Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has gone on record to say Champions Leagues qualification for next season remains the aim for his side.
Liverpool went home with all three points after defeating Aston Villa 2-0 on Saturday. The good run of form continued for the Reds as they now made it one defeat in fourteen matches. Fabio Borini scored his first goal for the club since April 2013. Rickie Lambert then came off the bench to score his third goal for the Reds since his summer move and for the first time since November.
Rodgers reiterated that Champions League qualification remains the club’s priority for the season. Liverpool currently lie in the eighth place, but are only five points off fourth placed Manchester United. The Northern Irishman said that the club has regained the identity of last season and feels that they will be able to achieve their target if they can put a string of favorable results.
If we can get through to through to the end of January and be somewhere near it, we showed last year we can put a run together to see us in there,a said Rodgers.
a That’s still the objective. We believe if we keep working, we still have improvements to make.
a It’s a real young exciting team. You see some of the football we played today, and maybe we could have had one or two more goals.
a It was a tough game and we have seen it through. We just have to keep working well. We have regained our identity from how the team has played for two years. It has very much come back. It’s fair to say that in the opening four months we were just nowhere near what we have been”.
Rodgers switched the formation to 3-4-2-1, a move which has worked wonders for the team. The Liverpool boss also spoke about the system and style of play, getting them the results.
a We needed to find a solution to that. We changed the system for the game at Manchester United and even though we lost I had seen enough in our play that that could be the way going forward.
a The system is working very well for us but the style is the most important thing. The system can be whatever, but this system now is an exciting one. You can see the youth in the team, so there’s a lot of improvement left in this team.
a We are performing at a good level, defensively we are strong and playing some good football. We have to keep improving.a