Brendan: We must adapt to demands

The Northern Irishman was frustrated by his team's inability to reach their usual standards during a 3-1 defeat by West Ham United at Upton Park - a second straight Barclays Premier League loss.

Early efforts by Winston Reid and Diafra Sakho stocked momentum firmly in the Hammers' corner with just seven minutes played in east London, forcing Rodgers into a tactical reshuffle.

Javier Manquillo was sacrificed for a switch to 3-5-2 and the effect was positive, Raheem Sterling thrashing home a sweet volley to give the Reds an hour to complete their rescue mission.

But there was to be no equaliser and it was the hosts who struck again - via the poked finish of Morgan Amalfitano - to leave Liverpool with two wins and three defeats in five.

Asked whether the demands of a week that began with a home reversal and then included a return to Champions League football played a part in the result, the boss dismissed such an excuse.

"It's something we've got to get used to because we've got plenty more Champions League games," he explained to Sky Sports after the final whistle.

"The group has come a long way in the last couple of years and, in particular, last year. There's always a big expectancy when you play for Liverpool anyway.

"But certainly after our performance level over the last 18 months, the level that is expected of us and individual players has grown. But we have to be able to cope with that; at the minute, we're not - it's as simple as that.

"This is a very honest group that will fight and work every day in order to get that concentration and focus back again."

Liverpool and Rodgers must very quickly switch their focus to a Capital One Cup encounter with Middlesbrough this Tuesday, while the first Merseyside derby of the season looms at the weekend.

Lessons will have been learned from those damaging opening minutes at Upton Park, however, particularly as the boss took positives from his players' showing in the second period.

"We are obviously a team that is associated with coming out very quickly, but we just didn't get going," he continued in his assessment.

"In fairness to West Ham, they came out, put us under pressure and pressed the ball. We were just unable to play around that. Before we knew it we were 2-0 down and from that point it was very difficult for us.

"I felt that how we'd started in the game, with their two front players and Stewart Downing in behind, it was giving us a problem and we didn't look like we could deal with that at that stage.

"As a coach, you make the change in the system to give them something else to think about. It worked reasonably well for us - we started to get the ball and open up the pitch into wide areas.

"We got back into the game at 2-1 and from that probably until they scored the third goal, we had decent control of the game."