Boss: You'll see our steel this season
Brendan Rodgers insists it’s with ‘a steely determination’ that Liverpool will travel to Stoke City seeking to prove a point and claim all three from their season opener on Sunday afternoon.
The Northern Irishman and his players have been forced to wait all summer for an opportunity to make amends for a 6-1 reversal against the Potters in the final game of 2014-15.
In a typical football quirk, the scene of that stunning defeat, the Britannia Stadium, is the first place the fixture computer chose for the Reds to visit for the new campaign.
Almost three months on, Rodgers plans to draw on two key personal characteristics as he attempts to steer his team back to the kind of style that punctuated his second year at the helm.
“Life is about experiences and whether they’re good or bad, you hopefully learn and improve from them,” the boss reflected on May’s defeat at Stoke.
“But it wasn’t just that game, it was over the course of the season. We started not so well, we had a great period in between that gave us a slight opportunity and then we finished the season in not-so-good fashion.
“So it wasn’t just that game. Over the course of last season, I was always thinking how we can be better and how we can improve.
“Obviously that result culminated what was a really disappointing season for us. You’ve got to go again, you’ve got to pick yourself up.
“Two of the greatest things you need in football management are resilience and perseverance; over my career and to arrive where I have, they are two attributes I would think most people would say I have.
“It gives you a steely determination to show the fight in the team again. That’s something that I look forward to presenting this year.”
In a frank discussion with reporters gathered for Rodgers’ pre-match press conference, the manager was asked whether he felt supporters had to be won over again.
He replied: “I never take for granted the support I’ve had here.
“I also understand the disappointment of last year and I’m sure after a game like that against Stoke that there’d have been huge disappointment and, of course, I’ve always been the one that takes the responsibility and rightly so. The anger goes to the manager and I accept that.
“I need to gain their trust again. It’s been an incredible journey here for me. It’s an absolute privilege to manage the club and have the supporters behind us, but of course you have to do well to earn that. I know I need to earn that again.”
The opening weekend of a new season brings a natural enthusiasm to fans, players and staff involved with any and every football club.
An infectious excitement pervades Melwood as the kick-off draws ever closer, and Rodgers is refreshed and prepared for an assault on the top four.
“Our ambition, of course, is to be in the Champions League,” he added. “That is the history of this great club and we have to always fight to be in there.
“As staff and players, that will be our goal and what we’ll look to achieve. Like I said a couple of years ago when we just fell short, the ambition was to be fourth and then can we climb to third, can we then climb?
“That will be the same again this year, as it is every year – can we arrive into the Champions League places?”