Rodgers' First Thoughts On Liverpool Move

Former Swansea City manager Brendan Rodgers told the Evening Post his thoughts on his move to Liverpool.

The 39 year-old made the decision to quit the Swans this week as Liverpool were successful with a second approach for the promising young coach.

The Irishman must have thought it was a risk worth taking to join a club like Liverpool, but the board and fans will demand success early on. They didn't give Roy Hodgson, a far more proven manager, any time to build a squad, will they be more patient with the less experienced Brendan? He must have at least once thought back to his short spell at Reading, when he was sacked following a poor run of results.

Rodgers admits he'll need time at Liverpool to get the team playing his own style of attractive passing football:

'The challenge is to keep improving the group,'

'It's about getting into the real world. It's a group that I think in a couple of years can be competitive at the top end, but I will need to spend a little bit of money and I will need time to work. I will need time to bring my identity into the team — I need time to impose my philosophy on the group.

'There are some wonderful players at Liverpool, but to bring all that into the team is going to take a wee bit of time.

'It's a job where I need to align the playing identity and style and success with the supporters, because the supporters at Liverpool are renowned.'

'I said before that I liken the Liverpool supporters to the Swansea supporters because of their education in the game, and I said that long before any of this came about. That's a massive part of the draw for me. The two clubs are very similar in that they are both class acts.

'The supporters at both clubs are brilliant. They are very passionate about their clubs, they love their cities and they are very educated in football terms.

'I believe there's a similar feel going into Liverpool as there was when I came into Swansea.'

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.