10 Feb 2015 08:29:32
I've tried to search this, wasn't on this site for months and put it back on again last week and I get the impression the writing is on the wall for Rodgers. Is that true? Are the owners looking to sack him? Cheers
The eds have indicated he made promises he hasn't kept. That the ''mouth'' opens too quickly in interviews as well as other aspects. The club is currently under review as a whole as to how it's being run.
It's been clearly suggested that BR will very likely not be the manager next season.
10 Feb 2015 10:07:49
Ok so say he goes. Whose the alternative? Realistically!
As far as it is prudent for the Eds to disclose information they have, it does seem that BR assured the owners that if they invested the funds that they did last summer, then he would be able to mount a strong title challenge and do very very well in the CL.
Instead, we probably won't even make top four, and he had an awful first half of the season including a frankly pathetic CL campaign, by repeatedly sticking to a formation that even us amateurs could see was not working.
Taking half the season to find a winning formation might not be seen as a good enough performance tactically.
Also, in an era when ffp is being enforced, bad transfer decisions will genuinely and seriously damage the clubs long term prospects.
BR has repeatedly signed players who did not deliver results, or who were never given a chance, and we seem to have overpaid for some of the players that are decent quality, such as markovich and possibly moreno.
Buying balotelli was possibly his biggest mistake so far, and you have to wonder how senior professional scouts could have decided his playing style was suitable for lfc before we went in with £16m.
Choosing mario instead of remy seems in hindsight to have been a major error of judgement, and one which has contributed to the poor results.
It just seems like rodgers has been too stubborn in clinging to his possession philosophy despite continuing poor results up until december, too self confident to learn from his mistakes, and is not consistent enough in picking quality players.
The sums of money wasted are frighteningly large, and nowadays each bad player bought means there is no money left to repair the damage and buy a good player.
Smart transfer strategy is more important to a clubs future than it has ever been, and rodgers has played a big part in messing it up.
I would never want to get personal in attacking him as some do, but I fear the owners will see our likely 5th/6th place as an abject failure on his part, and they will probably take action.
Well said anonymush. We can be optimistic as much as we want but the reality is the team's improved performances have come a tad too late. It probably will not get us UCL football next year and the owners will be justified in replacing the manager along with other necessary management changes. Its all a result oriented business and if we cannot get top4 even after spending over 120 million GBP, then Brendan deserves the sack.
10 Feb 2015 11:05:26
Crackin reply lad nice one
I agree with the errors you have mentioned anonymush.
But you have to weigh up the positives as well as the negatives.
We have a young squad which it looks like it will only get younger as the academy is churning out some really good prospects.
This will bode well in the future for the balance sheet as well as the team.
I know Rodgers is not the finished article either but there are signs that we are on the cusp of something great.
I look at the reasons we have had a poor start to the season and while Rodgers deserves criticism for it (rightly so) I don't think he is solely to blame.
We lost the golden boot joint winner in Suarez and at the same time we lost our other brilliant striker for 5 months.
We bought a lot of players. some who have been really poor and Rodgers has to take his share of the blame but some are proving that we have not wasted all of our cash.
3 months ago on this site everyone criticized the manager for not sorting out the defense (me included).
We all have to say that he has sorted out the defense now!
He may not respond as quickly to some of things which appear obvious but he is only 40 which is a baby in terms of management.
I don't see the point in sacking him to be honest.
Is there a better coach out there? maybe but we might get a worse coach in trying to get a better one.
We would have more "transition".
I had this conversation with a few of my mates recently who support our rivals and they were genuinely in shock that we are even considering getting rid of him.
And it wasn't the "keep him in because he's crap" Moyes argument.
It was the "why are you on earth are you considering getting rid of a manager who clearly is on the right track" argument.
This summer I do not see why we have to give Rodgers any more money.
We have 11 players who are already going or who need to go.
What we need is to promote from within and use the funds from the players leaving to buy real quality in 2 or 3 purchases.
If we do that, get the signings right and promote the correct academy players for me we will have an amazing young vibrant and experienced squad for next year.
That is why I would like to see Rodgers continue in the job.
{Ed001's Note - how does having a fantastic academy equate to keeping Rodgers on? Sorry but I am confused by that point. It is a positive for the club, but absolutely nothing to do with what he has been doing.}
Its the Eds who've given us the insights into these situations to be honest. Otherwise I'd be reading the Metro rumours and would be convinced that Harry Kane was at this moment en route to Melwood to sign for us, so he could swap sides af half time tonight.
BR is a bit of a cheeseball, but I'm sure he's not a bad guy and he doesn't deserve personal attacks and cheap insults.
He can coach a team to play really well, and can get results, but it does seem like his strongly preferred system is not the one that wins him games, and he seemed very very stubborn in clinging to his philosophy- right up until the season was knackered beyond recovery.
At which time he then decided to change to a system he doesn't like so much, but which started winning games.
