Brendan Rodgers wants Liverpool to be ‘defensively sound’

Brendan Rodgers has urged Liverpool to be “defensively sound” ahead of their fourth-round FA Cup clash against Bournemouth on Saturday.

The Reds have been leaking goals at an alarming rate after conceding seven goals in two games against relegation-threatened Aston Villa and Stoke City.

We want to be defensively sound

Brendan Rodgers

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has been forced to reshuffle his back four on several occasions due to injuries to Daniel Agger, Mamadou Sakho and Jose Enrique.

And the 40-year-old admits individual errors which have surfaced this season are a result of the forced changes made to his defence.

“It’s certainly been nothing systematic,” Rodgers said.

“We’ve made individual errors this season and I think part of that has been about the balance of the back four, which has been difficult because we’ve had so much change.

“But the players have still done very, very well. We had a meeting this morning about heading into the next number of games having that stability in the team, which is important.

“As much as we want to be offensive, it’s very important to have that tactical discipline and as I’ve said, we’ve got players here who have a strong mentality. As well as scoring goals, we want to be defensively sound.”