Liverpool's season not over yet, says Rodgers

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers insists that the Reds have more to play for despite their Europa League exit against Zenit St Petersburg.

Two Luis Suarez goals and a Joe Allen goal helped Liverpool secured a 3-1 victory over Zenit on Thursday, but it proved insufficient as Hulk's early strike after pouncing an error from Jamie Carragher gave the Russian side the vital away goal to advance into the next round of the Europa League.

The elimination from the Europa League ends hopes of Rodgers ending his first season in charge with a trophy following their exits from the FA Cup and the League Cup, but the manager insists there is still much to play for in Liverpool's final 11 Barclays Premier League games of the season.

"Our season doesn't finish - and was never going to finish - until the final whistle against QPR," Rodgers told Liverpool's official website.

"This is a group that is growing all the time. You see the level of performance tonight - to dominate a team of that ilk and control the game like we did was incredible.

"For us going forward, it's to continue with how we've been working since the turn of the year. As the season has gone on, we've got better and improved. We want to carry that through until the very final whistle at the end of the season. You can see the players' hunger and determination to do that - and we'll look to do that in the last 11 games."

Rodgers reminded his players that they still have much to fight for in the league, where are nine points behind fourth-placed Tottenham, and aimed to consolidate their squad for a push for trophies next season.

"We just need to do our best. We're out of the cup competitions and that's something we'll look to put right going forward - we want to win trophies here," he added.

"The aim for the remainder of the season is to finish as high up the league as we possibly can. When I came here in the summer, that was the priority given to me and we want to finish as high as we possibly can.

"We can keep moving forward. I have seen great growth in the group and that will continue. We want to keep showing our quality, fight and spirit right the way through to the QPR game and then we'll all reassess in the summer.

"We'll be in a much better position come the beginning of next season because the framework will already be in place. It's difficult for the players with a new manager coming in with different ideas and work, but we're now starting to see there's a flow in it, they're comfortable with it and we're scoring goals and producing performances.

"To win tonight was great and hopefully that can continue."

Liverpool recorded a 5-0 win over Swansea over the weekend and will continue their league campaign next weekend when they travel to face Wigan at the DW Stadium.

Source: Fox Sport