Brentan Rodgers

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Joga Bonito said:
@Empire

Agreed that confidence and momentum were paramount to their good football last year. Whether the players themselves or Rodgers was more responsible for that we can't really determine definitely. However, it's fair to say that Rodgers played a significant part with the other players lavishing praise on him esp Gerrard with the he's the best man manager comment.

In saying that, he's more responsible for the rut in which Liverpool are atm with a slew of disastrous decisions. Its going to be nearly impossible to see them playing the football of last season anywhere in the near future.

Also seem to have doubts whether he can adapt or is just an obstinate manager incessantly persisting with his plan A (which they don't even seem to have atm). By that I don't just mean formations wise before some smartass claims oh he plays 4-3-3 and the diamond as well...
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I would not read too much into what the players say, they were performing well and they were on a high of sorts, incredibly emotional and that would cloud their judgement. Gerrard likely had a great opinion of Benitez after 2005 and then that season when it all went wrong probably not so great an opinion.

Time will show what he is made of, it's not our problem anymore being concerned with Liverpool, as of now the focus is on challenging City for second and we must ensure that continues with wins in the coming games.
 
Minimalist said:
See Phil Neville's laying the boot in on the BBC website. That's got to be a low-point for Big Bad Bren, getting lectured to by that moron.
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I was not happy with Moyes and his coaching staffs performance but actually Phil Neville seems quite intelligent, I prefer his analysis to his brothers. The commentary not so much but I am intrigued as to what he will do coaching wise next, I think he could make a good assistant.
 
marlowe78 said:
That situation with Gerrard and his house is one that I never thought would be allowed to happen on the PL level. It has to seriously be undermining him with the players, especially when Gerrard is getting a full 90 every week and doing absolutely nothing when trying to protect the backline. Gerrard played the entire game against Palace and literally didn't make a single tackle or interception. Imagine Blind or Carrick, who carry out a similar role, going an entire game for United without getting a single one of those.
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It's mental, but as LVG won't drop RVP, and he isn't even his landlord, I'm not going to pursue this.
 
Chorley1974 said:
It's mental, but as LVG won't drop RVP, and he isn't even his landlord, I'm not going to pursue this.
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LvG can cover for RvP's shortfalls. Up front is not where you lose or even draw games. Di Maria and even Rooney more than make up for him.

Gerrard in the middle gives the whole team, defenders to attacking midfielders, the jitters. Its not even a fair comparison.
 
It's always difficult to drop your star player. Gerrard should realise he is the problem and drop himself.
 
Dumbstar said:
LvG can cover for RvP's shortfalls. Up front is not where you lose or even draw games. Di Maria and even Rooney more than make up for him.

Gerrard in the middle gives the whole team, defenders to attacking midfielders, the jitters. Its not even a fair comparison.
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Bit like the Scholes - Gerrard debate.
The only team Scholes gave the jitters was the opposition :smirk:
 
One slip.....One slip away he was, from winning a league title. One slip!

In a season where, City weren't arsed from November on, Chelsea were being molded by Jose, Arsenal were being Arsenal and United were in dire straits......They well never, ever get another opportunity like that again! Never!

Imagine this guy with a league title to his name?!

I wouldn't be able to cope
 
JPRouve said:
A lot of people on this forum wanted to sign him.
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Really? I genuinely don't remember that.


Edit - Appears there were a few, I wouldn't say a lot, but there was also a lot of caution.
 
Joga Bonito said:
Yeah I wouldn't regard last season as a fluke and just claim that Suarez and Sturridge were the sole reasons for their 'success'. You could make those kind of statements at Tottenham with Bale (12/13) or heck even United with Rooney (09/10) but not last season's Liverpool.

Sturridge and Suarez were integral players for them but they weren't as reliant on them as some here make them out to be.

Those two had great individual seasons (as did Sterling, Henderson and Gerrard) but the real highlights of Liverpool last season were their team ethic and their ability to play cohesive and fluid football. They weren't exactly a team who played scrappy football and relied on 1 or 2 moments of genius from their forwards to bail them out.

