BRENDAN RODGERS called his Liverpool players into a huddle at Melwood yesterday morning and told them to forget about finishing fourth this season.

After back to back Premier League wins over Southampton and West Ham, the Reds boss wasn’t trying to dampen expectations ahead of today’s clash with Aston Villa at Anfield. Far from it.

In fact the Northern Irishman informed his squad they should have their sights set even higher than the final Champions League spot.

Rodgers insists catching second-placed Manchester City, who are currently 11 points better off than the 10th placed Reds, remains a realistic target over the next five months.

He said: “I said to the players that everyone talks about fourth place, but what about third? Third is up for grabs, so is second and maybe even first.

“We are 11 points off second so if you can get a consistent run and keep our mentality and our focus – we have still got to play Man City and we should have beaten them at home.

“It is not fourth place we want to aim for. Of course when the club has been out of the top four for so long that is the ambition to be in there, but we are not even halfway through the league in terms of games played.

“I just wanted to reinforce to the players that it isn’t about fourth place for this club. This club is bigger than that.

“Okay, we might not arrive there this season or next, but you hear everyone talking about arriving in fourth position. Well, there’s not that big a difference between that and third or second.

“There are 17 points between us and Manchester United at the moment. That’s a big ask but 11 points isn’t and four points (to fourth place) certainly isn’t.

“The standards and the levels which have been set at this club are incredibly high. I would never say the expectancy is too high because that’s where we want to be. We have to fight for our lives to arrive there.

“I’m always very positive with the players and always have been because I’ve seen their honesty and their commitment to what we’re doing. It was cold and wet during training but what I saw was a real belief in the group. The players are embracing the shirt and we’re just encouraging them to keep going.”

After a difficult end to the summer transfer window, Rodgers always acknowledged that the first half of the season was about trying to stay in touch with the top four before he was able to strengthen in January.

Recent results have given Liverpool the chance to achieve that and the manager is under no illusions about the importance of the festive schedule.

Today’s visit of Villa is followed by another home game against Fulham next Saturday before the Reds end 2012 with trips to Stoke and Queens Park Rangers.

“I would never say the Premier League is the best in the world, but I’d always say it was the most competitive,” he added. “That’s the beauty of it – look at how tight it is. Some teams started strongly and have been pegged back a wee bit.

“We started off playing well but not getting the results. We’ve drawn a lot of games. If we had turned just one or two of those draws into wins then you can see where the team would actually be.

“We’ve lost four in the league and that’s only one more than Manchester United. Thankfully, now we’re starting to turn good performances into wins.

“It keeps us in and around it, steadily moving up the table and if we continue to do that through to January we will be in a good place in the second half of the season.

“Christmas is always an important period. We have two home games now and they are matches we would expect and want to win.

“The development of the group has been fantastic and it gives me great hope going forward. We just need to keep the confidence high.”

Luis Suarez will return after missing last week’s win at West Ham due to suspension.

Villa are the lowest scorers in all four divisions having only netted 12 league goals, but Paul Lambert’s side are unbeaten in their last four league matches.

Stewart Downing is expected to retain his place against the club he left to join Liverpool for £20million in the summer of 2011.

Rodgers has been impressed by the manner in which Downing has battled his way back into contention after finding himself down the pecking order earlier this season.

“Stewart has been working very hard to be in the squad,” he said.

“I felt for him at West Ham last week as he started really brightly on the right with Glen Johnson.

“But we had to change the set-up (after Jose Enrique was injured) and Stewart went to left-back and did very well. It is never easy to change positions but that showed you what I felt about his adaptability and his technical and tactically qualities. Stewart is very low maintenance. He is a good man and all the players know where they stand with me. He is certainly fighting and he wants to play.”