Flashes of brilliance from Steven Gerrard and Luis Suárez matched only by the soaring rhetoric of Brendan Rodgers No one could fault Rodgers" perseverance, or the onerousness of his task in reinventing the foundations at Anfield from the bottom up. But he depicts his work, and the burden of his inheritance of Liverpool, with such evangelical fervour that it sometimes easy to forget that his team are still toiling in sixth place, with ever-receding ambitions of reaching the Champions League. As ever, he countered: "Managing a club with five European Cups and 18 domestic titles, the expectation is incomparable to anything you would find elsewhere." Perhaps, but Rodgers is keenly aware that his work this season is far from complete. The danger is that only a top-four finish could satiate the demands of striker Luis Suárez, whose often outrageous flourishes on Sunday hardly suggested a talent who would be appeased by another season on the Europa League periphery. Suárez was not beyond reproach in his performance here - one second-half moment, when he took one touch too many in lackadaisically trying to walk Liverpool's third goal into the net - threatened to send his manager into apoplexy. But the Uruguayan's role as the pivot of all his team's slickest manoeuvres was no mean feat for a man who had just flown 7,000 miles back from international duty in Montevideo to be in contention for this match. "You could see what wonderful character Luis has," Rodgers admitted. He returned home late on Thursday night and was in training on Friday, but I could see how tired he was in his face and body from all the travel exertions. Here you saw simply his imagination and quality. Asked directly if he felt there was any chance of Suárez leaving Liverpool this summer, he replied, emphatically: "No, we don't have to sell him. We're trying to build a group here. Quite where Liverpool would be without his outrageous gifts does not bear thinking about for Rodgers. While Philippe Coutinho illustrated his counter-attacking élan against Aston Villa, and while Jordan Henderson underlined his recent improvements with a cultured finish, no one single player can transform the course of a game like Suárez. In the first half alone he contrived two wonderful chances: the first a fearsome drive tipped by Brad Guzan, and the second a one-on-one with the Villa goalkeeper where he narrowly miscued. A chastened Paul Lambert, solemnly shaking his head at this major setback for his side's survival quest, acknowledged: "You can't ever let your guard down against him, not even for a second." Rodgers could yet discover that the success of his Liverpool project owes the most to the continued presence of this bucktoothed sorcerer, for all his hero worship of that imperishable redwood Gerrard.