Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has expressed his belief that Lazar Markovic and Emre Can will prove to be vital members of the team due to their versatility.

Markovic arrived at Anfield in the summer transfer window for a reported £20m fee from Benfica, while Can made the switch from Bayer Leverkusen for around £10m.

Neither player were thrown into the first team upon arrival, but both have impressed of late and Markovic opened his Premier League scoring account with the one and only goal in Saturday's victory over Sunderland.

"I want to bring in intelligent footballers who understand football and the game," the Liverpool Echo quotes Rodgers as saying. "And that's the beauty of those type of kids you bring in. It allows me to change the system.

"Lazar has been a right winger, a right midfield player and against Sunderland I put him at the top of the midfield box and he did well. Can has been a midfield player who has played in the back three and has also done very well.

"I like footballers and I think they are a great advert for that because they can play wherever they are asked to play."

The Reds are currently eighth in the league table, five points behind fourth-placed Manchester United.