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Brendan Rodgers happy with Liverpool squad despite Deadline Day disappointment

Ian Ayre failed to get the Yevhen Konoplyanka deal done.

LIVERPOOL BOSS BRENDAN Rodgers insists he is happy with his squad, despite a failed deadline-day move for Yevhen Konoplyanka.

A delegation from Anfield travelled to Ukraine in an attempt to seal a deal for the Dnipro winger, although an agreement could not be reached.

Reports suggested Dnipro’s unwillingness to sell was a crucial factor in the bid’s collapse, but Rodgers in nevertheless enthused by what he has available to him.

After 23 games of the Premier League season, Liverpool sit fourth and the former Swansea City boss sees no reason why his charges cannot keep that form going.

He told the club’s official website: “If you look at the position that we’re in with 15 games to go, we have shown consistently that we have the squad to compete.

“The benefit of the second half of the season is that there is still a lot of development left in a lot of our players. We have a lot of young players playing in the team who are growing and improving all the time.

“Them gaining experience and playing games, with the consistency of the team, adds up for a really exciting last 15 games for us.”

Liverpool also saw a January move for Mohamed Salah fail as the Egypt winger opted to move to Chelsea instead, and Rodgers bemoaned the difficulty of doing business in the January window.

He explained: “I think it’s difficult in order to bring certain players in that are going to help us immediately.

“The availability of the player, and of course the affordability, are always the two factors involved in getting a player in.

“It certainly hasn’t been because of a lack of work by the football club. There are lots of people who have worked tirelessly to identify and find the right types of players. A lot of those players haven’t been able to become available for us.”

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15 Comments
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    Mute conor fitzpatrick
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    Feb 1st 2014, 12:36 PM

    Rodgers needs to take off the blinkers its easy to blame ayre but why are we looking at attacking players we’re scoring for fun its a defensive midfielder & a left back we need . rodgers has us playing great stuff but he forgets about the defence .we’ve been playing with 10 men for the last 5 or 6 games as cissokho is a disaster & we’re conceding silly goals

    57
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    Mute Captain Hernia
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    Feb 1st 2014, 12:57 PM

    Couldn’t agree more Conor. Cissoko is a diaster waiting to happen.

    40
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    Mute Lee Wolverson
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    Feb 1st 2014, 12:09 PM

    Last minute madness again from Liverpool.. Never do things the easy way, it’s not like they had a whole month to sign a player.

    49
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    Mute Will
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    Feb 1st 2014, 12:22 PM

    Ian Ayre seems to be as useful as a chocolate teapot.

    75
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    Mute Keith Barr
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    Feb 1st 2014, 12:35 PM

    Shocking is the only way to describe the window for Liverpool

    42
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    Mute Ciaran Purdy
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    Feb 1st 2014, 12:57 PM

    I for one am happy we didnt sign Salah and the Ukranian lad, we’re not exactly light in that area of the field, they needed to strengthen midfield as a priority, if everybody else can see that doesn’t really shine well on Rodgers in my opinion, the big teams have got a lot of joy against us through the middle, even Aston Villa dominated us in midfield two weeks ago, if they hit a blank up front were screwed as we won’t be able to close out games if 1 up and evens sometimes at 2 up your not confident.

    26
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    Mute Jason Naughton
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    Feb 1st 2014, 12:36 PM

    Could have dodged a bullet here. Let’s get CL and sign people like Silva, Navas and Negredo.

    21
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    Mute Aidan Swipe Gannon
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    Feb 1st 2014, 1:08 PM

    From a football point of view Liverpool deserve 4th on current form

    33
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    Mute Cormac Flanagan
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    Feb 1st 2014, 2:06 PM

    From a utd fan there is only two ways Liverpool won’t get 4th. 1) dip in form in Suarez. But can’t see that happening. I reckon the minimum he’ll score in the rest the rest of the season is 10 goals. Or 2) injuries.

    17
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    Mute Gavin Doyle
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    Feb 1st 2014, 2:46 PM

    Fair play to Ayre and Rodgers they didn’t do what they done in the past and go and waist 55 million on a downing and a Carroll .

    They identified a player a left sided player that we do need his club made it difficult so we didn’t get him if we go back in the summer for him it would prob be half the price .

    Liverpool have ten backs injured don’t need any more backs and Henderson is finally starting to show why he was bought .

    United bought because they are desperate the price they paid is January inflation for a player that his club didn’t even want so what does that say about them .

    Liverpool have finally sorted out not buying players for the sake of it and for a good price for the club look at the amount of players Benitez bought and how many succeeded .

    YNWA

    17
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    Mute Moneybags
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    Feb 1st 2014, 1:36 PM

    Because of the Mata deal I think Ayre has taken over the mantle of worst CE 2013/14

    10
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    Mute John Geary
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    Feb 1st 2014, 4:31 PM

    Not too worried about not getting this lad or Salah…. though looks like Rodgers doesn’t fancy Moses.. We need to buy a defensive mid… we’re in trouble after losing Lucas & don’t have anyone good enough to slot in – think that should be a priority. .. wrt centre back, would love to see Kelly getting a run there…he might save us a few quid – don’t think he’s a full back, not great going forward, his strength is defending….

    9
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    Mute Dan
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    Feb 1st 2014, 3:35 PM

    This is all down to Andy Carroll. LFC were burnt by these same tactics from Newcastle and payed waaaay over the odds to get the player before the window closed. They could not risk it happening again.
    In reality they dont need another winger/striker and def dont need to risk a fella playing in the Ukrainian league.

    9
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    Mute 9times
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    Feb 1st 2014, 3:27 PM

    Quite embarrassing Jan window for Ayre and LFC. First Salah and trying to get the deal on the cheap and dittering and now last night when it looked like the deal was done.
    Will certainly harm the title push as both quality players.

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    Mute Pablo
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    Feb 2nd 2014, 10:45 AM

    Looking forward to seeing Salah on the bench

    3
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