Sahin targets spot in Champions League

New Liverpool midfielder Nuri Sahin has his sights set on helping the club break back into the Premier League top four this term.

The 23-year-old’s season-long loan move from Real Madrid was confirmed by the Reds on Saturday and he was in the stands at Anfield the next day to watch his new side draw 2-2 with league champions Manchester City.

With Liverpool putting in their most encouraging performance yet since Brendan Rodgers’s appointment as manager in the summer, Sahin was impressed by what he saw in that game and the Turkey international feels a top-four spot should be the target for the Merseysiders in 2012-13.

“If you watch the game against Manchester City, you see that the style the team is playing is very good and of course, Liverpool has to play in the Champions League,” Sahin said.

“A big club like Liverpool has to play every year in the Champions League and we will do everything to get in the top four.

“Also there is the FA Cup, League Cup and Europa League, and with the potential we have here, we can do some good things.”

Liverpool, who could only manage a disappointing eighth place last season, brought in Rodgers after he achieved success at Swansea with a dynamic football philosophy.

It is a style of play the club’s owners hope he can make work for the Reds and one Sahin believes he is well suited to.

“The project with Liverpool and Brendan Rodgers is the best for my situation I think – that is why I am here,” he said.

“I think the style I play is the same as how the manager wants the team to play.

“I have settled in very well and I hope it will be the same on the pitch and that we will have a great season.”

Sahin was strongly linked with Arsenal before making the switch to Liverpool, but he is in no doubt that he has made the right decision.

“Everything people told me about Liverpool is there, what I see now,” said Sahin, who has revealed Real’s ex-Reds midfielder Xabi Alonso urged him to make the move.

“It is a very big club with a huge history and I think I have made the right choice.”