Rodgers insists Suarez’s mindset is better than his bite

Brendan Rodgers will not have a quiet word to prepare Luis Suarez for the stick he will take from Chelsea fans this afternoon.

The Liverpool boss is sure that his striker is capable of riding out the anticipated torrent of abuse at Stamford Bridge.

That will be the backdrop to Suarez’s first meeting with the London club since he bit defender Branislav Ivanovic on the arm eight months ago.

Rodgers admits that the Uruguayan was in “a real bad place” in the immediate aftermath of the controversy and during his subsequent 10-match suspension.

But he believes he has transformed himself to become the Premier League’s best player.

“After the incident, there was a lot of self-reflection and Luis was really sorry,” says Rodgers. “I felt he needed to get away as soon as he could so I sent him to his wife’s family in Barcelona.

“He needed to get out of the country and there is no doubt that was the lowest moment of his career. He probably felt the world was against him.

“He is a good man but just has an incredible will to win. If you worked with him every day, you’d adore him. But he was in a real bad place at that time, and sometimes it takes you to get to that point when you can go one of two ways.

“Now you are seeing someone mature, who’s loving his time here. He loves the idea of being the captain, and you can see the influence of the great role model he has in Steven Gerrard.

“Steven is one of the most generous people I have come across in my life, and Luis has learned from that. If you are clever, then you learn from people like Steven.

“Normally managers will tell you that only the goals matter to strikers. But you can see Luis is a team player from how he celebrates with his team-mates.

“Giving the armband to Daniel Agger last Saturday when he came on a sub against Cardiff City is another example of that. For Luis to even be thinking like that shows what he’s about.

“Luis loves the responsibility of being captain yet he had the respect and humility to understand that Daniel is vice-captain of the club.”

Rodgers insists that valid comparisons can be made between Suarez and Wayne Rooney in terms of the way they seem to take everything that happens on the field personally.

“I love Rooney as a player,” says the Anfield boss. “He has been criticised over the past year, but this boy’s one of the top players in the world.

“Luis is of the same ilk. He does a job for the team. They are both selfless in their work, but they also show their individual qualities.

“Whether he wins awards or not this season, there certainly hasn’t been a better player consistently than Luis.”