Brendan Rodgers: 'Andy Carroll exit has helped Luis Suarez'

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has revealed that he let Andy Carroll leave the club last summer to get the best out of striker Luis Suarez.

The England international forward joined West Ham United on loan in the summer of 2012 and signed a permanent deal with the London outfit in June this year.

"It was maybe said that Luis needed a lot of chances to score a goal, and I had to make a call last year by letting Andy Carroll go and create a situation where we could get the benefit out of Luis's talent," The Mirror quotes him as saying.

"My thinking was, if Luis is playing with a big target man [such as Carroll] it wouldn't benefit him because when you play that style it is hard not to make it your focal point of the team.

"Removing that means you have to connect your game better though the lines, and with a player like Luis who is always on the move in between spaces and in behind, you connect the other 10 more into making the chances that serves him best."

Rodgers believes that his decision has allowed Suarez to play with more freedom and score more goals.

"This style has brought out Luis's qualities," he said. "That is what happens for him now. He has got that freedom, and the team is connected to him instead of just whipping in crosses and asking him to anticipate.

"He's not one of those. If you look at the goals he has scored in my time, there have not been too many that have been whipped-in crosses, which, to be fair, Andy was brilliant at."

Suarez has scored 13 goals in nine league appearances so far this season.