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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Matt Maltby

Brendan Rodgers responds to accusation Liverpool were a one-man team in 2013-14

Former Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has rejected the public perception that their Premier League 2013/14 title bid was The Luis Suarez show.

Suarez was the Premier League's top scorer during his final season at Liverpool , when the Reds missed out on the title by just two points.

The Uruguayan superstar scored 31 Premier League goals in 33 appearances in his final year at the Reds and bagged 12 assists.

Suarez, now plying his trade in Spain with Barcelona , also won the PFA and FWA Player of the Year awards as well Liverpool's very own club accolades.

But Rodgers, who was sacked by the club in 2015 and is now in charge of a high-flying Leicester who travel to Anfield on Saturday, believes it was unjust criticism that the Reds were labelled a one-man team.

“It was unfair on every player,” he told The Telegraph ahead of his return to his former employers this weekend.

"The strikers obviously get the goals and Luis was also the one who started the press for us, set our intensity level, but he needed players around him.

“Look, his quality and imagination in the final third was amazing. When I came in I saw the strengths of him. He had been playing off big Andy [Carroll] in a 4-4-2 and people were telling me then he needed too many chances to score.

LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 05: Brendan Rodgers of Liverpool looks on prior to the the Barclays Premier League match between Crystal Palace and Liverpool at Selhurst Park on May 5, 2014 in London, England. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images) (Clive Rose)

"We just tried to set up the team to get him in the right areas centrally with numbers around him.

“It was the team that flourished. I have a memory of the home game against Arsenal in 2014 when five minutes before half-time the stadium stood up to give the players a standing ovation.

"That was not for one player. As a young manager stood on the touchline getting that warmth from a crowd that knows its football it was a big moment, which told me we were on the right way.”

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