Brendan Rodgers’ pre-WBA Press Conference: Konoplyanka update, team news

On Friday afternoon — transfer deadline day — Brendan Rodgers addressed a room of journalists at Melwood ahead of this Sunday’s clash between West Brom and Liverpool at the Hawthorns.

Video: Watch Brendan Rodgers’ pre-Chelsea Press Conference

Follow transfer deadline day with our liveblog…

On transfer deadline day…

There’s no update on Yevhen Konoplyanka. There’s an interest in the player, but we’ll see how it evolves. It’s a little complicated.

The staff over in Ukraine have done really well to put us in the position we’re in, but time is against us. We’ll see what happens.

We’re still building and growing the group so we’ll need a number of players, but January is a difficult market to do that in.

New players can come in and freshen up the group, but I’m happy with the players I’ve got if we don’t bring anyone in.

But let’s hope we can do something. Konoplyanka is the only signing there could be.

On Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge‘s partnership…

Everyone talks about Sturridge/Suarez as a partnership, but I see them as two very talented individual players. Both are outstanding.

We had a number of outstanding performers the other night [against Everton], not just Sturridge and Suarez. We were outstanding across the team.

We’ve grown and as I look back at my time here in 18 months, we’ve come a long way since losing to West Brom away last season.

Suarez’s cleverness and cuteness with the ball for his goal against Everton ended with a composed, outstanding finish.

On losing his first game in charge of Liverpool at West Brom in August 2012…

We’ve grown and as I look back at my time here in 18 months, we’ve come a long way since losing to West Brom away last season.

Over the 18 months, we’ve implemented a method to our play, we’ve become a team and we’ve got character in bucket loads.

My focus is only on us and respecting every opponent we play. We’ll be ready and prepared this Sunday.

On wanting to sign attacking options…

The idea was to always bring in quality. We’ve got goals in the side, we’re a threat. Over the course of the season we’ve shown that.

But you can never have too much quality and if we can bring in another quality player, that would be excellent.

On injuries and team news against West Brom

Joe Allen will be back to play West Brom on Sunday. He’s looked good in training so that’s important.

Glen Johnson’s working really hard with the medical team, but there’s no timeline on that yet.

We’re disappointed with Jose Enrique’s recovery. Agger and Sakho are still out, but we’re slowly getting there with Flanagan coming back.

West Brom vs Liverpool gets underway at 1.30pm on Sunday, 2nd February 2014. It’s live on Sky Sports 1.

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