Rodgers: We needed that radical switch

When the Reds travelled to Manchester United on December 14, the biting disappointment of elimination from the Champions League remained raw.

On their return to Europe's elite competition, they hadn't done themselves justice and an Anfield draw with FC Basel confirmed their exit at the group stage.

"We had no identity and everyone could see it," Rodgers reflects now.

"I probably was low, because it was not working. We had a huge challenge, probably the biggest I have had as a coach or manager, at a club the size of this one, where I love being.

"We just weren't the team I had built over a couple of years. You try to give everyone a chance but it just wasn't happening for us and of course that can eat away at you."

Late nights pondering how to steer his side back to the level that so nearly brought a Barclays Premier League title in 2013-14 brought the Northern Irishman to a solution.

His players lined up on the Old Trafford turf in a 3-4-3 formation, with Raheem Sterling shifted to a central striking role to utilise his acceleration in behind.

A painful 3-0 reversal might have suggested the experiment's failure, but the creativity and playing style on show actually gave reason for optimism.

Rodgers continues: "Every manager will tell you the same, you're thinking of the game all the time, you're locking yourself in a room and analysing and looking at ways to make the team function.

"I knew I had to do something fairly radical because I had seen enough of the players to know we were not going to be able to shape up and work and play as we had done for the previous couple of years with what we had got.

"I am an innovative coach, and I needed to find a way to make us play better.

"It is a complex way in which we are working and playing, but it suits what we have. I knew I needed to do something earlier than when I did do it.

"We played the system away at Newcastle but I couldn't really work on it in training because we didn't have the time.

"At Newcastle, Raheem played as one of the wide players. I learned that Raheem probably won't be able to play wide in what I was looking to do because he's not in the game enough.

"I knew what I wanted to do earlier but after Newcastle we had Real Madrid and I wasn't going to go into a game of that magnitude with a system that I knew I needed more work on.

"It was just about the timing and the timing was right for the Manchester United game. By that stage I was comfortable that we had the players to make it work.

"I think the transformation in the team has been really good to see and to see the confidence, and everyone talking about the system and how dynamic it is, and the fluency."

Since that United loss, Liverpool's transformation has been total.

Eight victories and three draws have been recorded in the 11 Premier League fixtures that have followed, to catapult Rodgers' charges back into the Champions League qualification race.

Their upturn culminated in a thrilling and deserved win over reigning champions Manchester City on Sunday after a performance from the absolute opposite end of the spectrum compared to the display in defeat at Crystal Palace in November - the accepted lowest point of the campaign.

The manager again: "I love it here and I want to be successful here.

"And after the Palace game in particular, I felt it doesn't matter how much support you have, the team is not functioning and it could not go on really. I respect and understand that.

"My experience at Reading told me that. That's what I learned from that sacking. I went in with the full backing of the chairman, who was great to me, and I got 20 games.

"Even though it was a three-year project and they wanted me there and I was the guy who had moulded the club more than anyone, I got the sack after 20 games.

"Funnily enough when I did get the sack we were just starting to pick up. We had a lot of young players, we'd lost 14 players that summer, they wanted to rebuild and it was quite radical in terms of how I was asking them to play on the back of how they had before, which was a direct game.

"It just started to turn a bit, but they just lost their patience. What I learned from that was it does not matter how much support you might have in the boardroom, from the directors, the executives, you have to get results and you have to win.

"I call that a fortunate period in my career because I learned that from then and that paved the way for my learning here.

"I needed to make sure that I was going to make decisions which would allow us to get back to at least somewhere near where we were."