Brendan Rodgers: Liverpool could suffer more setbacks

Brendan Rodgers has warned Liverpool’s fans to expect more ‘pain’ as his new-look squad try to overcome a disappointing start to the season.

The Reds have taken just seven points from their first six Premier League games, leaving them nine behind pacesetters Chelsea, while Wednesday’s Champions League defeat by Basle increased their woes.

Mario Balotelli has struggled to fill the void left by Luis Suarez’s summer departure and the other recruits are also finding their feet, with Rodgers admitting that some are feeling the pressure of playing for the Merseyside club.

This Saturday’s home game against West Brom gives the Reds a chance to rise up the table, but the manager admits there could be more setbacks ahead during this period of transition.

"I think the pain is for now," he said. "I think it's unfortunate.

"It's hard for the supporters and I understand that. It must be so difficult at the moment to see a team that for 18 months has been so fluent and dynamic.

"Now they probably look and see a team with maybe no resemblance to that in many ways. I understand that and there is no-one more frustrated than myself.

"We look at our game, which is based a lot on possession, but we were also a big threat in transition when we won the ball back and we were on the break.

"We don't look a threat on the break at the moment. We could argue that we don't even play in transition. We're getting no one in behind, no one breaking lines.

"Our team dynamic was dominating the game with the ball but also without the ball and without the ball means running and getting in behind people. We've done that for 18 months. We did it at Tottenham.”

Daniel Sturridge’s six-game absence with a thigh injury has piled more pressure on Liverpool’s misfiring attack and Rodgers is waiting to see if the England striker will be passed fit to face the Baggies.

"Once we lose that movement and speed of Daniel Sturridge - and the link-up of other people within that - it has broken the dynamic a little for us,” he said.

"We just have to persevere until I get the squad back - until we get Emre Can back, Joe Allen, Daniel and the others. Then I think we will return to that level. In the meantime it's been hard for the supporters and I totally understand that."

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