Football
Kevin Palmer 9y

Brendan Rodgers praises Sterling and Liverpool after Bournemouth win

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers poured praise on his match-winner Raheem Sterling after his side set up a Capital One Cup semifinal against Chelsea with a 3-1 win at Bournemouth.

Rodgers suggested his 20-year-old forward had come in for undue criticism over the last few months, as he hinted the expectations surrounding the England star may have been a little too lofty at the start of this season.

"He has got a wee bit of stick Raheem over the last while or so, which I find incredible," Rodgers told Sky Sports. "He has been outstanding for us.

"Last season, he was a young kid at 18 or 19 years of age, playing up top with some world class players. This season, he hasn't got that. This is the reality and a lot of focus has been on him.

"He has not scored the goals that maybe people expect of him, but that's not what I expect. I expect him to create goals and score goals over the course of the season.

"You see him tonight in the strikers role and we want to see him getting between people and not get tackled. Spin in behind and his pace and dribbling ability is there to see."

Rodgers deployed Sterling in a central striking role at Bournemouth, as he opted to leave Rickie Lambert on the bench and the Liverpool boss believes it is a position the youngster can thrive in.

"He can play across the front line," he continued. "His best position is on the left, dipping inside, making runs in behind, creating one vs. ones. I put him in the position because I believe he can play in it. He played there in the youth team at Liverpool and he has the quality to do it.

"He is, as you can see, happy and enjoying his football. At Old Trafford he was unfortunate not to score and in that role he plays you think of Alexis Sanchez when he plays for Arsenal.

"He is not an out-and-out striker but his speed in front of the back four and behind them causes problems and you've seen that with him here, he can get it, turn and go at defenders.

"He has been like that all season and been a real catalyst for us."

Rodgers went on to suggest his team should relish the two semi-final clashes with Chelsea in the New Year, as he encouraged his players to embrace the challenge of taking on the team currently sitting at the top of the Premier League standings.

"It's Chelsea and we will look forward to that," he added. "It will be a fantastic tie. If you want to win this competition, you need to win games against the top sides.

"This game against Bournemouth was going to be a very difficult game for us, but our performance was brilliant and it doesn't matter who we got in the semi-finals. It was all about getting through and we have done that.

"I thought this was a brilliant performance from us. At Old Trafford on Sunday, even though we lost the game, I saw signs that I was happy with. Technically, the creativity was in our game really for the first time this season and we came into this really difficult game and created plenty of chances. We thoroughly deserved it."

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