Brendan Rodgers Thread

[Dr Nowt]

There's a lot of things you can level at the players from Sunday, but surely some mental toughness was shown by coming through an at times dreadful performance at our most challenging venue with the 3 points, when they looked like being thrown away more than once.

 

Every team has poor performances, not all find a way to get over the line despite it.  Certainly have more grit than we did, in my view anyway.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

I am impressed by Rodgers just not so much with half of our team. We were so under the cosh from Stoke the other night, making stupid decisions and mistakes, being nervous in the face of Adams, failing to pass a ball with enough weight or giving it too much, that I was reminded that we aren't a great team.

That's a bit bloody harsh. I agree that we weren't very good against Stoke and, I said so on the MF, I thought we were unprofessional. It was uncharacteristically unprofessional, but we did come away with a win, having scored five goals against a side which had only conceded seven all season at home. We did come away with all three points from a ground where we've never won a game in the Premier League era and where we've lost three in a row. That reminds you we're not all that great? Hmn. We're a good side who played poorly, not a poor side who has been blegging top performances for over a year. It wasn't great, but it isn't reflective of who we are.

 

We aren't good enough to win the league and unless we add some mental strength we'll fail to make the champions league.

Mental strength? We've been winning without several of our best players all season, and we've won games by narrow margins when we've needed to. If we can take anything from Stoke it's that, whilst we're not perfect, we do have the stones to go on and win despite being pegged back from 2 goals up. Away. Where we've never won a Premier League game.

 

I was hoping that this kind of amateurish approach had vanished. We've been good for the last 6 weeks or so, really good at times, but for a large part of the stoke game we were garbage.

Right. I'm not following you here, mate. We've been good for the last six week, but it's parts of one game that you're choosing to base your opinion on? Why? As I said, I absolutely agree that we were amateurish at times. I thought our ball retention was poor, our pressing was non-existent (which is why the Lucas/Gerrard combo fucking sucks and is worth far less than the sum of its parts), our concentration was lacking, and the distribution was lacking. Yet we STILL scored five and took all the points. So yeah, we weren't at our best, but this is an exception to what we've seen for most of the season.

 

Rodgers has it in him to make us a great team I think but we can't afford the type of nerves shown by our defence and midfield the other night. Some big decisions are needed; replacing Johnson, easing out Stevie, finding a strong skilful midfield champion and coming up with a great defence. This is not going to be easy to do ( I know you haven't said it will be) for any manager but I have some confidence Rodgers can. At least we are entertaining and at times our football is fantastic but I'll be properly impressed when I don't see the likes of Henderson reverting to being little boys at times of stress.

Nobody has said it's job done yet, mate. We're still in the early-ish stages of rebuilding and redefining the side. That's a process that will take a while. When you look back at where were, and where we are now; we've travelled a long way in a short space of time here. I agree, there are tests ahead. We won't get all of the answers right first time. We do have a fighting chance though, because we're buying better players more regularly than before.

[KevieG]

I am impressed by Rodgers just not so much with half of our team. We were so under the cosh from Stoke the other night, making stupid decisions and mistakes, being nervous in the face of Adams, failing to pass a ball with enough weight or giving it too much, that I was reminded that we aren't a great team. We aren't good enough to win the league and unless we add some mental strength we'll fail to make the champions league. I was hoping that this kind of amateurish approach had vanished. We've been good for the last 6 weeks or so, really good at times, but for a large part of the stoke game we were garbage.

Luis, Sturridge, sterling and at times couthino, showed how good they were but I feel the rest of them were often like headless chickens.

Rodgers has it in him to make us a great team I think but we can't afford the type of nerves shown by our defence and midfield the other night. Some big decisions are needed; replacing Johnson, easing out Stevie, finding a strong skilful midfield champion and coming up with a great defence. This is not going to be easy to do ( I know you haven't said it will be) for any manager but I have some confidence Rodgers can. At least we are entertaining and at times our football is fantastic but I'll be properly impressed when I don't see the likes of Henderson reverting to being little boys at times of stress.

 

There is a saying that you are only as good as your weakest link and it think it comes back to haunt us at times. Thats only to be expected with a think squad but I would hope that the resultant improvement from two new full backs and a top class defensive midfielder would transform us exponentially.

 

Watching Cissokho being outpaced and falling for tricks from a clogger like Charlie Adam showed how poor we are on that side. And Johnson just doesn't care anymore. Its a shame that Kenny didn't follow through and get Coleman a couple of years ago. He would suit us down to the ground. For the same reason I'd look to get Shaw in the summer if at all possible.

 

If we do get Champions football you can be sure that these weaknesses will be targeted.

 

 

Re: Rodgers, another thing that I like is that he seems to just go out and steamroller the shite teams in the league and there are enough of them for that policy alone to have us near the top places. Game was in the balance v Stoke and he goes all out to win with another striker. Great to see that. It worked for Ferguson for years.

[Rotpeter]

If he could organize a defence as well as his mentor we'd be finishing 2nd this year.

[Major Tom]

Yes, and we wouldn't score as many either. Swings and slides.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

If he could organize a defence as well as his mentor we'd be finishing 2nd this year.

It's not about defensive organisation. We have the best defensive record in the league - better than Chelsea. The issue is away from home we aren't keeping possession like we do at home, we don't build from the back, and we play longer, conceding possession and thus chances on goal.

 

It's not just about defensive organisation. We just need our best players back in that area and keep the ball better. Allen and Henderson's energy is a must away, in my opinion.

[spider-neil]

It's not about defensive organisation. We have the best defensive record in the league - better than Chelsea. The issue is away from home we aren't keeping possession like we do at home, we don't build from the back, and we play longer, conceding possession and thus chances on goal.

