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Does Rodgers deserve another season.


thompsonsnose
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You've addressed what it would take for us to catch up to the top 4 teams of today. Alas, the gap we need to close is with today's top 4 augmented by their summer's transfer business. Given all of them have a better recent transfer record than us it'll be a sisyphean task.

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You've addressed what it would take for us to catch up to the top 4 teams of today. Alas, the gap we need to close is with today's top 4 augmented by their summer's transfer business. Given all of them have a better recent transfer record than us it'll be a sisyphean task.

 

Exactly.  I think a decent summer's business will see us hold position but that's the best expectation I have and it doesn't seem as if that would be enough for FSG.  Obviously there's no guarantee a change of manager would change that either but it's going to come down to whether they think Rodgers has got the best out of the resources he had available. 

 

I can't help but think about how many times he's dropped or not played the players who came in last summer for large fees and wonder if it might come back to bite him on the arse.

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Exactly.  I think a decent summer's business will see us hold position but that's the best expectation I have and it doesn't seem as if that would be enough for FSG.  Obviously there's no guarantee a change of manager would change that either but it's going to come down to whether they think Rodgers has got the best out of the resources he had available. 

 

I can't help but think about how many times he's dropped or not played the players who came in last summer for large fees and wonder if it might come back to bite him on the arse.

Key to the whole FSG model is that there is some relationship between the transfer plan and the playing plan. There clearly isn't one. The playing plan is currently throw dice until results change. I don't see how they can let that continue.

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Key to the whole FSG model is that there is some relationship between the transfer plan and the playing plan. There clearly isn't one. The playing plan is currently throw dice until results change. I don't see how they can let that continue.

 

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We haven't got a clue how we play, hence the endless tactical changes, the constant tinkering and playing players out of position.

 

A club and therefore a manager with an idea buys the players to fit his desired style of play, we found a way of playing but as soon as the player who made it tick left we were fucked.

 

Instead of buying players that would slot into that way of playing we bought players who couldn't and ever since then we have been scratching around trying to find a style of play and an identity, whilst trying formation after formation and players being shunted all over the place, asked to fulfill roles they aren't comfortable with or good at and in too many cases being in and out of the side, all with ever diminishing returns.

 

Or to put it more succinctly a clusterfuck.

As Rodgers said the philosophy is always the same whatever the formation and I always see us trying to do the things I mentioned, sometimes the pressing doesn't work when our players don't get close enough.

 

The problem has been trying to adapt the team to find a way to get goals and cover not having a goal scoring striker, I'm 99% sure BR will start next season with either the 4231 or 433 system when we have a new striker.

 

Those two have always been his preferred formations while here, he changed them when he had to fit two world class strikers in last season and this one when he had to find a way to play without a striker.

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As Rodgers said the philosophy is always the same whatever the formation and I always see us trying to do the things I mentioned, sometimes the pressing doesn't work when our players don't get close enough.

 

The problem has been trying to adapt the team to find a way to get goals and cover not having a goal scoring striker, I'm 99% sure BR will start next season with either the 4231 or 433 system when we have a new striker.

 

Those two have always been his preferred formations while here, he changed them when he had to fit two world class strikers in last season and this one when he had to find a way to play without a striker.

 

Not slagging you but that is BS. Rodgers has been all over the place since he got here. The only constant has been his neurotic need to appear clever by playing part of his squad out of position in every game. Its positively needy.

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Liverpool owners put Brendan Rodgers on spot over transfer policy

 

Tony Barrett

Last updated at 12:01AM, May 20 2015

 

Although one position remains unchanged, another has been subject to a subtle but potentially significant adjustment. While Liverpool continue to insist that Raheem Sterling is going nowhere, the future of Brendan Rodgers, the manager, has become less clear. From being the only man for the job a month ago, he now has to demonstrate that he remains heading in the same direction as Fenway Sports Group (FSG), the club’s owner.

 

After Liverpool’s shambolic defeat by Aston Villa in the FA Cup semi-final last month, word emerged from Anfield indicating that FSG was not contemplating replacing Rodgers. In many respects that remains the same, but a crucial, potentially destabilising caveat has been added: the Northern Irishman needs to re-establish trust with Liverpool’s hierarchy to prove that they can work together.

