Rodgers happy to pay for lunch for Liverpool squad

Brendan Rodgers’ New Year promise to treat Liverpool if they won three games in a row has proved expensive.

Liverpool have won eight of their last 11 games, and the Merseyside club will be looking to build on that run when they face League One side Oldham in the FA Cup on Sunday.

“As one of the ways in which we have tried to get consistency into the team, I said in the New Year if we got three wins on the trot I would pay for lunch,” he told reporters.

“When they won at Mansfield, one of the first things they said in the changing room afterwards was, ‘You better get your money out.’ It ended up that last Friday was the first chance we had to go out.

“Team spirit is important and the more you are together and you can do that, your spirit just grows. Little small things like that, adding that one per cent can help you.

“They enjoyed it. I realised it could cost me a few bob when Glen Johnson was having apple tart.

“I might have to limit it to main courses, because we have started the run again… and it is me to pay again!

“But I don’t mind, I will do anything to get us winning.”

Despite the financial cost to Rodgers, the former Swansea manager stressed the benefits of his method for the squad.

“It is about togetherness. It is about good players, of course, but you need togetherness and the growth of that,” he said.

“Human nature is that people respond to rewards. You go back to school: If you did well in your maths, you got a little star. It gave them something to aim for.

“So now the run has started again, it might cost me a few bob but if it does I will be happy because it means we are doing all right.

“We will stick at getting three wins for now and then, once I am out of money, we can increase the target to a longer run of wins.”