Compared to last season Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers feels his side is improving and picking up points where perhaps they were dropping them in the 2012/13 English Premier League campaign.

Goals from Daniel Sturridge and captain Steven Gerard (penalty) saw the Reds came from two goals behind to earn a 2-2 draw against Aston Villa on Saturday.

Rodgers admits his side were poor in the first half, but showed character to fight back and earn a share of the spoils.

He also highlighted that a similar character was shown in their 5-3 victory over Stoke City last weekend as well.

“I thought first half, we weren't at our best and you've got to give credit to Villa for that,” said Rodgers.

“I thought they were dynamic and we couldn't get any sort of flow in the game.

“They went 2-0 up and we are disappointed with the goals.

“But probably from our first little period of possession and movement of the ball we end up getting the goal, and that was important for us.

“I thought second half, we had much more intensity and ended up getting the penalty and we could maybe have gone on to win the game

“But if I think on it in terms of last season and in terms of where we were at last week against Stoke and against Aston Villa here, in those games we got no points at all and we got four of out of six points.

“Ideally, we want to win the home games and we've been on a great run here at home. But when you can't win, it's important that you don't lose the game and I think we showed that character today yet again.”

The result sees Liverpool continue to occupy fourth place on the league table with 43 points, only two above Everton who could overtake them if they win their league game against West Brom on Monday night.