Rodgers: We must push for Champions League

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers admits the club will have to at least give an indication they are capable of qualifying for the Champions League if they are to attract top-quality players.

The Reds have failed to finish in the top four in the last three seasons and that has undoubtedly impacted on the signings successive managers have been able to make.

Nine points separate them and fourth-placed Chelsea but Liverpool could strike a significant psychological blow if they beat Tottenham, who are only four points better off than them, at White Hart Lane tonight.

Spurs have shown over the last couple of years what effect the lure of Europe’s elite club competition — combined with a healthy transfer budget — can have. In the summer they signed two of Liverpool’s major targets midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson and forward Clint Dempsey from under the nose of Rodgers as a result of better financial backing.

The Reds boss knows he cannot compete with the money counterpart Andre Villas-Boas has at his disposal and accepts rebuilding for a top-four challenge may take a while.

“Over the course of the summer they invested something in the region of £55m net in terms of everything they were putting into the group,’ said the Reds boss.

“But it is not just in the last window, Tottenham have been building the group steadily and have worked their way up the league to become challenges for those Champions League positions.

“Of course Liverpool want to be in for the top players and top talents and this is a club which will bring those players here. But obviously a lot of players want to be in the Champions League so if they want to come in here that is an area we want to get into in the coming years.

“We know we are not too far away and are very close to be arriving in that zone that we want to be in.”

Meanwhile Spurs manager Andre Villas-Boas Villas-Boas is fully aware of the danger Luis Suarez, who has reportedly attracted the interest of Manchester City this season, will pose at White Hart Lane.

“He is an extremely good player. The amount of riot he creates up front on his own is absolutely incredible,” Villas-Boas said.

“His range of movements is immense. He has a strong mentality and that’s what makes him a great player.”

Villas-Boas has had a rampaging striker of his own to rely upon this season in Jermain Defoe. Defoe scored his ninth and 10th goals of the season on Sunday in the impressive 3-1 win over West Ham and Villas-Boas could not be happier with the 30-year-old.

“I’m extremely happy with him,” the Spurs manager said.

“He is an excellent professional and works hard with a smile on his face.”