 

It's not just about defensive organisation. We just need our best players back in that area and keep the ball better. Allen and Henderson's energy is a must away, in my opinion.

 

 

Completely agree,

* Keep the ball better.

* Choose our attacks better especially when we have a lead.

* Work hard to stop crosses coming in.

 

We do that and we'll improve defensively away from home.

[Gym Beglin]

It's refreshing to see clear reasons as to why we concede, and a way forward to improving.

 

I couldn't be happier with Rodgers at this stage, that said, go back two months and I felt it looked bleak.  Weird as it sounds, as we were top of the league, but we never seemed to get going in games and lived on our nerves.  Until December, I felt we didn't look convincing, and the defeat to Arsenal was harrowing. 

 

Honestly, it's only since the Spurs game that I feel we've turned a corner and turned ace. 

[bossy]

It's refreshing to see clear reasons as to why we concede, and a way forward to improving.

 

I couldn't be happier with Rodgers at this stage, that said, go back two months and I felt it looked bleak. Weird as it sounds, as we were top of the league, but we never seemed to get going in games and lived on our nerves. Until December, I felt we didn't look convincing, and the defeat to Arsenal was harrowing.

 

Honestly, it's only since the Spurs game that I feel we've turned a corner and turned ace.

That's kind of how I feel but think that in the Stoke game we went back to living on our nerves.

 

In answer to NVs numerous rebuttals of my opinions (!) I can only say that SAS got us out of trouble despite the rest of the team.

[Kevin D]

That's kind of how I feel but think that in the Stoke game we went back to living on our nerves.

 

In answer to NVs numerous rebuttals of my opinions (!) I can only say that SAS got us out of trouble despite the rest of the team.

Why do you hate Rodgers so much?

[Major Tom]

That's kind of how I feel but think that in the Stoke game we went back to living on our nerves.

 

In answer to NVs numerous rebuttals of my opinions (!) I can only say that SAS got us out of trouble despite the rest of the team.

 

erm... Sturridge and Suarez are part of the team.

[spider-neil]

The team is essentially built around fitting Suarez and Sturridge into the side so if they are the focal point and are the ones that dig us out of a hole that is what they are paid to do and our tactics are in service of that.

 

We could conceed less simply by putting 10 men behind the ball but Suarez and Sturridge wouldn't be as effective starved of service (as you saw away at Arsenal this season). We play attacking football it's only natural we'll conceed more.

[Tyler Durden]

Well if Utd didn't have Van Persie last season they wouldn't have won the league so I think it's acceptable to rely on one player even though in our case we could have two that we rely on.

 

 

I wasn't his biggest fan during his first season because I think he talked a bit too much but I might have formed that opinion through the show he had to deal with when he first came in (which can't have been easy). This season he has started to feel a bit more like part of the club and he could be here for a seriously long time if it works out, if he manages to take the team from 7th to top 4 in one season with some of the teams around us (regardless of whether it's off the back of Suarez form) I'll be sure were onto a winner with him.

[The Golden Eel]

What happened to Whelan?

[Reckoner]

If it wasn't for the players in the team we wouldn't be as good.

[xerxes]

What happened to Whelan?

He owns Wigan.

[Major Tom]

What happened to Whelan?

 

He got lost in the transfer, seemingly. Shame. The best poster on the forum.

[Major Tom]

 double post

[Major Tom]

He owns Wigan.

 

He meant Noel.

[Rotpeter]

It's not about defensive organisation. We have the best defensive record in the league - better than Chelsea. The issue is away from home we aren't keeping possession like we do at home, we don't build from the back, and we play longer, conceding possession and thus chances on goal.

 

It's not just about defensive organisation. We just need our best players back in that area and keep the ball better. Allen and Henderson's energy is a must away, in my opinion.

 

For a start we dont have the best defensive record in the league.  We've conceded two plus goals more often than we've kept a clean sheet!  That our problems are exacerbated away from home is only to be expected you tend to have to actually defend away from home.

 

And yes, greater possession would be the panacea but Death by Football is abandoned.  And Stevie G is being maneuvered into the quarterback role.  Possession is clearly not the center point of our defensive strategy.

[JermainePennant]

Brendan is a young manager who himself has admitted is learning all the time, so far in his career the signs look very promising and suggest he could go on to be one of the best managers in the world.

 

So far here he has been very good overall in the transfer market, seems to have the right character for a liverpool manager (humble, dignified), has us playing the best football in years (best ive seen), he is willing to blood youngsters, and has us in a challenging position for the first time in years.

 

Because other teams have been consistent this season and are close to us should not distract people from the fact rodgers has turned us into a very good team in a short space of time, how any liverpool fan can be anything but delighted with him is beyond me.

[Thomo123]

He is ace. We are playing ace in comparison to recent struggles. Rodgers deserves every credit for that but some miserable fucks on here use defensive issues as a stick to beat him with despite the fact we are the second top scorers in the league behind a rampant City.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

For a start we dont have the best defensive record in the league.

Forgive me, I was on my mobile phone. We have the best defensive record in the league at home. My issue was you suggesting he can't organise a defence like Mourinho. Well, aside from us having had many injuries in that area (we've currently got our best LB and two best CBs out), he has been better than Mourinho at home. So it's not an inability to organise a defence that's the issue. At least not unless you think his ability to organise differs by travelling a few hundred yards down the road.

 

The main issue for me is personnel. We've got several out, and the fullbacks can't stop crosses. Take away the crossing goals - which isn't to do with Rodgers; we've been shaky on set-pieces for many years - and we're in the mix away from home. We're not talking managerial inability here, just some time and adjustments.

[bossy]

erm... Sturridge and Suarez are part of the team.

No.... I wrote the 'rest of the team'.

[bossy]

Why do you hate Rodgers so much?

Eh?