Rodgers determined to stay focused

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers insists his high-flying side have the mental fortitude to stay in the title race as they do not underestimate any opponent.

While much is being made of the significance of next month’s visits of Chelsea and Manchester City, their two main rivals, there are games to be won before that.

Sunderland visit tonight, followed by games against Tottenham and West Ham before the first of their two mouthwatering home clashes, when City come to Anfield.

Having twice gone behind at second-bottom Cardiff on the way to their 6-3 victory at the weekend, Liverpool’s next three opponents may sense they have a chance to upset the Reds’ run in.

But Rodgers is confident his players are in great mental shape and have the character to withstand the pressures in the final eight games.

“Every team that comes through and wins (the title) have to be in that situation at some stage,” he said.

“If you go back 10 years or so, Chelsea hadn’t won the league for 50 years when they eventually did win it.

“People may have questioned whether they had the mental strength to win it but when you do win no one then questions it.

“I only need to look at the squad and we certainly have the strength of character and we have shown that over a period of time.

“We are up in that top area where we want to be but we don’t underestimate any opponent.

“We are just continuing with the focus on a one-game strategy as that’s what keeps it simple.”

Rodgers accepts his team will never be perfect but it is the way they adapt to those imperfections and learn from their mistakes that he is more interested in. And all the while he knows they are capable of outscoring any team in the division, which is where his meticulous planning over the last 18 months is coming to fruition.

“The objective coming in was to make us a more attacking, potent force knowing the other stuff will improve as we go along and the players have responded magnificently to the ideas we are looking to implement,” added the former Swansea boss.

“We just work to make ourselves a more potent force. We are not perfect.”

Sunderland face a huge task at Anfield tonight as they attempt to bounce back from an abject display in Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Norwich which left them deep in relegation trouble.

They will arrive on Merseyside to confront a Reds juggernaut piloted largely by Luis Suarez, whose haul of 28 league goals to date this season is two more than Sunderland’s entire squad has managed.

Black Cats’ coach Gus Poyet has been aware of his countryman for some time, but admitted he did not expect him to catapult himself into the highest echelons of world football.

Poyet said: “I saw him once in a summer friendly game. He was just starting, I think he was 17 or 18. He was a powerful striker playing on his own, but of course, not the player we are seeing today.

“To be honest, I wasn’t even thinking he would be so good. He played a decent game, but now he is on another level.

“Now you can compare him with the top players in the world because he makes the difference somehow.”