• Premier League

Rodgers: I feared Liverpool would sack me

Brendan Rodgers admits Liverpool's defeat at Crystal Palace in November left him fearing for his job at Anfield.

Liverpool have not lost in the Premier League in 2015, and are just two points behind fourth-placed Manchester United and only three adrift of third-placed Arsenal as they push for a Champions League spot.

A top-four finish had seemed unlikely after they lost 3-1 at Selhurst Park on November 23 - their third league defeat in a row - to sit 12th in the standings, a result that Rodgers admits forced him into a re-think.

Liverpool lost 3-1 at Selhurst Park in November © Getty Images

Enlarge

Related Links

• News: Liverpool's Emre Can: I can never replace Steven Gerrard
  
• News: Liverpool can hunt down City, says Henderson
  
• News: Liverpool's Sturridge soon back to brilliant best - Rodgers
  

"After that Palace game I felt that it doesn't matter how much support you have, the team is not functioning and it could not go on really," said Rodgers.

"But I certainly wasn't going to roll over and die. I will always fight for my life. I love it here and I want to be successful here.

"I understood the situation. My experience at Reading told me that. That's what I learned from my sacking there. I went in to Reading with the full backing of the chairman, who was great to me, and I got 20 games.

"Even though it was a three-year project and they wanted me there and I was the guy who knew the club more than anyone, I got the sack after 20 games. Funnily enough it had just started to pick up but they lost their patience.

"What I learned was it does not matter how much support you have in the boardroom, from the directors, the executives, you have to get results and you have to win.

"I needed to make decisions that would allow us to get back to somewhere near what we had been and the transformation of the team, with everyone talking about the system and how dynamic it is, has been good to see. I should have done it earlier!"

Liverpool's struggles continued as they suffered early elimination from the Champions League in the group stage with defeat to Basel at Anfield, and Rodgers admits that was the turning point.

"It was not working," he said. "We had a huge challenge - probably the biggest I have had as a coach or manager. We had no identity and everyone could see it. We just weren't the team I had built.

"You try to give everyone a chance but it just wasn't happening for us and of course that can eat away at you. Every manager will tell you the same, you're thinking of the game all the time, locking yourself in a room and analysing, looking at ways to make the team function.

"I knew I had to do something radical because I had seen enough of the players to know we were not going to shape up and work as we had done for the previous couple of years with what we had got. I am an innovative coach, and I needed to find a way to make us play better."

It was for the trip to Manchester United that Rodgers introduced the 3-4-2-1 system that has revived Liverpool's season.

The 3-0 defeat they suffered at Old Trafford is Liverpool's only defeat in 12 league games using the formation, with eight victories and three draws.

"I knew I needed to do something earlier than when I did do it," admits Rodgers. "We played the system away at Newcastle but I couldn't really work on the system in training because we didn't have the players available at the time. At Newcastle Raheem Sterling played as one of the wide players. So what did I get out of that game apart from a loss? I learned that Raheem probably won't be able to play wide in what I was looking to do because he's not in the game enough. He was on the side.

"I was looking at it then and used it in the cup games so I knew what I wanted to do earlier, but after Newcastle we had Real Madrid [in the Champions League] and I wasn't going to go into a game of that magnitude with a system that I knew needed more work on.

"It was just about the timing and the timing was right for the Manchester United game. By that stage I was comfortable that we had the players to make it work."

Brendan Rodgers changed Liverpool's formation © Getty Images

Enlarge

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd