Premier League: Brendan Rodgers hails resilient Liverpool after victory over West Brom at Anfield

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers praised his side's resilience after they survived a West Brom comeback to claim a hard-fought 2-1 victory at Anfield.

Rodgers hailed his players efforts as they secured the "vital" victory over an Albion side fresh off the back of three consecutive victories.

Adam Lallana's inspired opener and Jordan Henderson's finish cancelled out Saido Berahino's dubious equaliser from the penalty spot and moved the Reds back to sixth in the Premier League table.

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Although pleased, Rodgers lamented referee Michael Oliver's decision to penalise Dejan Lovren for a foul on Berahino - which was outside the box - and, speaking to Sky Sports after the match, he said: “It was vital we needed to find a way to win today against a side that has been really high in confidence of late so it’s an excellent result for us on the back of a disappointing European result (a 1-0 defeat at Basel).

“I think we demonstrated the character in the team today. We’re disappointed with the penalty, it wasn’t a penalty it was outside the box.

"But the players showed their character and resilience to keep going and find a winner so it’s an outstanding win for us. Now we go into the international break and hopefully we’ll have a full squad to pick from after that."

Unsurprisingly, Rodgers' decision to leave striker Mario Balotelli on the bench for the game dominated much of the pre-match talk, but the Liverpool manager was quick to explain his thinking and argued the result justified his team selection.

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“Well I’ve got to try and use all of my strikers and give them an opportunity," Rodgers said.

"He (Balotelli) has been in a run of games where he’s played nearly all of them. He still needed a pre-season at first because when he joined us in the window he was rarely starting at AC Milan.

"So he spent our league games and Champions League games getting fit. I felt that this was a game that Rickie Lambert could play in and he did very well."