Soccer:Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers says his players must exercise patience if they are to solve their goal scoring issues. The Reds have found the net just twice in three Barclays Premier League matches, both goals coming in the 2-2 draw with champions Manchester City.

Their problem has been compounded by the limited options Rodgers has up front, having sent Andy Carroll on loan to West Ham and failed to bring in a replacement after a deadline-day move for Clint Dempsey broke down.

It leaves Luis Suarez, who has yet to find a consistent goal scoring streak and inexperienced new signing Fabio Borini as the two senior strikers. The Reds boss has stressed it is not just the responsibility of the forwards to score goals and admits it will take time for his methods to bear fruit.

“It’s something you continually work on all the time,” he said. “We’re still getting the balance in a couple of areas of our game. “We build the game very well through the thirds, but it’s about making sure that when we arrive in the final third, if we can’t find the moment to score straight away, we maybe have to have that bit more patience.

“That has a knock-on effect to the team. When you are that little bit more patient at the top end of the field, everyone else behind that then can get into position. We’ve created enough chances to score goals in the games. That’s been pleasing. It’s finding that football intelligence at the top end.”

Liverpool have endured their worst opening three results since 1962 but Rodgers has stressed there should be no need for concern just yet. “The message is to keep the faith.

“West Brom, the first half was very good; we showed in the Manchester City game that we could be competitive; and then against Arsenal we weren’t quite at our best. There are a number of reasons for that, a lot of players were playing their third game in a week and you could see that played a part.

“It’s still very early on. We hope as time goes on we progress and can improve. I never get too disappointed when we lose or too carried away when we win. We have to make sure our intensity when we haven’t got the ball is maintained.

“It was very important in our pre-season work, the ability to press the ball. We saw that against Manchester City, and it’s something that’s key to the style of our game. As a coach you go away and analyse the game. I watched the game a couple of times and tried to reflect on the good parts of the game, and try to improve on the areas we need to.”