MARK Hughes is preaching a 'do as I say, not as I do' message to his struggling squad.

The Blackburn Rovers boss has a reputation for letting his results, rather than his mouth, do the talking as he maintains a persona that oozes quiet authority.

But he wants his players to be the opposite and pump up the volume - by letting each other know when they're letting the side down.

"I'm conscious that it's a quiet group," Hughes admitted. "I think they have to be more demanding of each other, individually and collectively.

"You do that by driving people on and not being content with people making mistakes.

"If it's said in the right manner then vocal criticism on the field of play is a good thing because it spurs everybody on.

"We've worked on that and highlighted to to them and I think it will help the players."

Being more vocal is one of the methods Hughes is banking on to pull Blackburn out of the early-season relegation mire.

And he's confident it will happen because, despite a playing career glittering with silverware, he's been there before in an even worse situation.

"When I was at Southampton we had one point out of eight games and we got through it," said Hughes.

"You've got to be very positive about what you do and the players have to work very hard.

"I came in after five games and we had two points, so we've shown an improvement because we have four from five games since.

"But you don't want to be at the bottom of the league because people will look at that and wonder what's going on, but I know which way I want to take this club.

"We're working on it both on and of the field to make things better, not only in the short term but in the long term as well."

Although Hughes is hoping for an immediate remedy to the problems that have led to consecutive four-goal failings against Middlesbrough and Chelsea, he will be relieved to get Liverpool out of the way whatever the result.

The manager is convinced that the run of fixtures Rovers have endured against the Premiership's top teams has contributed to them having some serious catching up to do.

But once Rafael Benitez and his men are out of the way, the picture looks a lot less daunting.

Hughes said: "I think we've just got to get over this initial period where we've played all the top teams because that's had an impact.

"We've got another top team tonight, and we'll be looking to take points from that, but then we go into a period where we are up against teams that aren't viewed as the top teams.

"Obviously, that is a period where we need to pick up points.

"I'm sure we'll get a positive response tonight because it's a home game at Ewood and we do need three points.

"We need to bounce back from last weekend because the performance wasn't the level we needed it to be and against a great side you get punished."