Liverpool miss Suarez & Sturridge - Swansea's Neil Taylor

Neil Taylor (R) tries to block an effort from Luis Suarez while playing against Liverpool last season

Swansea City defender Neil Taylor says it is no surprise Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has come under pressure this season.

The Reds finished second in the Premier League last term, but sit 10th in the table ahead of the Swans' trip to Anfield on Monday.

Taylor says the sale of Luis Suarez and an injury to Daniel Sturridge are too much for Liverpool to cope with.

"Once they lost them they lost a big part of their team," said Taylor.

Uruguayan Suarez, 27, was last season's Premier League top-scorer before joining Barcelona in a £75m deal in July.

Sturridge, 25, scored 25 goals last season, but has played only three league games this term and is not expected to return from a thigh injury for a few weeks yet.

"People got excited last season because Liverpool were playing football that they played back in the day.

"People thought they were really back as a football club and as a team.

"But if you lose Suarez and lose Sturridge to injury, then you lose most of your team. That's the answer.

"You're only as good as your strikers sometimes. That's hard to fill, unless you go and spend £60-70m on strikers again.

"Football goes up and down, but luckily I think this season a lot of teams are sticking with their managers throughout, from the top to the bottom, which is great to see because it gives people time to turn things around."

Daniel Sturridge spent Christmas in Boston in a bid to speed up his return from an injury which has deprived manager Brendan Rodgers of his first-choice striker for much of the season.

Swansea head to Anfield on the back of two wins over the festive period, following up a 1-0 win at Hull City with victory by the same score at home to Aston Villa.

Liverpool are three points behind eighth-placed Swansea, but secured their first win in four league games with a 1-0 win against Burnley on Boxing Day.

The Reds have already beaten Garry Monk's side at home this season, claiming a 2-1 League Cup fourth-round win in October.

The Swans have never won a league match at Anfield and Taylor says his side face a tough task despite Rodgers' side taking only 13 points from their first nine home games.

"They're still very good going forward. They still create a lot of chances in games, they just haven't been finishing," he said.

"At Anfield it's always tough, they'll always create chances. But you maybe feel now that when you play against Liverpool that you're going to get chances yourself and maybe you can get something.

"We've been in the league four years now so we like to think we've played everywhere, we know what is required at each place, or we think we know what is required.

"It doesn't always go the way you want it to. If we can get the crowd on their back, we know there is big pressure on them.

"It is a massive club to try and perform at, so hopefully we can do that and get a result."