Once they started to get going last season you knew they were going to blow apart most teams, even some of the good ones, with their high tempo and good attacking football. It was a frightening and an unpleasant prospect seeing them like that. It wasn't as though the team altogether suffered when Suarez or Sturridge had bad games although they rarely did.

Ultimately it was a pretty good attacking unit with a shite defense shielded by a slow Gerrard (to his credit was pretty crucial to their attacking football with his passing and ability to keep things ticking along) and Henderson (a box to box midfielder expected to contribute defensively and offensively, leaving a lumbering Gerrard to shield a leaky defense singlehandedly at times).

Luck and the goalscoring form of their prime forwards obviously played a significant part as is the norm for most teams who have a good season but you can't say Liverpool of last season were just a 1 or a 2 man team.

I feel dirty just complimenting their team of last season but I don't mind reminding the Pool fans how shit their team is this season compared to the last :p.

It's primely Rodgers fault for the state the team is right now.

Suarez leaving was a huge blow but they did get a windfall for it. So you go for Sanchez, a creative and goalscoring player with great team ethic and work rate. Perfect tailor made replacement who might even let Sturridge flourish more by being the sole spearhead. Too bad you don't get him :p. Then you try to get Remy, a decent option but you drop out of that deal to get Mario feckin Balotelli, a sulky immobile forward with no inkling of team ethic. I mean seriously?

Then you get Lovren who proceeds to achieve the impossible by degrading an already turdlike defense. The crown turd to top it all off...

You neglect the midfield by getting a relative unknown 20 year old who is more for the future and a rotation option. A midfield which has an ageing Gerrard, an overburdened Henderson, a past it Lucas and a decent at best Allen.

You drop more clangers along the way by sticking with underperforming first teamers and overplaying the likes of Gerrard and Sterling who clearly need a rest. You remain obstinate sticking to a 4-3-3 and refuse to change to a diamond, a formation in which the team played its best football all season against Spurs. Oh and you retardedly persist with Balotelli as a lone forward when it clearly isn't working and underuse Lallana, who has been decent, for some reason.

Then YOU deserve what's coming to you really...

Tbf players like Can, Moreno and Manquillo have been decent and are still young. The likes of Markovic, Illori and Origi might come good one day as well. Injury to Sturridge and poor individual performances hasn't helped but some of Rodgers decisions and management has been downright shocking.
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Think you are under-estimating Suarez's role in their team last season. You are correct that it was not a one man team show like Bale at Spurs, hence why they came close to winning the title while Spurs just about finished 4th. But Suarez was not just a goal score or creator for them but was even involved in build up play and is one of those players who takes away opposition defenders to create space for his team mates. Especially his ability to adapt to a selfless role last season alongside Sturridge, allowed both to flourish. His workrate was always going to be difficult to replace and they were always in danger of crashing with poor replacements.
 
.Rossi said:
One slip.....One slip away he was, from winning a league title. One slip!

In a season where, City weren't arsed from November on, Chelsea were being molded by Jose, Arsenal were being Arsenal and United were in dire straits......They well never, ever get another opportunity like that again! Never!

Imagine this guy with a league title to his name?!

I wouldn't be able to cope
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Dear lord the smugness from him would have been nauseating.
 
marlowe78 said:
That situation with Gerrard and his house is one that I never thought would be allowed to happen on the PL level. It has to seriously be undermining him with the players, especially when Gerrard is getting a full 90 every week and doing absolutely nothing when trying to protect the backline. Gerrard played the entire game against Palace and literally didn't make a single tackle or interception. Imagine Blind or Carrick, who carry out a similar role, going an entire game for United without getting a single one of those.
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I didn't know anything about Rodgers living in Gerrard's house. Having researched it, I have questions:

1. Did Gerrard have a "no self-portraits to be hung" policy?

2. Rodgers is only 41?!

3. Seriously... Rodgers is only 41?
 
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“We play with 11 men, other teams play with 10 men and a goalkeeper.”
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Perhaps if he played with a goalkeeper he wouldn't concede so many.
 
crappycraperson said:
Think you are under-estimating Suarez's role in their team last season. You are correct that it was not a one man team show like Bale at Spurs, hence why they came close to winning the title while Spurs just about finished 4th. But Suarez was not just a goal score or creator for them but was even involved in build up play and is one of those players who takes away opposition defenders to create space for his team mates. Especially his ability to adapt to a selfless role last season alongside Sturridge, allowed both to flourish. His workrate was always going to be difficult to replace and they were always in danger of crashing with poor replacements.
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Perhaps but one thing is for sure though, the truth is somewhere in between Liverpool being a very good team being elevated by Suarez ala cherry on the top or them being a one man team last season (probably veering slightly more towards the latter but not to a great extent imo).

