New manager thread

[Fosterbloke]

God, you're as thick as mud, so dense, light literally bends around your ****ing head.

This has to be one the best put downs ever. Bravo.

(Had to paraphrase for direct insult purposes)

[DannyMan2006]

Have to say, I like what I've read on Rodgers, though I guess it's possible to talk anyone up these days.

One things for sure, his philosophies on how the game should be played are exactly what I would ideally look for, and I especially like his great thirst for knowledge, he strikes me as a coach who will always move forward with the times and evolve.

Next Season

I think we have many of the players to suit the style Rodgers will look to implement.

We have the sweeper style keeper in Reina.

We have two fast, attacking full backs.

Our two CB's are decent in possession, in Aggers case, pretty damn exceptional.

In Lucas we have a holding style CM who has excellent passing and capable of holding the midfield together.

Henderson is a box to box CM who has the energy to get up and down all day. In Gerrard we the perfect pass master and someone who gives us that little bit extra.

In Suarez we have a player tailor made for a wide role in the front 3, and in Carroll we have an ideal target man.

[Assassin]

This thread is useless without a Brendan Roger's Youtube compilation

[Fredo]

Bascombe now saying that our interest in LVG has waned. No one has a clue.

[Darkon]

The last few pages on here are a right bitch fest!!

Rodgers or Martinez who ever it is I am sure both of them will grab the opportunity with both hands because they know it is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

It would be easy for them to stay where they are at the moment, they are both living legends at there current clubs and the fact they are both interested in the job is a testimony to there attitude and belief in what they can achieve.

You know where I want to see improvement, in the attitude of the fans, I want to see us looking forward to supporting LFC and not Dalglish or Benitez or whoever camp your in.

I want a good atmosphere on match days, people looking forward to seeing liverpool play some nice football and not if we can nick the odd goal.

Back the players who we have because booing them or slagging them off don't help, remember crouch took 13 games to get a goal and look how well he done.

I'd like to see us play nice passing football with an end product and having a set of players who are comfortable with the ball at their feet. Like we used to have. And no these don't necessary have to be multimillion pound players.

All of this takes time, we are not in the upper echelons of English football at the moment let alone European football and in the current game reputation means very little.

Buy players who want to come here to improve as a player and not ones who want to come for a big pay packet as there only reason.

It's a rebuilding process at Liverpool not a case of slotting in a few players and hoping for the best. I am talking about a change of training a change of playing, recruitment, tactics, positioning, work ethnic and attitude.

I am talking about going back to when Houllier took over the club and how much that man done for LFC because we would be far worse off now than if he hadn't of took over. It's going to take something of that magnitude again.

The academy is already on the way with the ex Barcelona personnel in charge and maybe in a few years that will start baring fruit, but what is the point of playing that style of football in the reserves if the 1st team can't pass it around like that.

All this talk about winning two cups and Finishing fourth next season will be the only sign of improvement are well wide of the mark. Let's start by improving the basics first before looking at the cups and league positions.

Great post.

I have a wish that people would stop bitching over former managers (Rafa and Dalglish) now and just move on. We are in a different position now, none of them are coming back in the immediate future - so why not start looking at the positives for the future rather than constantly being retrospective which brings us nowhere?

I know it's a pipedream

[Darkon]

Brendan Rodgers should think long and hard about Liverpool job

by Chris Wathan, Western Mail
May 30 2012

CHRIS WATHAN on why choosing to join Liverpool may not be quite as clear-cut as it appears for Swans boss Brendan Rodgers

A YEAR ago today, it was the moment that captured it all.Lifted up by his celebrating players, Brendan Rodgers was thrown into the Wembley sky.

This morning, 12 months on from that play-off victory, it is the future of the Swansea City manager that is up in the air.

That glorious win set up the prospect of the Swans taking on Liverpool and the like in the Premier League.

But the success of that first season has ensured the competition between the two has extended beyond the fixture list.

To many – most of whom lie outside of South Wales – the tussle for Rodgers’ stylish services represents a straightforward victory for the Anfield club.

But then Swansea’s top-flight demise was meant to be similarly straightforward.

In truth, nothing is simple – least of all a decision to leave the Liberty, where so much is in place, to enter the uncertainty of Anfield.

Yet there is the obvious cry of how on earth a manager of any ambition in the most fickle of industries can turn down one of the game’s genuine top jobs.

All of which will have been running through Rodgers’ mind recently. Perhaps even right now.

Because, while Swansea’s insistence yesterday was that there had been no approach from Anfield, they will not be naive enough to think that is the end of the matter.

Neither should anyone be naive enough to think that Liverpool is not a pull for any man. Regardless of opinions on their current state or squad, the name alone can speak for itself.

The millions at their disposal and the prestige of it all means – like Rodgers himself – the potential is enormous.

Rodgers’ initial decision to distance himself from Liverpool’s interest in his services is understood to have more to do with the beauty parade of bosses the club’s American owners wanted to conduct rather than anything else.

The feeling was that if he committed himself to an interview process with so many others in the frame he would face the consequences should he have been overlooked.

How would he convince the likes of Joe Allen and Ashley Williams to say no to big club offers when he himself had been tempted?

If, as we are led to believe, Rodgers is now on a shortlist of two, three at best, he will feel that risk has been reduced.

If he is out-and-out the one that they want, then it has gone completely and the door to an exit will be open.

