reds racked up a 10th straight win in the Barclays Premier League at Anfield, ultimately seeing off their third-place rivals 3-2 courtesy of a sublime Philippe Coutinho winner on 78 minutes.
Raheem Sterling and Martin Skrtel had earlier earned a 2-0 advantage for the hosts in L4, before David Silva single-handedly grasped control of the match by first scoring and then forcing a Glen Johnson own goal.
Rodgers' side consolidated their position at the Premier League summit, though, as the Brazilian No.10 scooped up a loose ball inside the City penalty area and punted it low into the corner.
Post-match, the manager maintained his mantra of retaining focus on one fixture at a time - with the Canaries the next obstacle in seven days - but warned his team will take on all comers.
"We don't need to change, we play with no fear," said the Northern Irishman. "We see that, no matter who we play, if it's a big opponent like Manchester City, or Norwich next week.
"We'll play with no fear. We demand to dominate the ball and work very hard. We don't think too far ahead - that's the message and that's always been the message.
"With four games to go, there are still a lot of points to play for. And Manchester City have got a couple of games in hand as well. We've just got to concentrate on ourselves and keep doing the job.
"Hopefully 10 games becomes 11 next week. We'll just concentrate on the next game."
Having produced a scintillating opening 45 minutes to rank alongside those suffered by Arsenal, Everton, Tottenham Hotspur and others this season, the hosts were pegged back after the break.
With Silva finding space to damage Rodgers' team, the Liverpool manager was quick to implement a subtle alteration in his midfield - which he credits with leading to the crucial effort by Coutinho.
The boss added: "In the second half, you expect City to come back in. They are a wonderful team, the manager is an outstanding manager.
"Their first goal gave them momentum and then we were unfortunate to concede the second goal, which was an own goal. When it got to 2-2, they started to have a bit of energy and a bit of joy down the sides.
"So we changed - we went from a diamond to 4-3-3 to open up the game a little bit, but also to protect the sides whenever we were defending.
"That allowed us to get some sort of control back into the game and we end up getting the winning goal with a great finish. So it showed our resilience to see it through.
"That's 10 wins now in the Barclays Premier League. It's an incredible achievement and, against all the odds, we're where we are and we're still fighting."
The one negative event of the day for the home side was the stoppage-time sending-off of midfielder Jordan Henderson, for a sliding challenge as he reached for possession.
Rodgers reflected: "He has been brilliant. That's the only sour point of the game, everybody knows Jordan Henderson is one of the most honest players.
"He's a wonderful young man and he's just had a touch late on in the game, probably through a little bit of tiredness. Sometimes you watch images like that, slowed down, and it looks really bad.
"But he actually touches the ball, he is stretching for it and the sole of his foot actually touches the ball. Maybe he caught [Pablo] Zabaleta, but I felt that was probably a bit harsh. It was unfortunate, because he has been brilliant for us."