I believe he was once asked whether he had a plan B in case plan A wasnt working, and his reply was that he simply worked harder at plan A.
That probably says it all.
10 Feb 2015 11:57:01
Klopp, De Boer etc and Ed002 also said not to entirely rule out Rafa.
What I was trying to say ed is that Rodgers does play young players.
Not nearly as much as I would like but he is bringing young players into the team and that is one of his strengths. player development.
I was not seeking to give credit to him for the academy just acknowledging that he does bring players through and I think this is a positive thing given the quality of player that is now coming through.
He has made changes to the academy system but I can't say whether this is positive or negative thing at the moment.
Time will tell.
Borrell and the men rafa brought in originally to run the academy deserve the credit more than most in my opinion.
{Ed001's Note - like who? You mean Sterling and Flanagan who came in because we had injuries and there was no one else? Or Jordon Ibe, who came in because he was ordered to make more use of the youngsters after asking for players in the transfer window? I am sorry but his record with youth players is appalling. He has not got a good record. Flanno would have been sold if Rodgers had his way, he tried to offload him more than once. So we are down to 3 youth players that he has brought into the team, one because he was trying to prove a point and two because he had no one else. Hardly great management of youth products. If he was willing to give more youth a chance, I would not be so disappointed with our position in the league.}
Klopp would be great but can't see it.
De Boer would be a big gamble in my opinion. We simply can't be sure if he would be a success or not.
Rafa. I love him and what he did for us, tactically brilliant but I have to say that I prefer our style of play under Rodgers to the style of play under Rafa.
Fair enough ed.
I did not know about him asking for more funds. So I bow to your superior knowledge on that one.
Well that does change my opinion of him a somewhat.
Still think that by telling him to play more youngsters and buying players from sales rather than money set aside by the owners is the way to go.
Would Rodgers agree to that in your opinion?
And if he did those things asked of him, would you then be happy to see him continue?
Lot of if's I know. Humour me.
{Ed001's Note - if he would, I would be happier, let's put it that way. I still think he needs to be just the head coach and accept someone else appointing coaches, such as a goalkeeping coach and a defensive coach that he just has to find a way to work with. So yes, if he is just coaching the players and picking them within a plan laid out by someone else, I would be happy with him.
Someone at the club should be planning how to use the youth academy prospects to best suit their progression for the club's future. Having the manager doing it is counter productive as he is under pressure to get results now. That is why you need a DoF above him to make him utilise them at times.
Trouble is that I don't believe he would agree to any of it. Instead he would come out making stupid statements about young players and their contracts. The problem is with replacing him is who could replace him? If only he would wind his neck in a bit and stop trying to force a slow possession based system on the club, none of this would even be under discussion.}
I think there is also the issue of lucas that shows BR in a poor light as a judge of players.
Here is a player who we consistently get better results with, who is one of the best dm's in the league, and who learned his trade the hard way by making a good few early mistakes (remember those rash free kicks he conceded around the box in his first two seasons?) and he has used that hard experience to improve his game to the point where he is a superb player, and we almost always look visibly less solid in midfield when he is not playing. And yet BR was happy to let him go, right up until he finally realised how essential lucas is to our midfield strength.
Sure, he can spot the odd good player- such as the ever improving Can- but failing to see Lucas' importance despite all the evidence looks like blinkered vision- which is another bad quality in a manager. I have no doubt BR has the ability to coach a league winning side, but only if he is not allowed to buy the players, and only if he has the humility to learn from the mistakes he has made at lfc.
So what we are saying is that he needs to change a bit but not that much.
But that the things he needs to change are vital.
I can go along with that.
Given his age, I hope he can change and I hope he stays beyond the season.
Whatever happens I do think that our academy and the players being produced is where our future strength lies.
So I suppose from that point of view the club has every right to ask questions about lack of opportunities for the youth!
Especially as I was under the impression that he stated this when he got the job.
{Ed001's Note - he did state that and it was one of the main reasons behind the decision to entrust him with the role.}
Maybe we could kidnap him and gently persuade him to adopt said methods of managing??
Maybe a threat to pencil his teeth black may do the trick.
Because it does seem really frustrating to have a coach who ticks a few of the boxes but not all of them.
Is there a coach out there who ticks them all?
Apart from you ed!!
Tbh if he was capable of changing his philosophy permanently to adopt the current attacking style (which has led to him having a win percentage higher than rafa for example), and if he accepted help from a defensive coach, and if he was kept away from buying players, and if he had to personally grovel to lucas (ok that one is a nice to have) I personally would prefer to give him another season and see what he could do.
But the thing is that no matter what we think, I don't think the owners will want to trust him any more, given the bad results up till december, the poor transfer strategy, the money wastage and the other issues and problems that have happened already.
No matter how good the team looks recently (and they didn't look good against everton anyway), he's had nearly three years to get things like the defence sorted out, and its still not right.