03 Mar 2015 07:51:07
Hi, I'm a new poster but a regular on the site. The forum is fantastic and I think I would be speaking for the majority in saying the Eds do a fantastic job.
I wanted to post about much of the negativity throughout the season surrounding rodgers as manage. I know it's easy to support the manager whilst we are in a rich vein of form, but i must say that i hope he has quietened many of the detractors. The number of dillusional fans expecting us to win the league this season is quite incredible. Firstly last season was freak year. I would wager thay less 5% of fans would have expected us to challenge for the title at the start of last season and would have said finishing in the top four would have been a magnificent acheivement. So to suddenly expect us to challenge for the title again inspite of the fact that we lost our best player and based of form probably the best player in the world is quite frankly insane.
The main aim for this season has to be a top 4 finish so we can consolidate our position in europes elite competition and build a squad that can challenge. This is not going to happen overnight. Making the top 4 would be an unqualifies success and i can quite understand the looney fans whi think otherwise.
We cleary have an intelligent coach/man manager/ tactician who deserves support and time. Yes he has made mistakes and makes some off the wall comments. But he is young manager who is still learnig his trade at one of the most prestigious clubs In the world.
The instant success that some fans demand had really grated on me this season, and I have many debates with my friends where I have been exasperated by the lack support for the manager/players.
People forget that only a few seasons ago we had hodgson in the dugout marshalling konchesky and Poulsen!! The turn around has bren quite magnificent and a large part of that is down to the manager.
I have no doubt that given time Rodgers will leads us on for a titles challenge n the next couple of seasons and hope that FSG keep the faith.
Neel
{Ed001's Note - sorry but anyone who thinks finishing so far behind Chelsea is a success is the loony! I don't think anyone expected us to win the league, but we had every right to expect us to challenge for it again after the summer's outlay.}
03 Mar 2015 08:36:59
I think its looney to suggest that we should be much closer to Chelsea when we sold our best player and had our next best goalscorer out for the season. I suggest that Chelsea would not be so far ahead if hazard was sold and costa was injured forbhalf of the season.
Admittedly we had a bad start but this can only be expected from signing a number of bright young players.
Also ed would you say at the start of last season you expected us to challenge for the title? honestly is that what yo were expecting?
We clearly overacheived last season because we had the most lethal strike partnership in the league. That overacheivement has obviosly gone to a number of fans heads
{Ed001's Note - surely it is not loony when clearly the only reason we are so far behind is because the manager made mistakes, which you have agreed with. So you are saying we should accept mediocrity and it is loony to want otherwise purely because our manager is not up to the task of getting the best from the team at his disposal then?
I was fully expecting a title challenge with the players brought in and the players already at the club. There is simply no excuse for anything else. It was a bad start brought on by poor management. Now, for me, Rodgers should have come out and admitted he got it wrong, rather than coming out with pathetic excuses, which he is still making.
We never overachieved at all last season, sorry but I disagree. We achieved exactly what we deserved. If we had won the title, that would have been overachieving. Winning nothing is far from an overachievement. There was absolutely no reason we couldn't be right now in second again, other than we got off to a bad start, which is all in the hands of the manager. So no, it is not loony to expect more.}
03 Mar 2015 09:09:13
I don't think it can really be argued that we didn't overacheive last season. However I respect that you certainly believe we should have challenged for the title after finishing 7th the previous season! Your argument is too simple and is bordering on the cliche that coming second is last which is contrite to say the least!
How many times does Mourinho come out and admit he was wrong. He didn't win anyrhing for a few years surely he made mistakes? or is he also a bad manager? how about ancelotti surely thay should have beaten their rivals to the league last season with their resources- I didn't hear comments from him saying he was wrong?
Also do you think that if chelsea lost hazard, madrid lost ronaldo, barca lost messi it would have no impact on their team the following season? signing players is all good and well but even if we signed ready made so called stars it would take time for them to settle in. and we didn't even sign stars we signed bright young talents! case in point angel di maria, juan mata, andiry shevchenko, fernando torres! new sigings don't always pan out as expected.
{Ed001's Note - are you a wum or just being deliberately obtuse? Did I say we should have challenged for the title after coming 7th? I said we didn't overachieve, not that we should have challenged, but that we deserved to come second. Nobody mentioned anything about it being the first loser other than you, who is providing all the cliches of apologism you can possibly find.
What on earth has Mourinho or Ancelotti got to do with an idiotic decision to change a winning system to one that has failed on previous attempts to implement it with us? Did either Jose or Carlo do that? Not sure I remember either of them making such a basic error. Or are you loony enough to suggest that Brendan now bears comparison with two managers who have won the Champions League on more than one occasion, despite him never winning anything?
