The striker failed to find the back of the net again as Liverpool suffered a defeat to Basel in the Champions League on Wednesday night

Brendan Rodgers wants to see Mario Balotelli make a bigger contribution to the team after Liverpool’s 1-0 defeat to Basel on Wednesday.

The Premier League club were beaten by a second-half strike by Marco Streller in a Champions League game in which the visitors failed to significantly threaten the Swiss outfit in front of goal.

Balotelli’s goal in the 2-1 win over Ludogorets is the only one he has scored since arriving from AC Milan this summer and the Liverpool boss wants more from his investment.

“[He] worked hard, [but he] needs to do more,” Rodgers told Sky Sports. “That’s the simplicity of it. Mario will be judged on what he creates and what he scores and he didn’t score.

“But the boy is trying, he is working hard.”

Despite seeing a goal disallowed for offside, Raheem Sterling also struggled to test the Basel back line, but Rodgers refused to criticise the youngster.

He added: “I think [Sterling]’s gaining lots of experience. He’s still a young player. He worked very hard tonight, he obviously had a task on his hands on that side of the field and he got into some real good positions.

“Unfortunately he obviously had the goal disallowed in the first half and got himself just offside for that and, as I said, he was unfortunate.

“He had a great combination on the edge of the box, got in and his touch just got away from him but that’s something that he’s learning from. He’s still only 19 and he’s an exceptional talent.”