Evaluating Rodgers' 'Project'

[rudedog]

Well..... i think i will permanently retire from this here thread.

P.S. Dweeb is my word, i brought dweeb and dork back ages

Pfft - the dweebs belong to me.

[Barnyard]

Death by football: Why there’s more to Brendan Rodgers’ principles than meets the eyeBy Thomas McMahon on August 4, 2013

Thomas McMahon explores ‘Death by Football’ amongst other Brendan Rodgers footballing philosophies and sees how they’re being adapted and implement at Liverpool.

“When you’ve got the ball 65-70% of the time, it’s a football death for the other team…It’s death by football.” -Brendan Rodgers – Fan interview on This Is Anfield

In 2011, Brendan Rodgers shocked fans and pundits alike by avoiding relegation with recently promoted Swansea City. They played with a style of football akin to FC Barcelona, despite operating under a tight budget. One year later, Rodgers was appointed Liverpool manager; leaving little to the imagination as to how Liverpool’s style of play would alter to that of Kenny Dalglish’s. This was reinforced by Rodgers investing £15 million into the core engine which drove Swansea’s slick passing machine -Joe Allen.

Short and agile, Allen serves as a visual metaphor of what Rodgers wishes Liverpool FC to become. Based on Rodgers interviews, it is clear the team needs to be tidy in possession, extremely mobile, intelligent on and off the ball and highly driven to succeed.

Ironically, Allen has had a difficult first season at Liverpool. His displays on the pitch can also be used , by some sections of the fan base, as a stick to beat Rodgers with . After all, how hard is it to pass backwards three yards? As with the aforementioned question, there is a bigger picture to Rodgers’ modus operandi, which stretches far beyond mere sterile possession.

(As many would have predicted, Liverpool finished in the top 3 in terms of ball possession and passing success in 2012/2013 – via whoscored.com)

Despite Spain’s clear success as an international powerhouse, pundits have often criticised their possession-based philosophy as ‘boring’ to watch. While watching the midfield simply tap the ball to one another in laissez-fair fashion can be tedious on the eye, it can cause devastating yet subtle consequences.

As the team’s passing the ball in small triangles, the opposition has to invest energy into chasing the ball, in order to build their attacks. This slowly depletes their energy levels, meaning that when the team do eventually recover possession, that they are less likely to be as dangerous with the ball at their feet. Likewise, as the midfield is not expending great deals of energy by making short passes, this can be known as ‘resting on the ball’.

Similarly, resting on the ball can lead to fewer injuries. As the players are making less high-intensity runs than under a manager who favours a more direct approach, it reduces the effect of fatigue on the player’s muscles. It is no coincidence that both Steven Gerrard and Daniel Agger, previously ridden with injuries, played nearly every game the previous season.

Despite being described in some circles as tedious to watch, resting on the ball could actually explain how Liverpool scored 71 goals last season. As the midfield are holding possession, the strikers do not have to expend as much energy into chasing continuous diagonal or long balls; which a player in the mould of Charlie Adam might offer. This means that when the team does decide to go forward, the striker can sprint at higher intensities, channelling more of their energy into attacking movements with greater rates of success. In short, it is a more efficient method of squad energy utilisation.

“We have a default mechanism which makes us hard to beat and we can pass our way into the game again. Rest with the ball. Then we’ll build again.” Brendan Rodgers on his philosophies –June 2012

In modern football, most teams are well organised and difficult to break down –particularly at Anfield. Brendan himself proposed that the opposition find it ‘humiliating’ when starved of possession for protracted amounts of time. These emotions can lead to the opposition losing their concentration and organisation, helping create spaces due to the defending player chasing the ball. This lax of concentration could be the trigger needed to launch a potent attack, helping break down the stubborn minnows that usually cost Liverpool points . Looking at possession football from a different perspective, it is a unique method of counter-attacking. The team in possession are waiting to pounce on the opponents mistakes, albeit from midfield.

“You win the ball back when there are thirty metres to their goal, not eighty” Pep Guardiola in 2009

Ball retention can also be analysed as an unorthodox yet intelligent method of defending. After all, a basic principle is that the opposition cannot score whilst the team are in possession of the ball. It may lack drama, but it definitely is more comfortable to watch than witnessing a team defend in ’2 banks of 4′ facing wave after wave of attack. It may lack the blood and thunder in the last 20 minutes of a derby game, but at least you’re not relying on goal-line clearances to maintain the lead.

