Rodgers eyes Champions League to win Liverpool trust and wants to lay Stoke demons to rest

Brendan Rodgers says he understands why Liverpool fans were disappointed last season

BRENDAN RODGERS is targeting winning back of the trust of disaffected Liverpool supporters and the Champions League as he prepares to return to the scene of his "worst day" in football.

 

The Liverpool manager begins a pivotal campaign at Stoke City just 77 days after a spineless 6-1 capitulation at The Britannia Stadium conspired to leave his tenure under exacting scrutiny.

Rodgers revealed he forced himself to sit through a re-run of the chastening defeat after receiving the backing of owners, Fenway Sports Group, and insists a period of personal reflection over the summer has left him "refocused" and more determined than ever to revive the club's fortunes.

 

Roberto Firmino (left) and James Milner are two of numerous new faces brought in by Rodgers

 

In an honest appraisal of the months ahead, Rodgers admitted his first task was to re-instil faith in his methods after acknowledging the scepticism that greeted his appointment in 2012 was prevalent again.

"Probably yes," said Rodgers. "I never take for granted the support I have had here, but I also understand the disappointment of last year.

"I'm sure after a game like Stoke there was huge disappointment, but I have always been the one to take responsibility and, rightly so, the anger goes towards the manager and I accept that.

 

"I need to regain their trust again. It has been an incredible journey since I came in here and it is an absolute privilege to manage this club with the supporters we have behind us, but of course you have to do well to earn that support and I need to earn that again.

"I have confidence in how I work. It certainly didn't take away from my beliefs in how I work.

"But it sharpened that I needed to refocus and look at how we could take the club forward. I'm as driven now - if not more - as the first day I came in here.

 

"We want to put a disappointing season behind us. Our ambition, of course, is to be in the Champions League and then keep on climbing."

New players - £32.5m Christian Benteke, £29m Roberto Firmino, James Milner free and £10m Nathaniel Clyne are among those who have signed in - and a new backroom staff, in Sean O'Driscoll, Pepijin Lijnders and Gary McAllister, have arrived to leave Rodgers with less reasons to come up short.

FSG will tolerate 'a steady' start to the campaign, bearing in mind the away fixtures which see Liverpool visit Arsenal, Manchester United, Everton, Tottenham, Chelsea and Manchester City after Stoke, in the expectation that they will push on thereafter.

 

While Rodgers boasts enough attacking options to fill an entire team and places on the substitutes' bench, the conundrum he must show he has finally come to terms with at the start of his fourth season in charge is ensuring Liverpool are hard to beat.

Outscoring opponents week in, week out is unrealistic, as the heartache of the 2013-14 season showed, and unless there is new-found defensive resolve then hopes of infiltrating the top four, presently optimistic, will quickly look fanciful.

The shambles which unfolded back in May on what was former skipper Steven Gerrard's final game for his boyhood club was the antithesis of everything Rodgers believes he stands for as a manager.

 

"Yes I have (watched the video) and it was very difficult to sit through," he said. "The identity of what you stand for, in terms of organisation and commitment and fight - forget quality, forget talent as that is irrelevant - you have got to be able to fight and you have to be hard to beat.

"You have to do the basics well. All those elements of football, we failed in. It was a surreal experience, if I am honest.

"I am sure the supporters - rightly so - were absolutely devastated by that result. It makes us even more determined to put it right.

"That was the worst (day of my career) by a long way. I don't think any of my teams have ever conceded that number of goals in my years in football.

"There were great lessons learned from that from a collective and a personal perspective. I take total responsibility for it."

Rodgers added: "We'll certainly be better than we were last year, that's for sure."

It must be both a threat and a promise.