Rodgers still looking for more firepower

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers wants to add quality attacking players to his squad before the start of the 2013/14 season.

If star striker Luis Suarez leaves Anfield before the start of the campaign, Rodgers may be facing problems he encountered a year ago.

The Northern Irishman was left with only Suarez and Fabio Borini as his senior forwards at the end of August, 2012, after allowing Andy Carroll to go on loan to West Ham, despite being linked with several players.

Rodgers is eager to avoid making the same mistake again and, speaking in Melbourne on Monday, said there needed to be additions up front at Liverpool after they missed out on signing former Shakhtar Donetsk forward Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who transferred to Borussia Dortmund instead.

“There’s obviously certain areas in the squad that we’re a bit thin in than we are in other areas,” Rodgers told reporters.

“We need a bit more support at the top end of the field and that’s something that we’re looking for.

“But it’s not really about the number of positions, it’s about quality and we still think there’s a few players that we want to get in of the right sort of quality.”

Spanish striker Iago Aspas joined Liverpool from Celta Vigo in June, while attacking midfielder Luis Alberto came across from Sevilla.

Scoring goals was a problem for Rodgers’ side last season before Daniel Sturridge made the move from Chelsea in January.

Rodgers is also eager to sign cover at left-back, with Spaniard Jose Enrique his first choice in the position heading into the campaign.

“That’ll be mixed with needing cover in the left-back position, that’s something we’re looking at. And we want that extra bit of quality at the top end of the field,” he said.

“If we can do that over the next number of weeks we’ll be happy.”