Liverpool's Jay Spearing insists he can convince Kenny Dalglish he does not need to spend to replace injured Lucas Leiva

Liverpool’s Jay Spearing believes he can fill the void created by Lucas Leiva's season-ending injury and convince manager Kenny Dalglish that he does not need to spend money in January.

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The 23-year-old started his first game of the campaign last week against Fulham but was handed a straight red card during the loss at Craven Cottage, forcing his manager to play Jordan Henderson in his place against QPR.

However, Spearing, who still has two games of his suspension to see out, believes in the long term he can stand in for Lucas and show Dalglish he does not need to use his January budget to shore up his midfield.

"The club is massive worldwide and the owners have come in and shown that they're going to back the manager," he told LFC Magazine.

"A club the size of this is always going to attract big players.

"It has always been my dream to play week in, week out so it's up to me to prove to the manager on a daily basis that when the transfer window does open and he has money at his disposal that he can look at a position like mine and think: 'There's no need to sign anyone there - we're pretty strong'."

The academy graduate successfully played in the place of the injured captain Steven Gerrard last season and finished the campaign with many plaudits, but the youngster admits he cannot take anything for granted and still has a lot of work to do to make a real name for himself at the club.

"Kenny has given me a lot of confidence and has shown the faith that young local lads like me need to get a chance," he added.

"But half of it has to do with myself as well; the effort I put in day in, day out.

"There's a lot of stuff in training that not a lot of people see.

"It's the way I've been brought up because you don't get much from life without hard work.

"My dad said to me that I had to take each day as it comes and prove every single day that I was better than the last one.

"The only way that I was going to get games was by working harder than anybody else in training; not necessarily show that I was better than anybody else but prove that I could compete and not be overawed - to show them I'm up for the fight."