Brendan Rodgers has admitted that "calculated risk" Mario Balotelli was not Liverpool's first choice to replace Luis Suarez this summer.

The Italian striker has made a slow start to life on Merseyside following his £16m move from AC Milan, scoring one goal in his first seven games for the club.

However, Rodgers has reiterated that his side were left short of options during the transfer window and needed to make a move for an experienced head.

"I always said it was about availability and affordability of players," Goal.com quotes the Reds boss as saying. "Mario was the one right at the very end who was available for that. I said when he came in that it was a calculated risk and it's something I have to work on to try to make it work for the team.

"You assess what the group had. We brought in Rickie Lambert as someone who can play some games for us and come off the bench and be an impact player for us in certain games. Daniel [Sturridge] is a top Premier League player but has shown during his time here that he does get injuries so we needed to prepare for that. Obviously Fabio Borini looked like he was on his way out [to Sunderland].

"We had attempts for other strikers that didn't materialise for one reason or another so it left us right at the end of the window with a decision on whether just to go with what we had, when experience told us we were too light, or take a calculated risk on a player who has quality and then could we get it out of him consistently?"

Liverpool are currently 14th in the Premier League table having lost three of their first six games.