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Brendan Rodgers insists Liverpool FC 's squad can cope with upcoming games with Real Madrid and Chelsea.

The Reds face a critical week in their season, starting with Saturday's Premier League trip to Newcastle United. They follow that by travelling to Spain for a crucial Champions League fixture on Tuesday night, before hosting league leaders Chelsea at Anfield four days later.

Rodgers' side have been far from their best throughout a difficult start to the campaign, but the Reds boss is confident his squad can deliver for him, in what he described as "an exciting time for the club".

“It's why we strengthened the squad, for weeks like this,” he said. “We made nine changes from the team against Hull to the team against Swansea on Tuesday, and came out with a victory.

“It's a really exciting week, and that's the key. Newcastle will be a tough game, but one that we will relish. And that's the only focus really, we will look to get the three points and go from there.

“We will come into the Newcastle game with big confidence. We had an excellent result the other night, and we played as well as we've done all season in the first half.

In pictures: Liverpool train ahead of Newcastle trip

“We showed the resilience and the character of the players to come back and get a victory against a very good side.

“A couple of years ago, we made a lot of changes for a League Cup game (also against Swansea) and were comprehensively beaten. On Tuesday we made nine changes, won the game and are into the quarter finals. We'll look to take that confidence into the game at the weekend.”

Rodgers will again be without striker Daniel Sturridge for Saturday's game, with the England man still recovering from a calf problem.

In Sturridge's absence , Liverpool have generally struggled to find their attacking groove this season. But Rodgers says he was encouraged by the form of some of his forgotten men in the midweek win over Swansea.

He said: “It's up to myself to find the solution to that. The players are working very, very hard. They're still learning about each other, and I think this sometimes gets missed.

“I can see each day, the relationship between the players and the connection is growing.

“When you have players out, that is more difficult, but you need to find the solution in different ways. That's what we've been trying to do, and as each day goes by I sense that we're getting better.

“With Daniel out, it's a miss, but it's also an opportunity. We saw the other night, we gave opportunities to those who haven't featured so much, and they were outstanding.

“ Fabio Borini was excellent , a real threat and put a wonderful cross in for the first goal. Lucas Leiva hasn't played much, but came in and was excellent alongside Jordan Henderson. Rickie Lambert hasn't had many opportunities, but had some nice touches, and young Markovic played on the left hand side, we have big confidence in him.

“Those players will get their chance, and we're confident they can take that chance.”

Rodgers confirmed that Jose Enrique would miss the weekend's game with a knee problem, joining Sturridge and Jon Flanagan on the sidelines. Other than that, he has a fully fit squad to choose from.