For instance the United team in 09/10 which finished 2nd, one point below Chelsea veers much more to the latter option than last year's Liverpool tbh. We were so bloody dependent on Rooney and things didn't go too well once he got injured near the end of the season. Berbatov and Owen were meh and most of our attacking players bar Valencia were pretty average if I'm not mistaken.

There are many here who tend to go for either of those 2 extremes which I don't think is fair. Rodgers and his shambolic decision-making heavily at fault here for Liverpool's malaise atm.
 
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RyRoc said:
Can't even decide if he's a good manager anymore. How much did Suarez bail them out last season, I never really believed it could all be down to one player but maybe he really did just inspire the others to play at a level that is way above the norm - aswel as striking fear into the oppostion.
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Suarez was important but he was not on the pitch for their hot start last season. I think the big difference (aside from Suarez's contribution) is mentality. Last year they started strong and built on that to play with confidence and belief.

Confidence is a fragile thing and that all slipped away in the last few games of last season. They believed in Gerrard and followed him right off the cliff.
 
Cant wait for them to come to old trafford in a couple of weeks.

Brandans cracking up, he's crackin up, he's crackin up, he's crackin
 
by the 1st year of success usually you are unnoticed to anyone and this allows you a big room to perform. by the 2nd year you are being watched and everyone would make up a game plan against you. as fergie said, the 2nd year is always the most difficult one after a bright year start, and is a true test. only real good can sustain their success in the 2nd year, and a false good will easily flop.

a big mistake they made was to bring in half the squad of soton. for they need to play in europe this season so they need to expand their squad. but bringing in half of the soton squad the only outcome you can get is to become another soton then.
one similar case is moyes brought in his team from everton, so we became another everton the last season. and now liverpool has become another soton. despite soton was shining last season, but at the end in general they are still mid table players concurred by their final result. he should bring in 2 or 3 the most from soton as cheap workhorses to increase the depth of their squad only. and these bunch of players didn't come cheap neither. at this amount of money spent they should have got players of higher quality.

balotelli not compatible with sturridge. he best suits to play along side with moutinho/sterling/oscar/mata/kagawa alike no 10 in a 4411 formation, or a 433/343 winger play setup can also do the job. a diamond midfield with balo+sturridge upfront, can't see much chemistry they can sparkle from it.

should call up the day of gerrard if they want to move on.
 
rover said:
by the 1st year of success usually you are unnoticed to anyone and this allows you a big room to perform. by the 2nd year you are being watched and everyone would make up a game plan against you. as fergie said, the 2nd year is always the most difficult one after a bright year start, and is a true test. only real good can sustain their success in the 2nd year, and a false good will easily flop.

a big mistake they made was to bring in half the squad of soton. for they need to play in europe this season so they need to expand their squad. but bringing in half of the soton squad the only outcome you can get is to become another soton then.
one similar case is moyes brought in his team from everton, so we became another everton the last season. and now liverpool has become another soton. despite soton was shining last season, but at the end in general they are still mid table players concurred by their final result. he should bring in 2 or 3 the most from soton as cheap workhorses to increase the depth of their squad only. and these bunch of players didn't come cheap neither. at this amount of money spent they should have got players of higher quality.

balotelli not compatible with sturridge. he best suits to play along side with moutinho/sterling/oscar/mata/kagawa alike no 10 in a 4411 formation, or a 433/343 winger play setup can also do the job. a diamond midfield with balo+sturridge upfront, can't see much chemistry they can sparkle from it.

should call up the day of gerrard if they want to move on.
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Rodgers has two main problems for me.

