AUTHOR: JAN MOLBY

Brendan Rodgers said he will look to strengthen the side in January - and one of those positions could well be in central midfield.

Managers always have different views of players to supporters and pundits so the type of midfielder the Liverpool boss will be looking at is hard to second guess.

Where some would say that Lucas needs to give the side another 20 per cent, Rodgers may be delighted with what the Brazilian is doing for the team.

And so the manager may want to add a midfielder who is a bit more forward thinking.

I would like to see Liverpool add a player who is the younger version of Steven Gerrard.

That style of all-round midfielder.

Yaya Toure does that great job for Manchester City and is a player who defends when he has to but can also control the pace of a game with the ball.

Toure also chips in with goals when he can.

My suggestion would be for Liverpool to go after Bayer Leverkusen's Lars Bender.

There are a lot of top players in Germany and I look at Bender and believe he is the real deal. For me, he ticks all the boxes.

But, as I say, you can never second guess managers these days and my views may be seen as a little old school.

You find that many top flight managers look for specialist players.

Liverpool's midfield came in for some criticism after the Arsenal defeat and rightly so.

There were even rumours circling around Anfield before kick-off last Saturday that Gerrard would be rested. But thankfully he wasn't because Stevie was there to take advantage of the time and space on offer.

But there are going to be games this season when Liverpool's midfield are second best and we have to accept that there are better teams out there. But additions in January can help.

Source: Liverpool Echo