Rodgers: I am the same guy who nearly won us the league

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 26: (THE SUN OUT THE SUN ON SUNDAY OUT) Brendan Rodgers manager of Liverpool before the Barclays Premier League match between Liverpool and Aston Villa on September 26, 2015 in Liverpool, United Kingdom. (Photo by John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

Brendan Rodgers has accused his critics of having short memories and says he is a better manager than the one which led Liverpool to second.

Rodgers won the LMA Manager of the Year award after Liverpool's second-placed finish in the Premier League in 2013-14, and the Northern Irishman finds it strange that his achievements of the past have already been forgotten.

"I am the same guy who nearly won us the league, but better," Rodgers said.

"I think I have shown in the early stages of my management -- without being arrogant -- that with a talented group of players I can compete at the top end of the league. I know how to manage top players. If you give me the tools, I'll do the work.

"There are very short memories in football. The team was eighth when I got here. We built a team to excite people throughout European football, that should have won the league.

"All the good work gets forgotten. That's how it works. It seems the focus has not been on what's gone on and what we've been missing, but more about getting me out of the club. That's sad."

Rodgers said it was strange a "hysteria" had been created about Liverpool's start to the season despite the struggles of other major clubs in the Premier League, claiming there is "a group of people" that do not want him as manager at Anfield.

"There has been a frenzy, there is no doubt about that, to get me out of here," he added. "Whether that's a Liverpool hysteria or big-club hysteria, I am not so sure."