Firstly, replacing Suarez with Ballotelli. His ego mistakenly thought he could do with him what other top managers couldn't. Liverpool evidently had a togetherness last year that worked wonders and he chose up chuck a hand grenade right in the middle of it.

Secondly, he has an inability, or is too stubborn to change the a system which patently isn't working. That's what separates top managers from the rest. He believes it will work long term. The available evidence suggests that isn't the case unless changes are made.
 
RedRover said:
Rodgers has two main problems for me.

Firstly, replacing Suarez with Ballotelli. His ego mistakenly thought he could do with him what other top managers couldn't. Liverpool evidently had a togetherness last year that worked wonders and he chose up chuck a hand grenade right in the middle of it.

Secondly, he has an inability, or is too stubborn to change the a system which patently isn't working. That's what separates top managers from the rest. He believes it will work long term. The available evidence suggests that isn't the case unless changes are made.
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Or perhaps Ballotelli was the best that he could buy on wage structure and budget left? Plus LVG could be shot at with the accusation of the 3 at the back! I think Rodgers is not a great manager (like what was said last year) and is not a (car salesman) what is getting banded about just now. He will be somewhere in between.
 
Americano said:
Suarez was important but he was not on the pitch for their hot start last season. I think the big difference (aside from Suarez's contribution) is mentality. Last year they started strong and built on that to play with confidence and belief.

Confidence is a fragile thing and that all slipped away in the last few games of last season. They believed in Gerrard and followed him right off the cliff.
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Hot start ? Your remembering it wrong, it started with a very defensive Liverpool and some scrappy victories. Seem to remember them experimenting with 3-5-2 at some point too.
Sturridge was playing well though and getting them the goals to see them through, it was as we headed to Chrismas that it started to snowball.

Like the analogy of everyone following starfish off the cliff though.
 
”I use a quote with the players,“Per aspera ad astra”, which is Latin for ‘through adversity to the stars’.”
Per_aspera_ad_astra%2C_1894.jpg

Reminds me of this...
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“I always say a squad is like a good meal – I’m not a great cook but a good meal takes a wee bit of time, but also to offer a good meal you need good ingredients.” - Like omelette?
 
The Mail reckons it's chaos. Gerrard is going to do for him innit?

Then Stevie gets appointed Manager and decides to retire from playing.....
 
RedRover said:
Firstly, replacing Suarez with Ballotelli. His ego mistakenly thought he could do with him what other top managers couldn't.
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What nonsense.

Lawman said:
Or perhaps Ballotelli was the best that he could buy on wage structure and budget left?
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We could have paid more for a player, but the trouble was who? Balotelli was the best available player and Rodgers took him after the TC said it was him or no one.
 
If you ask me. Many are underestimating Rodger's task and overestimating Liverpool.

Lets start from the latter. Liverpool are a sleeping giant. The last time they won something important was back in 2005 and they haven't won the league in ages. They aren't exactly renowned to give huge salaries either (when compared to Chelsea, Shitty, PSG, Real etc) I understand that Brits would give value to their history bla bla bla. However foreign players don't really give a feck about that. Some may not even know Liverpool's history at all (although Liverpool are quite known in Italy, for all the wrong reasons).

What Rodgers did last season was amazing. However things need to be taken into context. With United suffering a meltdown, Chelsea playing without a real quality striker and Spurs adapting to all those new players they bought, it wasn't that difficult for Liverpool to step up. The Scousers were hungry, they could focus on one trophy alone and lets face it those record number of penalties given did gave Liverpool a hand.

So this season Liverpool were in a situation were they simply had to step up and buy big (CL football, Suarez leaving) and yet there were very few top quality players who actually wanted to join them up. I am not justifying Rodgers at all. One of his mistakes (a classic in terms of British managers) was to concentrate his spending in the EPL were talent is very very expensive. However as said before lets not underrate Rodgers and overrate Liverpool. The former is not as bad as they are portray him to be (although he's not as good as people claimed him to be last season) and Liverpool are far from being and EPL title contender.
 
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Maybe that's why his defence has not improved in two years, he has a phobia of thinking about the problems with his team.
 
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