Rodgers: We cannot entertain title challenge

Rodgers' side were the top-flight's surprise package last season, rising from a seventh-placed finish in 2012-13 to run Manchester City agonisingly close in the battle for the title.

However, Liverpool - shorn of last term's top scorer Luis Suarez, who moved to Barcelona in July - have struggled at the beginning of this campaign, losing three of their first five Premier League games.

Their latest defeat came in a 3-1 reverse at West Ham on Saturday and Rodgers knows his team are performing well below the level required to compete at the very top of the division, suggesting that Liverpool's challenge last season came ahead of schedule.

However, the Northern Irishman is confident the Anfield club will get better as the campaign wears on.

"I've always said that we're a work in progress," Rodgers told his post-match media conference at Upton Park.

"Everyone would realise that we arrived early at where we were last year. Everyone will look at Manchester City and Chelsea as the two squads that are really set up [for a title challenge], but there are no limits on what we want to achieve at Liverpool.

"We just need to keep moving forward, I think that is the key for us this season, to keep progressing.

"But at this moment in time, we've lost three out of our five games - we need to be much better.

"I don't think we can entertain talk [of the title] until we get some consistency. We showed our potential in the Tottenham game [Liverpool won 3-0 at White Hart Lane before the international break] and we need to look to get back to that level as quick as we can.

"At this point of last season, we weren't playing at the level we did in the last three or four months of the season.

"I remember last season everyone asking if we'd get enough goals and we finished the season with 101 goals.

"That is something over the course of the season that will take place."