Brendan Rodgers has identified his decision to offload Andy Carroll as a major factor in Luis Suárez's improvement as a goalscorer at Liverpool.

On Saturday Liverpool will host West Ham United, the injured Carroll's present club, with Suárez looking to continue the form that has produced a remarkable 25 goals in his last 24 league appearances and which Anfield officials hope to reward with a new contract. Liverpool want to improve his current deal, that has two and a half years remaining, and avoid another summer of uncertainty over the striker next year.

The 26-year-old's output has improved significantly since Rodgers arrived at Anfield and his four goals against Norwich City in midweek made him the Premier League's leading goalscorer this term, despite only returning from suspension on 25 September. Rodgers believes making Suárez the focal point of Liverpool's attack at the expense of Carroll marked the turning point for the Uruguay international.

He said: "What we try to do here is create the environment for the elite player and he is an elite player. I had to make a call last year by letting Andy Carroll go out and create a situation where we could get the benefit out of Luis's talent. But he still had to perform and he has done that tremendously well. It was maybe said that he needed a lot of chances to score goals before but his goals record was still fairly good. Now it is an opportunity and it's a goal."

Carroll joined West Ham on an initial season-long loan last season before Liverpool took a £20m hit for their £35m record signing to join Sam Allardyce's team on a permanent basis in the summer.

The Liverpool manager explained: "My thinking was that if Luis is playing with a big guy he is playing off the second ball, and his anticipation skills are very good. But I just felt that wouldn't benefit him because when you play with a big target man it is hard not to make that the focal point of your team. Everything has to be set up around the big guy and sometimes you get sucked into going more direct and my history as a coach is not to work that way.

"Removing that means you have to connect your game better though the lines. Possession is not good enough on its own, you have to penetrate. With a player like Luis, who is always on the move in between spaces and in behind, that serves him best. He can drift all over the back line, he spins on the shoulder, he has got that freedom, and then other players go in and take the place. He's not one of them ones, when you look at the goals that he has scored in my time, there has not been too many that have been from whipped-in crosses, which to be fair big Andy was brilliant at. The style has exploited his qualities."