Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers is grateful for his time at this weekend's opponents Reading.

The Northern Irishman spent time on the Royals' playing and coaching staff before becoming first-team boss in June 2009 after leaving the helm at Watford.

However, Rodgers' return to the Madejski Stadium didn't quite go as according to plan and he left the club by mutual consent just six months later.

Rodgers said: "I had a great upbringing as a coach with many great experiences. I became a manager at 35 and went to Watford.

"It was a perfect club for me and, the reality is, if it was probably any other club other than Reading I probably wouldn't have left there. The supporters at Watford were terrific, the board were outstanding and really supported me as a young manager, and the players were fantastic.

"After a slow start, we really flew after a couple of months and done very, very well.

"But the draw to go back to a club I spent 14 years at, and with people I knew there, some of the young players that were coming through at the time and the wonderful relationship I had with the chairman, John Madejski, just felt right.

"It was a difficult time at Reading because they'd just missed out in the play-offs. It proved to be a difficult six months, especially with what I was trying to implement which was always going to need that wee bit of extra time.

"But I came away from that and learnt from the experience and reflected upon it. It prepared me going forward and I was able to take those things into the rest of my career. It allowed me to be much more clinical in my work when I arrived at Swansea, and thankfully it's gone quite well from there."