 

While the future of Sterling continues to attract attention, a process of much greater significance is taking place behind the scenes at Anfield. Rodgers will effectively have to convince FSG that the strain that has weakened their relationship in recent weeks need not prove terminal.

 

Almost a year to the day since he agreed a new four-year contract, Rodgers finds himself at the centre of the kind of uncertainty that seemed unimaginable then.

 

At the heart of the matter is a strategic divergence between Rodgers and FSG about Liverpool’s transfer policy. For the many critics who believed that the introduction of a transfer committee to share the responsibilities would result in this kind of dysfunction, there will be a sense of vindication at this turn of events.

 

Rodgers’s preference would be to recruit proven, established Barclays Premier League players, such as Ashley Williams, the Swansea City central defender, and Ryan Bertrand, the Southampton left back. FSG remains unwavering in its belief that focusing on potential and recruiting players for the manager to improve through coaching is the best way to proceed.

 

Marrying those seemingly incompatible positions will be the objective when Rodgers has his end-of-season review this month.

 

The sense that Liverpool are at a crossroads under FSG’s ownership is inescapable. The question marks over Rodgers’s future are just part of an overall feeling of uncertainty that pervades the club at all levels.

 

Symptomatic of this trend is the ambiguity caused by Michel Platini’s announcement that Uefa is preparing to reduce the rigour of Financial Fair Play (FFP), the very rules that John W Henry, Liverpool’s principal owner, admitted allowed the idea of buying the Merseyside club almost five years ago to make sense.

 

Any relaxation of those regulations would not only carry the potential for Liverpool to find it even more difficult to compete with clubs boasting wealthier owners, as Henry has also acknowledged, but also keeping their own better players would become an even greater test.

 

Particularly illuminating is the symbolism of Manchester City, the one club that Henry hoped FFP would affect, looking to tempt Sterling away from Liverpool by offering the winger the kind of salary that FSG will not consider paying.

 

As was the case two summers ago when Luis Suárez agitated for a move to Arsenal, Liverpool can hold firm and refuse to allow Sterling to leave, regardless of how hard he fights to secure a transfer. That would at least represent a show of strength, a refusal to yield to those who may be able to wield petrodollars with renewed intent, but the likelihood is that, as with Suárez, it would prove to be only a short-lived one.

 

This time next year, Sterling will have only 12 months left on his contract and Liverpool will have little choice but to sanction his sale to ward off the possibility of him leaving on a free transfer.

 

What this says about the state of top-level football and the effect that money is having on it is a cause for concern, particularly if the kind of level playing field that Platini, the Uefa president, wrongly envisaged FFP would deliver remains an objective. But regardless of sporting fairness, Liverpool are having to confront the uncomfortable reality that their ability to compete at the highest level is diminishing. The one-time biters are being bitten.

 

It is against this troubled backdrop that their future must be mapped out. Like Rodgers, Steven Gerrard, the departing captain, believes that the time for signing players with potential is past and that this summer the focus must be on the here and now if Liverpool are to challenge for a place in the top four of the Premier League next season.

For that to happen, FSG, like Uefa, must accept that their transfer strategy should be abandoned or, at the very least, relaxed.

 

As things stand, there is little sign of FSG going down that route. Instead, its initial desire is to put right the mistakes that undermined the campaign, with the focus being the failure to integrate last summer’s signings into the team. That is where Rodgers’s input is crucial.

 

Unless the manager subscribes to the idea that the present strategy should be pursued, albeit with refinements, the changes at Anfield could become fundamental rather than subtle.

 

Decade of drama

 

2004 Gérard Houllier is sacked, paving the way for Rafael Benítez to take over as manager. Steven Gerrard has a change of heart and remains at Anfield after looking set to join Chelsea.

 

2009 Xabi Alonso is sold to Real Madrid and replaced with Alberto Aquilani. Off the pitch, Christian Purslow is appointed managing director.

 

2010 Benítez is replaced by Roy Hodgson during a summer that culminates in Liverpool being sold to Fenway Sports Group despite attempts by Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr to retain ownership.

 

2013 Luis Suárez attempts to force a move to Arsenal but is prevented from doing so after the intervention of John W Henry, Liverpool’s principal owner.

 

2014 After picking up a four-month ban for biting Giorgio Chiellini during the World Cup, Suárez wins his battle to leave Liverpool and joins Barcelona for £75 million, triggering a spending spree on nine signings.