There was a dramatic tumbling of prices yesterday that saw the Northern Irishman become odds-on favourite to replace Kenny Dalglish.

That and the rolling rumour mill that is Twitter where falsehoods can be reported as fact, such as the one that claimed Rodgers’ trip to the States was to meet Liverpool chiefs rather than the pre-planned holiday arranged some months back that it actually was.

Still, sources in the north west maintain that Rodgers remains a preferred candidate and such flattery will appeal to the Swans manager.

He is convinced of his ability to manage at the top, open with his ambition and happy to point at his time at Chelsea as an example of how he can work with world-class players.

Arrogance or confidence, the challenge of Liverpool would not be one that overawes him.

It is that same unerring belief in his own capability that will aid Rodgers to overlook the sense he would not be the Kop’s natural choice as the King’s successor.

Without the big-name reputation to fall back on, Rodgers would need to hit the ground running. He will feel he can.

But the opportunity, like the decision, is not quite so straightforward as everyone would presume, given the brand name of Liverpool FC.

The potential presence of Louis van Gaal in a sporting director role at Anfield is one that should cast a large shadow of doubt within Rodgers right now.

Rodgers has often described his joy at being able to get his hands dirty at Swansea. Although a tracksuit manager who says his natural environment is on the coaching field, his influence at the Liberty is everywhere from transfers to new training grounds.

Would he be able to operate in such a way with a sporting director hovering above him?

And not any old suit but one of the most experienced managers in the game, not shy of an opinion or two.

It is said that such a scenario has made Roberto Martinez think twice about a role he otherwise would have jumped for.

If that is Rodgers’ gut instinct, it could yet be dangerous to go against it.

Burned before when he left Watford for Reading – “the right club at the wrong time” – the decision quickly left Rodgers out of football for the first time in his life, unable to get even interviews at League One level before Swansea accepted his call. And so to the last most romantic but possibly most pertinent point.

Rodgers was given a chance at Swansea and returned the favour handsomely.

He has since been given everything he has asked for in terms of the club’s expansion, the signing of Gylfi Sigurdsson the response to his pleas to push the envelope on transfers.

The last time a Swansea manager was courted like this, Martinez cited the failure to land transfer targets like Jordi Gomez and James McCarthy and the lack of plans for training facilities as an example of why the club could not keep pace with his own progression.

Rodgers does not have that luxury to ease his conscious on this decision.

Instead, Rodgers’ sense of debt to Swansea is genuine.

It remains to be seen whether it will be enough to resist the very real temptation of one of the greatest jobs in football.

[Fredo]

We'll always be retrospective though, such is our history. It'll always be hanging above every manager, owner's head.

It's ludicrous to tell people to move on.

[Reece]

Having read a fair amount on Rodgers in articles/profiles over the last couple of days, I'm genuinely (but cautiously) excited and intrigued about what he has to offer. His attention to detail seems Rafa-esque which should please plenty, and if he could translate his philosophies and style onto our team then we could be very enjoyable to watch in my opinion.

It is of course a big if and it is of course a big gamble but I'm now at the stage where I'm going to be disappointed if it doesn't happen

Whilst it's completely and utterly understandable that he wouldn't be the majority of people's first choice, especially when you compare him to other candidates out there who have achieved more etc, I challenge anyone to read these articles etc about him and not feel even a sense of excitement about what he could do for us.

Perhaps that all sounds somewhat hyperbolic and perhaps I've been brainwashed by the media but I'd rather be optimistic and get excited than just sulk about it.

[Alex]

Yea, sulking helps no one.

[Reece]

Not really the part of my post I was hoping people would respond to

[Alex]

People being just me. I agree with the whole post though.

[Darkon]

We'll always be retrospective though, such is our history. It'll always be hanging above every manager, owner's head.

It's ludicrous to tell people to move on.

Well yes we have our history to refer to, but there is a difference between that and keep refering everything back to a discussion about our last two managers. Well dalglish just been sacked, so perhaps it's fair enough.

It just brings us nowhere in the discussion of our new manager to keep looking back and dragging Rafa & Dalglish in to it. Look positive towards the future and our chance of rebuilding rather than sulk in retrospective is all I'm really saying.

[Fredo]

Well yes we have our history to refer to, but there is a difference between that and keep refering everything back to a discussion about our last two managers. Well dalglish just been sacked, so perhaps it's fair enough.

It just brings us nowhere in the discussion of our new manager to keep looking back and dragging Rafa & Dalglish in to it. Look positive towards the future and our chance of rebuilding rather than sulk in retrospective is all I'm really saying.

I think we all look into the future but it's normal to be dubious about it. There is every reason to.

I'll back the new boss or structure but will be sharpening the knives if things go wrong because that's the standard / precedent that have been set.

[RichC]

It is really interesting how many of our fans desperately want to believe that FSG are the right people for the club, even though their actions are showing a completely different picture ... Than again, we were having this very same discussion with many of our fans when Gillett and Hicks have started to show their real face ... So far, FSG have been a complete failure as owners ...

Utter drivel.

[Macedonian_Red]

We'll always be retrospective though, such is our history. It'll always be hanging above every manager, owner's head.

It's ludicrous to tell people to move on.

Well, it seems that some of our fans are willing to dismiss one of the basic principles that our club is built on (loyalty), and that we should become merely the paying customers of the Liverpool Soccer Franchise ...