Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers talks to the press about looking forward to the Sunderland match

Brendan Rodgers believes one of the main causes of Liverpool's calamitous end to the transfer window has been resolved with the appointment of a new scouting team at Anfield.

The Liverpool manager had admitted there were "operational issues we need to sort out" with the club's owners after loaning Andy Carroll to West Ham United then failing on deadline day to land Clint Dempsey. One has since been addressed with the arrival from Manchester City of Dave Fallows as head of scouting and recruitment, together with Barry Hunter, formerly City's chief scout for Italy, Russia and Switzerland.

Fallows and Hunter, who were approached by Liverpool before Rodgers's appointment as manager, were placed on gardening leave by City and able to commence work at Anfield only after the close of the transfer window.

The Liverpool manager concedes the Dempsey deal would still have collapsed had his scouting team been installed earlier as "availability and affordability" ultimately determine whether a player is signed.

But Rodgers, who insists his say is final on transfer targets, is confident Liverpool have corrected a major flaw from their approach to the last transfer window. He said: "I've had long chats with the owners. Our scouting team wasn't in place. I've seen one or two things written about a technical team but every football club has a technical team. Let's not say we are trying to reinvent the wheel here. We had a manager but we didn't have a scouting department. Thankfully those guys have now come in and hopefully they'll do a terrific job.

"Operationally these are things we needed to sort out as well as learning from the process. It's a new manager, working with a new group of people. I'm sure the owners will have gone away and reflected on things. We had a couple of good conversations with them, and we learn from that and move on."

Rodgers and Hunter were at Reading together and, despite not instigating the arrivals, the manager insisted: "They were appointments I was fully aware of. I've known Barry for a long time and Dave also. Dave was already in the offing to come here. From Dave's position, he would only accept the job if someone like myself was coming in."

The head of analytics, Michael Edwards, remains part of the team around Rodgers. The manager, seeking his first league win with Liverpool at Sunderland on Saturday, added: "I can only repeat what I said when I came here – I'm not a power freak. I don't need to do everything on my own. The modern-day manager can't do that. But you have the final say on players, there's absolutely no question about that. If I want a player and we can't afford it, that's a different matter. Then it comes back to availability and affordability."

Rodgers has also claimed Liverpool will not rush to reward Raheem Sterling with a new contract, although the promising winger is expected to sign an improved deal when he turns 18 in December. Sterling was called into the England squad against Ukraine by Roy Hodgson, purely for the experience, but that has not altered the manager's handling of the talented teenager.

"After I spoke to Roy Hodgson and I had got through to Raheem, my next call was to his agent," the Liverpool manager said. "I wanted to let him know the news was coming out but to make sure that he wasn't jumping in the car up to Liverpool to have a chat with me when it did. I want to manage the expectation of the kid. The last thing we need is an announcement he has signed a five-year contract after two games. There has been dialogue between me, Raheem and the agent, and that has been it. There has been nothing official. The biggest thing that distorts the reality of people and footballers is money. I worked with players at Swansea who had spent their lives in football and not earned more than two grand a week. Now you are seeing young players who are multi-millionaires. No matter what you say, it takes the edge off them. The point I have made to Raheem – and he has been brilliant, to be fair – is that he will earn it. He will be rewarded in time."