Brendan Rodgers suggests he wasn't sufficiently backed in the transfer market at Liverpool

Brendan Rodgers

Brendan Rodgers has criticised Liverpool's owners for not supplying him with the defenders he wanted.

The Leicester boss has overseen a fine start to the season at the King Power Stadium, with Saturday's 2-0 victory over Arsenal moving his side into second place.

The Foxes are now eight points clear of the fifth-placed Gunners in the race for the Champions League qualification spots.

Their excellent form has been built on a solid defence, with no other team in the division able to match or better their record of eight goals conceded in 12 matches.

Rodgers' Liverpool sides were not always the most watertight at the back, but the Northern Irishman believes the blame does not lie with him.

"I think if you look when I was in Scotland [with Celtic] we had defensive records as well," he said.

"At Liverpool of course we were very good going forward, you have to ask did I have the players to defend how we’d want to defend? I think now at Liverpool they obviously invest a lot of money to get those types of players in.

"Here I’ve got a top-level centre-half in Jonny Evans, a young player in Caglar [Soyuncu] beside him who’s amazing. We’ve got a top European goalkeeper [Kasper Schmeichel]."

Leicester have been tipped to challenge Liverpool for the Premier League title this term, but Rodgers insists he is not focusing on the top prize.

“I suppose we have thrown a hand grenade right into the middle of the top four. But we're not thinking about the title race. We're thinking about developing a team and improving the players. That is our only focus.

“Our job is to hope to be in the top four. I said when I came here that it would be great to play European football."

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Greg Lea

Greg Lea is a freelance football journalist who's filled in wherever FourFourTwo needs him since 2014. He became a Crystal Palace fan after watching a 1-0 loss to Port Vale in 1998, and once got on the scoresheet in a primary school game against Wilfried Zaha's Whitehorse Manor (an own goal in an 8-0 defeat).