Joe Buck

everyone round me at the match are quite relaxed about giving Brendan plenty of time and seem to like the football they're watching....it's only when you get in your car and hear these cretons phone in to Jacko and talk about a game they haven't actually seen that you realise there's a disconnect between the spolit brats who demand instant success now regardless of the perfomance of the team, and those who enjoy who following a football club and watching it evolve in its latest journey we used to mock and sing about Everton in the early 80s about demanding taxis for their managers and now some seem to think that's how we should behave...

so it's the 'Mike Walker' syndrome - a little man from a little club comes to a big club and starts acting the big man - maybe you're right, he is all this but I think he's got a bit of Mouriniho 'belief' about him which makes him act like a twat sometimes (the envelopes) but so far I like what I'm seeing in terms of playing style...remember 10 years ago this weekend walking out of West Ham at Anfield top of league under Ged - I felt embarrased with the dross we played....two banks of football and knock the ball the forward for the big man (Heskey) to knock on to the poacher (The Little Bastard) - give me Rodgers any day!

yes it's the 'Sky Generation' type who write off our manager after 9 games and judge him on the back of a documentary that he's contracted to do... give him a fucking break - allow him to impose a very pleasing to the eye football style of play back in the Club and let's see how he's doing after signing a couple of goal scoring wide forwards and perhaps this time next year... just don't understand why he's been written off so early, especially as we deserve at least 7 points than we've got .. most of our goals conceded have either come from defensive lapses (see Coates last night) or goals on the counter where we have been attacking and which may not have happened had a fit Lucas been covering the attack...

But isn't that the point about Rodgers - he's getting us back playing the way we used to play (no new tricks)...it's just that the uber-sky generation who judge a manager after 9 league games don't really get what it's like to follow a team through thick and thin and through transitional seasons like this I like Rodgers, I love the way he sees the game and how it should be played, I like the way he gives youth a chance and how he fucked off a carthorse like Carroll who should have been nowhere near our Club to start with (not for £3.5 million never mind £35 million) and I like what I've seen so far this season... ..the funny thing is that under the anti-football of Houllier and the strict tactical jacket that was Rafa, we used to envy Arsenal for their attempts at pure football...patience and time..this guy will get it right

I agree. Paisley always said don't even look at the table until after the first 10 games and he said this for a reason - teams need time to bed in, click etc. Arguably our greatest ever team were nearly the bottom in October 1988 and whilst the present crop are obviously not comparable, time and patience is a prerequisite for any new, young team playing a new system/ style. Rodgers has been unlucky to be forced to do that documentary as he comes across well in his mainstream media dealings and it always helps to have a mystique about the manager.

that is a world away from watching Houllier's (or Rafa's) teams - more good football today but Suso and Sterling looked their age today against their cloggers and Sahin struggled to make an impact. Wisdom looks class and ready though and could see him as our right back for the next 10 years. Allen was brilliant again as was Gerrard and Suarez - they deserve to be playing alongside more better, more experienced players. It will come but today was when we needed the guile of a Dempsey.

well said, it was a disappointing aspect of the summer that a fair few would not get behind the Liverpool manager unconditionallly. 10/20/30/40 years ago it would be "innocent until guility", but after the scars of the American owners/ Hodgson/ the love and mistreatment of Kenny, Rodgers has had to win over many fans. Of course he still needs points on the board but this will no doubt come and if we ignore the 'here and now' of 4th place/Champions League (which is always a bore until the knock out phases anyway) and look 2/3 years down the line, then the future is ours....especially with Ferguson/ Wenger gone and City/ Chelsea reined in by the fair play rules....

A big test for Brendan is to see if he can get Enrique to rein in his 'Julian Dicks' left back game ie attacking freely thinking he's a defacto winger/playmaker, arrogantly giving the ball away in dangerous situations, being caught out of position and not busting a gut to get back, not closely down the crosser properly because that's menial defensive stuff etc.. Dicks was the worst left back I've ever seen at Anfield, and about the only highlight of the 93-94 season was seeing Ronnie Moran go mad with him for 6 months..Dicks actually told Ronnie to 'fuck off' in front of a hussed Anfield on the morning of the Ipswich game in April 94...he never played a competitive game for us again!

A good analogy would be selling Rushie back in '87. Whilst Aldo was not in the same league as a striker, the £3.6m allowed us to buy Barnes, Beardsley and Houghton, as well as Aldo of course. Kenny was only able to build our greatest ever team by selling our greatest ever striker. It seems that we only have between £20-30m net to spend this summer and given that Newcastle will wait for a deadline loan move for Carroll and Adam will earn us about £5m plus a bag of nuts, Agger may have to be the sacrifice...besides, if we're planning on dominating games with 60-70% posession and winning back the ball upfield as Rodgers wants us to, a lesser centre back may suffice...

It would make sense to put Suarez back to his favourite position at Ajax as left of a front 3 but I think the main goalscoring responsibiltiies may be too much for Borini at this stage (good finisher that he is). It might make sense to sell Agger after all if it released funds for a top striker like Solado or Huntelaar. Not ideal obviously but we can cover Agger with Carra, Coates , Kelly but we have no proven out and out goalscorer in the squad which has to be the priority now.