Good afternoon! Less than 24 hours after his side suffered a defeat to Basel in the Champions League, Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers is preparing to face the press. This time he'll be looking ahead to the Premier League clash with West Bromwich Albion, which takes place at Anfield on Saturday.

Rodgers has already indicated that Daniel Sturridge is likely to miss out with a hamstring injury, which has also kept him out of England's squad for their upcoming Euro 2016 qualifiers. There are four of his teammates included in Roy Hodgson's side though, with Adam Lallana, Rickie Lambert, Jordan Henderson and Raheem Sterling all included in the national side. You can read full details of the squad here.

This weekend's opponents, West Brom, have made a strong start under new manager Alan Irvine. After six matches, the Baggies sit 10th in the table. However, Liverpool picked up a 4-1 win in the corresponding fixture last season.

One player who won't be involved this weekend is Suso, who has confirmed through his Instagram account today that he need on operation on a groin injury. He joins Joe Allen, Emre Can, Mamadou Sakho, Jon Flanagan and Glen Johnson in the Liverpool treatment room.

Last week, Liverpool ended a run of back-to-back defeats, but also suffered disappointment as they conceded a late goal in the Merseyside derby to share a 1-1 draw with Everton. Liverpool have not won in the league since they beat Tottenham Hotspur in August.

Liverpool have a potentially kind run of fixtures coming up in October, with home matches against the Baggies and Hull City this month, as well as a trip to Queens Park Rangers.

The Reds also have a couple of home cup ties coming up in October, with Real Madrid visiting Anfield in the Champions League, and a tie with Swansea City in the Capital One Cup.

Right then, Rodgers is ready to talk to the press, so let's see what he has to say.

The manager starts by commenting on recent reports that the team are in talk with Daniel Sturridge with over a new contract. Rodgers admits: "There's talks ongoing but there's nothing more than that."

Sticking with Sturridge, his potential involvement in the England squad has been a talking point this week, with Rodgers claiming that the striker would not be available for the national side even if he featured this weekend. However, Rodgers confirms that he has now spoken with Roy Hodgson: "We spoke at length yesterday on the situation. I respect Roy has work to do but my thoughts are with the Liverpool players. We agreed it was too soon for Daniel, irrespective of this weekend, he hasn't trained with the team at all since his injury."

Mario Balotelli's performance against Basel has been criticised by some pundits. When asked about the striker, the manger says: 'Mario is trying to work hard on the aspects of the game we demand here, he needs to improve his goal return. At this moment, he hasn't hit the numbers he would want to and that's across the whole team."

Attention turns to last night's lacklustre showing in Europe. Rodgers tells the media: "Our quality last night wasn't up to our standard in the final third. We win and lose as a team and last night we weren't good enough. [Steve Gerrard's post-match comments] echoed exactly what I said after the game, it was soft, we weren't aggressive enough and the goal we conceded was very disappointing. It's something we need to study more and get better."

Turning his attention to Saturday's opponents, the Northern Irishman says: "Alan is someone I know well and he's a very good man. He's hone into a new club and their last two results have been excellent. We know it will be a tough game, they've got some very good players bit at home we expect to win."

Rodgers has confirmed that none of the players that have been sidelined with injuries in recent weeks will return for the clash, adding "We've had to put one or two players in quicker than we wanted, but we need to get on with working hard and go back to our core principles, of the team working hard."

Offering more details on Joe Allen's injury, the manager reveals: "Joe's a player that never gets mentioned but he is key to us. He presses the game very well, he's a very intelligent footballer and we've really missed his quality and energy, he will be back after the international break."

Rodgers continues to face questions about Sturridge's fitness and the team's recent struggles. Rodgers admits that Luis Suarez's departure in the summer has been a big loss: "There was a big change in the summer, we lost a world-class player. We had to improve the squad and unfortunately we are in a period of transition again. Ideally, we would have kept the squad and added a few bodies to help that."

Well that's it from Rodgers this week. He definitely looked uncomfortable when discussing Sturridge and the team's recent run of results. Will the team be able to turn their form around this weekend? Join us on Saturday afternoon for full live coverage from this match and all Premier League fixtures. And join us again tomorrow when we'll be hearing from several more Premier League managers. Until then, thanks for joining me this afternoon, goodbye.