Rodgers also prefers the defence to play a ‘high line’, by pushing the defence up the pitch towards the half-way line. The high line compresses the midfield, starving the opposition of time and space to supply the ball to their strikers. Adding to this, the midfield and strikers press the opposing team to make it even more difficult to get a foothold in the game. This forces the opposing team to make mistakes or poor decisions under pressure, surrendering their possession. In theory, Rodgers defensive principles invite less pressure onto the actual defenders, meaning that the opposing team is less likely to score as they cannot get close to the goal.

A frequently cliché used by critics of the short-passing mantra is that it lacks ‘a plan B’. What pundits usually mean by this, is that the team lacks a big lump to launch it to when the slick passing isn’t managing to penetrate the oppositions defence. However, just because Rodgers isn’t adopting this tactic doesn’t mean that he follows a one dimensional approach.

In fact, Rodgers has shown his adaptability in a variety of games, implementing different formations and tactics to different environments. When the pendulum started swinging in Everton’s favour at Goodison park, he switched to 3 centre-backs – which bar a poor linesman’s decision would have won Liverpool the game. He also adopted a more counter-attacking approach against Tottenham Hotspur, which despite uncomfortable viewing at times, saw Liverpool leave Anfield with 3 points. Once again, despite not being an obvious from the offset, Rodgers is conducting his methods in a more covert way .

(Liverpool uncharacteristically concede possession at home in a 3-2 win over Tottenham Hotspur, showing Rodgers’s versatility. Via The Guardian)

Such has Rodgers veered away from tiki-taka, that there is even a debate as to whether the manager has dropped his initial principles altogether. With the recent signings of Luis Alberto, Kolo Toure and Iago Aspas, Rodgers still clearly values mobile technicians which value possession. In addition, Rodgers admitted that he built Liverpool’s attacking play around Luis Suarez last season, but hinted that there will be a paradigm shift in the upcoming season.

“The team was built around Luis last season. I made some big calls to get the team to work in a way to suit his strengths and it is no coincidence he had a great season apart from the end bit. We would love to have him to continue the next phase.” Rodgers on the upcoming season and ‘the next phase’

Referring back to Joe Allen as a metaphor – it isn’t what Allen physically does which makes him a vital cog, but the ramifications which his actions employ. Passing for possessions sake may seem dull initially, but the side effects of following this style of play can be as surreptitious as they are devastating. Rodgers’s philosophy is intricate, with all proponents creating a multiplier effect when used correctly. All players require a good first touch and high mobility, but when all the pieces of the jigsaw are in place, it is difficult to defeat a team when you cannot get the ball.

Educated from Spain, Rodgers has no doubt absorbed how Barcelona and the Spanish national team implemented Johan Cruyff’s tiki-taka vision – an intrinsic element to their vast success. If Rodgers reverts back to the mantra which made him successful at Swansea; in conjunction with the pragmatism displayed last season, Liverpool can demonstrate the ‘Death by Football’ Rodgers alluded to upon his arrival. The death however, may not refer to an all-action shotgun murder in broad daylight – but a sleek assassination in the shadows of the night.

[peekay]

Great post by Phoenix07

Still have my doubts about Rodgers but I have started to believe in him more this summer. He appears to have grown into the role more. Couple of points to add.

One very impressive aspect of Brendan is his long term vision. A majority of his purchases appear to be with the long term growth in mind. This was a manager with a 3 year contract in his first big job. He could have easily gone for couple of senior safe purchases with the aim of securing a couple of cups in the first two years. Instead he has gone for relatively younger players with plenty of potential to grow. Kudos to FSG also. For the first time in a long long period we appear to have the owners, management, youth team all in sync. This will start paying dividends soon.

Secondly his style of football will always cut him some slack and buy him more time. In the pre-season during periods of the game when we click, our passing was seriously slick. I watched the Stevie G testimonial and then the Galaxy Juve game. Our style of football was an order of magnitude more pleasing to the eye. When we have a team committed to a way of playing day in day out, practising, fixing our flaws over a period of time the quality will become greater than the sum of the parts. It will become way more easier to integrate the youngsters into that setup.

[Fierce]

Have some posts by Dom been deleted or something?

Where did that bizarre outburst from that El Matabellend come from? Or was that tongue in cheek?




