Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has admitted that it will be "very difficult" to qualify for the Champions League this season.

The Merseyside outfit are now 12 points behind fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League table following a 2-0 defeat to West Bromwich Albion at Anfield on Monday.

"Being a realist, it's going to be very difficult," Rodgers told the club's official website. "You never lose your optimism and I'm always optimistic but it's going to be a huge task. The reality is that losing the game on Monday night makes it very difficult.

"It means we can still do it but we have to pick up a win somewhere else when maybe we were looking at our home games in particular as games to build on our good form at home and try to get some results away. In short, it will be difficult."

Rodgers will face his old club Swansea City at home this weekend.