That is the manager's job, to choose the right replacements, to bring them into the team when they are ready, and to manage their performances to get the best out of them. Do you think Jose would be outside the top 4 with Chelsea if they had sold Hazard and lost Costa to a long injury at the start of the season? Not a chance. Why? Because he would have managed them better. So why are you defending Rodgers' errors at the start of the season? You say he is a young manager who is learning, but you seem to have forgotten that you only learn by admitting you made mistakes and learning from them. Not making snide comments to the media, while putting pressure on young players to sign new contracts and praising yourself for currently not making the mistakes you were making.}
03 Mar 2015 09:41:46
I don't think you are undrrstanding the point I am making about 'overacheivement'. According to most peoples expectations we were outsiders challenging for the top 4 and due to the players/managers performance we ended up deserving 2nd place in the league. This does not mean that the players didn't overacheive! Anyways that's all semanticss
I agree he has made mistakes but why should he front up to the media and admit them and lose the confidence of his players. Ok I agree he has made definitely some odd and silly comments about winning the champions leaghe and being susceptible to displaying clear nariccissm, but u don't think that means we should close our eyes to the turn around he has made to this team. His admission of his mistake is clear for everyone to see I don't see why he should adminish himself to please the fans!
{Ed001's Note - how would he lose the confidence of the players? What a load of nonsense that is. Do you lose confidence in someone who makes a mistake, fixes it and then admits to it? It tends to lead to respect.}
03 Mar 2015 10:01:27
I agree it can do, but more often that not in football how many times do we see it? Also who knows what is said behind closed doors, Rodgrs may well have intimated to the players he was trying different things that didn't work. I don't see why he should say it in public. Anyway good to debate with you Ed!
{Ed001's Note - I think that is more of a symptom of the problems in the world of football, along with the constant need to spit everywhere and the homophobia that sees players afraid to admit to being gay. People in the game are afraid to admit anything, they need to change that and grow up a bit. I doubt it will happen as so few footballers have the intelligence required to blow their own nose, let alone think for themselves!}
03 Mar 2015 10:16:59
I said at the start of the season we wouldn't challenge for the title, but we would make top 4.
Although Rodgers spent a lot of money in the summer, we also need to remember that we sold our best player to enable us to do it.
I would rather we kept saurez and only spent 40mil, then i'd have expected us to challenge for the title.
Last year we deserved to be where we were and although we have fallen behind this year we are fast approaching all the other teams above us.
6 games ago we where 15 points behind city in 2nd and now we are 7 points behind.
As sky have been showing this week are point ration in the 2nd half of the season is 2.50 and above a game, but before xmas we are 1.50 ish per game when playing Rodgers idle type of football.
If we start next season playing the way we are now i'd expect us to challenge.
03 Mar 2015 10:25:28
Ed1 do you think Liverpool will "cut the worm from the apple" as ed2 would say?! Rodgers I'm talking about
Tha ka
{Ed001's Note - I believe he has done enough to keep his job intact from what I have been told. There is still a belief in the need for someone in a DoF role that can work with him though.}
03 Mar 2015 10:29:00
I hate to say it but if Maureen lost Costa and Hazard yet was given 100m, chances are he would have bought a lot wiser than we did.
03 Mar 2015 11:37:30
I think the fact we are on such a good run of form now only highlights the fact Rodgers is a poor manager even more, the fact of look at what's actually possible with this squad, so why where we playing so poorly at the start? Why did Rodgers take so long to change the system? Why buy so many players to challenge on all fronts then play a second string team against Madrid? Why are we so so poor in Europe? Why are we so behind Chelsea in the league?
This season for me shows Rodgers has it in him to be a brilliant coach but he is so far out of his depth at this level without a DOF. He can coach and manage some players brilliantly and turn them into superstars Sturidge and coutinho for example, but look at all the ones he has alienated as well and as a result cost the club many millions and effectively put us out of the market when it comes to needing a top player to fill a gap that the accedemy can't.
I like Rodgers (I have met him a few times, nice man) but he really needs help for him to be successful at Liverpool.
03 Mar 2015 17:20:57
Ed1 you have sais a few ties over the last couple of months that the owners are sick and tired of Rodgers and his antics, that he keeps opening his mouth again and again and keeps making the same mistakes again and again! Then why are they going to stick with him in the summer?? Surely they would replace him??
Thqnks
{Ed001's Note - they still might, no final decision has been made, it just looks likely he has earnt himself another year, with help above him.}
04 Mar 2015 00:05:14
BR will be FULLY evaluated and IMO, he will b offered a series of recommendations which include a DOF and other things (media help, and so on)to help him focus only on coaching (which he is awesome at) and cut out his mistakes to a minimum. If he agrees, he stays and I`ll b happy with that. If he refuses (which is also likely) then he should be shown the door because all big clubs now don`t have managers, they all have people above them so if BR thinks he`s bigger than Pep, Mou, Simeone, Pello, Ancelotti, De Boer and the rest then for sure, he should go because he ain`t biger than those guys and sure ain`t bigger than LFC.