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Brendan Rodgers admits putting his Anfield reign back on track was the biggest challenge of his career.

The Reds go into Wednesday night’s home clash with Burnley on a high after a blistering run of eight wins and three draws in their past 11 league matches.

A season has been transformed with Liverpool FC re-igniting their push for a Champions League spot and progressing to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.

It’s a far cry from their struggles earlier in the campaign when Rodgers found himself under increasing pressure.

With Luis Suarez gone, Daniel Sturridge injured and a clutch of new signings failing to impress, the Reds were a pale shadow of the side which had lit up the Premier League during the previous season’s title challenge.

Their fall reached its nadir at Selhurst Park in November when Crystal Palace inflicted a fourth successive defeat. The support of owners Fenway Sports Group remained unwavering but Rodgers was feeling the heat.

“We had no identity and everyone could see it,” he said.

“I probably was low because it was not working. We had a huge challenge, probably the biggest I have had as a coach or manager, at a club the size of this one, where I love being.

“We just weren’t the team I had built over a couple of years. You try to give everyone a chance but it just wasn’t happening for us and of course that can eat away at you.”

IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW MUCH SUPPORT YOU HAVE, YOU NEED TO GET RESULTS

The memories of being sacked by Reading in 2009 were still painfully fresh and Rodgers knew he had to quickly find solutions to the array of problems facing him.

“I certainly wasn’t going to roll over and die. I have always been that way and always will fight for my life,” he said.

“I love it here and I want to be successful here. And after the Palace game in particular, I felt it doesn’t matter how much support you have, the team is not functioning and it could not go on really. I respect and understand that.

“My experience at Reading told me that. That’s what I learned from that sacking. I went in 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 had moulded the club more than anyone, I got the sack after 20 games.

“Funnily enough when I did get the sack we were just starting to pick up. We had a lot of young players, we’d lost 14 players that summer, they wanted to rebuild and it was quite radical in terms of how I was asking them to play on the back of how they had before, which was a direct game.

“It just started to turn a bit, but they just lost their patience. What I learned from that was it does not matter how much support you might have in the boardroom, from the directors, the executives, you have to get results and you have to win.

“I call that a fortunate period in my career because I learned that from then and that paved the way for my learning here.

“I needed to make sure that I was going to make decisions which would allow us to get back to at least somewhere near where we were.”

CHANGE OF FORMATION SO VITAL TO REDS’ TRANSFORMATION

Initially, in the wake of that defeat to Palace, progress was slow. A scrappy draw away to Ludogorets, league wins over Stoke and Leicester and a stalemate with Sunderland before Liverpool crashed out of the Champions League after failing to beat Basel at Anfield.

It was in the days that followed that crushing disappointment that Rodgers burned the midnight oil and came up with the tactical tweaks which have proved so effective.

The Reds went to Old Trafford and played 3-4-2-1 with Raheem Sterling pushed into a central attacking role. Sterling’s energy and movement helped Liverpool rediscover their creative spark.

Chances went begging and defensive errors were punished as United ran out 3-0 winners but the general improvement was clear.

Rodgers kept faith with that system and since then the Reds have taken 27 points out of a possible 33. Their exciting revival reached new heights with Sunday’s impressive victory over Manchester City.

I HAD TO PICK THE RIGHT TIME TO MAKE THE CHANGES

New boys like Emre Can, Lazar Markovic, Alberto Moreno and Adam Lallana have started to show their worth and Liverpool have got their identity back.

“Every manager will tell you the same, you’re thinking of the game all the time, you’re locking yourself in a room and analysing and looking at ways to make the team function,” he said.

“I knew I had to do something fairly radical because I had seen enough of the players to know we were not going to be able to shape up and work and play 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 is a complex way in which we are working and playing but it suits what we have. I knew I needed to do something earlier than when I did do it.

“We played the system away at Newcastle but I couldn’t really work on it in training because we didn’t have the time.

“At Newcastle, Raheem played as one of the wide players. 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.

“I knew what I wanted to do earlier but after Newcastle we had Real Madrid and I wasn’t going to go into a game of that magnitude with a system that I knew I 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.

“I think the transformation in the team has been really good to see and to see the confidence, and everyone talking about the system and how dynamic it is, and the fluency. I should have done that earlier!”

STERLING SETS THE TONE WITH HIS PRESSING

The decision to turn Sterling into a striker proved inspired as the youngster quickly shrugged off the disappointment of that afternoon at Old Trafford. The 20-year-old has since taken his tally for the season to 10 goals and is the Reds’ joint top scorer with Steven Gerrard.

Rodgers says Sterling sets the tone with his relentless running when Liverpool are looking to win back possession.

“When you have so many attacking players who are gifted technically you need to get them on the ball as high up the field as you can,” Rodgers added.

“In order to do that you need to be able to press the ball. That’s how I work. Even in Besiktas, we struggled to press the game.

“Raheem is so important to what we do wherever he plays but when he plays in that central role, his movement, which is so dynamic, it sparks off other passes. And his pressing is so important too.

“Adam Lallana has intensity in his pressing, so does Coutinho, Jordan Henderson and Joe Allen, and that’s where I think Manchester City had the problem. Raheem, as the focal point, is key to that.”