Meh. Phoenix's post

[Yozza]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2385359/Liverpool-manager-Brendan-Rodgers-taking-hit-transfer-market-Andy-Carroll-Stewart-Downing-Jordan-Henderson-build-empire.html

Ruthless Rodgers: How Liverpool's boss is taking big hits to push Kop flops through the exit in quest to build his own empire

For lovers of symbolism and Liverpool, the afternoon of May 13, 2012 was an interesting day. It was Kenny Dalglish’s last game in charge of Liverpool and Brendan Rodgers’ final match at Swansea City.
That Sunday at the Liberty Stadium, Liverpool rounded off their poor 2011-12 season with a 1-0 defeat.
Stewart Downing was poor, Jordan Henderson was largely ineffective and Andy Carroll was taken on and beaten by a dribble from Michel Vorm, a goalkeeper who cost £1.5million and would now go for far more.

It was a metaphor of sorts for Liverpool’s season, rounded off by Dalglish’s minor tantrum in the post-match press conference when asked about his future. It was strangely poetic that as it turned out Rodgers had landed the last haymaker.

Now one of the last remnants of that Dalglish dynasty, Downing, is understood to be considering an option to join Newcastle. Rodgers is building an empire of his own at Liverpool and the expensive recruits of Dalglish’s second reign are going, one by one.
Andy Carroll and Charlie Adam went for a combined loss of £23m. Should Downing also leave, the reported fee of £5m for a £20m winger-turned-left back would take those losses of the Dalglish-Damien Comolli era to around £38m.

BRENDAN'S BUYS

Rodgers' signings since becoming Liverpool manager...
Summer 2012
Fabio Borini (£10.5m from Roma)
Joe Allen (£15m from Swansea)
Oussama Assaidi (£3m from Heerenveen)
Samed Yesil (£1m from Bayer Leverkusen)
January 2013
Daniel Sturridge (£12m from Chelsea)
Philippe Coutinho (£8.5m from Inter Milan)
Summer 2013
Kolo Toure (Free from Manchester City)
Luis Alberto (£6.8m from Sevilla)
Iago Aspas (£7.5m from Celta Vigo)
Simon Mignolet (£9m from Sunderland)

Understandably, the Fenway Sports Group who own Liverpool were reluctant to immediately hand the next manager the same sort of money. But there is no doubt that in 14 months Rodgers has established his employers' trust and increased control over playing affairs.

Last summer, he didn’t make any great effort to conceal how he felt about the collapse of a move for Clint Dempsey. Fulham had quoted Liverpool £6m after reportedly offering him for £4m to others. FSG refused to sanction to extra cash and Rodgers didn’t get his man.

But, with the possible exceptions of missing out on Gylfi Sigurdsson last summer and Henrikh Mkhitaryan this year, little else has gone wrong.

He spent nearly £50m last summer, including £15m on pass master Joe Allen, and this time round has been backed to develop the squad as he sees fit.
The level of trust from FSG seems to be increasing all the time, not least because since Comolli’s departure last year Rodgers, along with head of recruitment Dave Fallows and head of analysis Michael Edwards, is part of a three-man committee that rules on transfers.

In the case of Mkhitaryan, whom Rodgers desperately wanted, FSG were convinced to spend upwards of £20m, before he opted for Borussia Dortmund.
And the board were happy to sanction his move for goalkeeper Simon Mignolet, even though it spelled the end for Pepe Reina, a favourite among the fans. His signings of Luis Alberto and Kolo Toure could yet look extremely shrewd and Iago Aspas was wanted by several clubs.

Swansea’s failure to sign him was one of the key reasons behind Michael Laudrup’s rift with the club this summer.

Going the other way in the past year have been 18 players, from Reina to Craig Bellamy to Alberto Aquilani to Jonjo Shelvey, a midfielder in whom there was so much hope.
The net loss of transfers in building the Rodgers’ empire is reportedly close to £50m. That will change if Luis Suarez gets his way.

Irrespective of that particular saga, for now results are a more important barometer of whether the trust was justified. Rodgers has been allowed to build an empire and now he must prove he has done a better job than his predecessor.

DALGLISH'S MAIN BUYS AND WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM

Luis Suarez (£22.8m from Ajax in January 2011) - Likely to move this summer
Andy Carroll (£35m from Newcastle United in January 2011) - Moved permanently to West Ham for £15m after season-long loan
Jordan Henderson (£16m from Sunderland in June 2011) - Still at the club
Charlie Adam (£9m from Blackpool in July 2011) - Sold to Stoke City for £5m in August 2012
Stewart Downing (£20m from Aston Villa in July 2011) - Being offered to clubs for £5m