Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers ahead of the game against Southampton (From Daily Echo)

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers ahead of the game against Southampton

6:42pm Thursday 14th March 2013 in Sport By Gordon Simpson, Senior Sports Reporter

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has warned that it will take time for Mauricio Pochettino to put his stamp on the Saints team.

Pochettino this Saturday takes charge of his eighth game as Saints boss, as Liverpool visit St Mary’s.

Despite plenty of encouraging performances during the Argentine’s short reign, the club have registered just one win under him so far, albeit a magnificent 3-1 success against champions Manchester City.

Given their precarious position in the table, Saints cannot afford to be writing-off too many results in favour of a period of readjustment.

But Rodgers knows as well as anyone how difficult it can be to achieve instant success on arriving at a new club.

Having joined Liverpool in the summer, it has taken the former Swansea manager time to mould his team and properly implement his philosophies and methods.

The Reds have struggled badly at times this season, notably early on in the campaign, but have now hit their stride.

However, Rodgers still expects to be given a stern test by Saints, who he rates as the most impressive of the three clubs to have come up from last season’s Championship.

“You’ve got to go back to Nigel Adkins,” he said. “Nigel did a brilliant job and was relieved of his duties, but the job that he did there was incredible, to get two consecutive promotions.

“The brand of football they were playing was very much his brand. I saw that in League 1 and the Championship. Of the teams that have come up, that’s the team that have impressed me with their idea of football and how they’ve tried to play.

“It takes time when you’re a newly promoted team to find your feet in what is an incredibly difficult league. As the season went on, Nigel and the players really settled into it and looked like they were well on course to stay in the league.

“Unfortunately for him, he lost his job. The new manager is coming in with a similar idea and philosophy.

“There’s a slight tactical adaptation, a different way to press the ball.

“They were playing very well under Nigel Adkins, but obviously the new manager will come in and put his stamp on it. That will take a period of time.

“Their performances across the season have been good – they’ve played very well against the top teams. They’re a team that will push us and we’ll need to be at our best to get the result.”