AFP, Burnley :
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers is confident his side can still go on to enjoy a successful season as they go in search of some Christmas cheer at Burnley on Friday.
Liverpool are 10th in the Premier League and have no realistic chance of repeating last season’s title challenge, having not failed to win in their last three league games and recording just one away league win since mid-October.
But just one defeat in eight games in all competitions at least hints at some resilience and Rodgers has been encouraged by his team’s recent performances.
Liverpool booked a place in the semi-finals of the League Cup by winning 3-1 at second-tier Bournemouth last week and scored late to draw 2-2 with Arsenal at Anfield last Sunday.
After their trip to third-bottom Burnley, Liverpool sign off for 2014 with a home game against Rodgers’s former side Swansea City before facing bottom club Leicester at Anfield on New Year’s Day. And the manager believes they can make amends for a poor start to the season.
“The opening part of this season has been less impressive. That’s the reality of it. We haven’t hit anywhere near the heights that we would expect,” Rodgers said. “There have been reasons for that, which we don’t want to go on about all the time. “But what I have seen in these last numbers of weeks is that belief and confidence starting to grow again.
“Our performance level, which is key to me as that will bring us results, is starting to return, so hopefully we can finish the remainder of the year in a confident spirit and then go into the New Year and really look to attack the second part of the season.
“If we do that, we are still in cup competitions, and we could have a very good year despite all the doom and gloom maybe that was around in the first part of the season.”
