Rodgers' delight at deadline day deals
Brendan Rodgers declared himself delighted with Liverpool's transfer business after a busy deadline day saw the club recruit three new faces – with the possibility of further arrivals before the close of the window.
The Reds completed deals for Mamadou Sakho, Tiago Ilori and Victor Moses on Monday and the manager was left highly satisfied with the day's events.
Rodgers also confirmed work will continue into the night on strengthening the squad even further before the 11pm BST deadline.
Brendan, it's a busy day - three players have come in. How pleased are you that you were able to complete those deals?
I'm obviously very pleased. The window this summer has been very productive for us. Sakho who we've brought in was probably a surprise for many people because he was highly rated at PSG and a French international player.
With the likes of him and Tiago Ilori, we've got one eye on now of course - you have to have a sense of the present and what we've got here are some really good centre-halves - but we're trying to build something here. Those two players, especially Sakho, can play in the team now, but we've got one eye on the future as well.
Young Ilori is a wonderful talent - he's a good size, he's elegant, strong, quick and can play the type of football we want to play. He was very much a coveted player throughout Europe. Those two players will add something to us, for sure, and make sure there's real competition in the defensive department of the team.
We've got Victor Moses on loan and he's a young player that I've known from when he first came into the country. I had him train with me at Chelsea for a few weeks when I was a youth coach there. He was at Crystal Palace and we wanted to sign him at Chelsea, but he ended up staying at Palace, which was a good move for him because he played in the first team, did very well and then got a move to Wigan.
So I've been aware of Victor for a long time and know his qualities. He's the type of offensive player I like - he's got terrific skill with the ball, is a wonderful technician and can go left side or right side. The crowd will love him because he wants to beat players, but he also has a real work ethic to him. We were delighted he became available at Chelsea because he is a player that can do very well for us.
You mentioned Mamadou Sakho was highly thought of at Paris Saint-Germain - how much of a coup was it for you to get him?
I think it's a massive one. He is a player they were not wanting to lose, but he'd made it known he wasn't going to sign another contract and it's something that our people here at the club were very much on top of. It's great thanks to them, their hard work and perseverance that we were able to attract someone with that calibre. He's a French international, he's played a number of their games, a player I know was very important to PSG. They brought in some other players so his game time was limited. At his age, the potential he has and his attributes - he's really powerful, quick and offers us balance as well as he can play left-side centre-half or at left-back - means there is real hot competition, not just in games but every day in training, and that will see us improve.
You said recently bringing in another attacking player could perhaps allow Philippe Coutinho to play as a No.10 - will Victor Moses allow that?
Victor can play anywhere across that front line, but probably his best position is on the left cutting in onto his right foot. That may allow Philippe more opportunities to play as that third man and be the connection between our midfield and front players. Philippe is a wonderful talent, he's a young boy who joined us in January of this year and has been fantastic. So hopefully that [Moses deal] will allow him to move inside, but there are going to be games where he'll play in a number of positions. That's the type of players we try to bring in - intelligent footballers who can play in a number of areas on the field - but Philippe will get the opportunity to play more in that No.10 role, which is probably his preferred position.
Strength in depth is a phrase often used in football - do you feel you have that now?
We've certainly got more competition and as a manager you always want more, but we're more than happy with the business we've done. We've added freshness to the group. What we were looking to bring in was hunger - even though Kolo Toure is 32, he's very hungry to succeed. I'll be happy when the window shuts, to be honest, then we'll have all of our players - and we've done great business over the course of the summer - and we'll run with that until January and see where we're at then. I'm sure we'll look to strengthen again and finish off the second part of the season like we did last season.
So a few hours of the window left...any more business?
There won't be much more. We may look to bring one more in and we're just waiting on the go-ahead for that from the other club, but apart from that we did a lot of work early and haven't tried to leave it all to this mad day which sees the whole of football go berserk. We've tried to be controlled and get the players in as early as we possibly could. It means I can go and enjoy a nice evening at the Bill Shankly dinner and look forward to seeing some of the great players of the past and some members of Bill's family. It should be a good evening with all the signings done.