 


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Symptomatic of this trend is the ambiguity caused by Michel Platini’s announcement that Uefa is preparing to reduce the rigour of Financial Fair Play (FFP), the very rules that John W Henry, Liverpool’s principal owner, admitted allowed the idea of buying the Merseyside club almost five years ago to make sense.

 

Shirley this is a massive red herring.  FSG just use FFP as a constant justification to be mingebags in the transfer market and with wages.

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Transfer Committee: young, unproven players with "promise"

Rodgers: average-to-mediocre Premier League players with experience

 

Me: Fucking hell.

Rodgers was only hired because of his ability with young, unproven players with "promise", if he's going to pitch a different strategy he's going to be talking himself out of a job.

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Rodgers was only hired because of his ability with young, unproven players with "promise", if he's going to pitch a different strategy he's going to be talking himself out of a job.

 

 

In that case he could argue that other managers wouldn't have faith in younger players like Sterling, and the only reason he'll be sold for a massive fee is because he stuck with him when other managers wouldn't put their trust in youth as much (e.g. Mourinho).  Therefore Brendan's methods increase the value of younger players, as they get more exposure/game time.

 

Let's say that Sterling is sold for £50m this summer (not an outrageous proposition).  That would be £125m for just two players in the last two summers under Brendan's management.  Maybe FSG will tolerate the fuck ups if Rodgers can keep churning out the big transfer fees (maybe Coutinho or Ibe next summer).  

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In that case he could argue that other managers wouldn't have faith in younger players like Sterling, and the only reason he'll be sold for a massive fee is because he stuck with him when other managers wouldn't put their trust in youth as much (e.g. Mourinho).  Therefore Brendan's methods increase the value of younger players, as they get more exposure/game time.

 

Let's say that Sterling is sold for £50m this summer (not an outrageous proposition).  That would be £125m for just two players in the last two summers under Brendan's management.  Maybe FSG will tolerate the fuck ups if Rodgers can keep churning out the big transfer fees (maybe Coutinho or Ibe next summer).

It would certainly make more sense to argue that.

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As Rodgers said the philosophy is always the same whatever the formation and I always see us trying to do the things I mentioned, sometimes the pressing doesn't work when our players don't get close enough.

 

The problem has been trying to adapt the team to find a way to get goals and cover not having a goal scoring striker, I'm 99% sure BR will start next season with either the 4231 or 433 system when we have a new striker.

 

Those two have always been his preferred formations while here, he changed them when he had to fit two world class strikers in last season and this one when he had to find a way to play without a striker.

 

Considering that he refuses to entertain playing even one defensive midfielder half the time, there's more chance of me waking up tomorrow morning to find Scarlett Johansson and Mila Kunis eating each other out at the foot of my bed than B-Rod setting us up 4-2-3-1.

 

We play 4-3-3 like old people fuck.

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Transfer Committee: young, unproven players with "promise"

Rodgers: average-to-mediocre Premier League players with experience

 

Me: Fucking hell.

What a farce.

 

Rodgers still being sore about not getting Bertrand and Williams rather than sheepish for forcing through Lallana or Lovren. It could have been a lot worse if Rodgers had got to sign most of his old Swansea players.

 

The committee policy isn't nearly as bad but we haven't got enough Can or Coutinho's out of it. Not that Rodgers has helped. He can't coach defenders and tried to replace Sakho with Lovren. The committee have at least bought a few good players.

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Shirley this is a massive red herring. FSG just use FFP as a constant justification to be mingebags in the transfer market and with wages.

The top 4 earn more revenue than us so FFP actually holds us back. FFP is only good for clubs regularly in the CL with high revenues.

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I see it looks like Rafa will be good enough for Real Madrid but apparently not for us.

 

Anyway rumours abound that apart from the players like Stevie G and a few others who succumb to flattery and arselicking, most of the decent pros at the club have figured Rodgers out as a fool in fool's clothing. He needs to get the hell away from my club.

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Its interesting people hinting at FSG forcing Sterling out by blaming his agent and maybe there is some merit in it but the fact this happened two years ago and will probably happen at regular intervals in his future makes me believe the damage he has done is self inflicted,and inflicted by his agent too.

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