Brendan Rodgers

[Norbs]

From what I've heard is that The club give Rodgers a list of preselected players to sign that he must choose from.

Hey Brendan we've agreed a deal for a striker with a few clubs, do you want Carlton Cole, Yannick Sagbo, Yaya Sanogo or Mario Balotelli?

[Roboklopp]

I'd also add to my post above that replacing Suarez with so much money spent on potential was never gonna cement our places in the CL. I don't think that needed the benefit of hindsight. Origi, Markovich, Moreno & Can cost £50m+ between them. Fine to invest on some potential, but we really needed players to hit the ground running. It's not like we didn't have the lesson of Spurs post-Bale to refer to.

[Rowan]

I'd also add to my post above that replacing Suarez with so much money spent on potential was never gonna cement our places in the CL. I don't think that needed the benefit of hindsight. Origi, Markovich, Moreno & Can cost £50m+ between them. Fine to invest on some potential, but we really needed players to hit the ground running. It's not like we didn't have the lesson of Spurs post-Bale to refer to.

The Moreno, Markovic, Can, Origi part for me is fine. It's the Balotelli, Lovren's, Lambert £40 million that's ****ed us. Who knows how Lallana may have contributed this year had he not repeatedly been injured.

[marcus50bucks]

Liverpool owners give Brendan Rodgers £45m kitty despite poor season

BY STUART MCKINLEY – 22 APRIL 2015

Brendan Rodgers will head to Boston for showdown talks with Liverpool’s owners next month, where he will be assured that his job is safe — for now. The Carnlough man will continue in the Anfield hotseat despite making unwanted history, as Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final defeat to Aston Villa means he is the first Liverpool manager since the 1950s to fail to win silverware in his first three seasons in charge.

Club chief John Henry and the Fenway Sports Group will continue to back Rodgers because their long-term plan — which his appointment in 2012 was central to — remains on track. However, he will be told that a significant improvement is needed.

They will keep faith in Rodgers even though they face the prospect of missing out on a massive £40m if Liverpool fail to qualify for next season’s Champions League. The Reds are currently fifth in the Premier League and the £116m spending spree which Rodgers undertook last summer, following the sale of Luis Suarez to Barcelona, was designed to bring at least a top-four finish.

The owners accept, however, that there are mitigating factors on Rodgers’ behalf. The sale of Suarez, injuries to key players like Daniel Sturridge and having to bed in new faces was always going to make it difficult for the manager to stage a repeat of last season's Premier League title challenge.

Liverpool's American owners will sit down with Rodgers after the final Premier League game of the season on May 25 to carry out a detailed analysis of the season. Although the target of Champions League football may not be achieved, it is understood that they are happy that the club is financially stable and Rodgers is working within the wage structure, as well as fulfilling a commitment to sign young players and integrate them, plus academy products, into the first team.

Rodgers will, however, find that his summer transfer budget is less than half what it was 12 months ago, at around £45m, with strengthening the forward line the priority for the Liverpool boss. The reduced spending power won't prevent Rodgers from making a move for long-term target Yevhen Konoplyanka.

The Ukraine international is available on a free transfer from Dnipro and after failing with a last-gasp bid in January 2014, Rodgers will pencil him in high on his summer wish list. A fee of £18m is expected to prise Argentine forward Juan Iturbe from Roma, even though the 21-year-old has yet to win an international cap.

Liverpool are also in the chase to sign Dutch striker Memphis Depay from PSV Eindhoven, but they will find that his price has gone up significantly since Tottenham offered £15m for the 21-year-old after he impressed at the World Cup last summer. This time it will take around £25m to bring him to England.

Belgian striker Divock Origi is expected to be brought into the first-team squad after a season on loan with Lille.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/liverpool/liverpool-owners-give-brendan-rodgers-45m-kitty-despite-poor-season-31161274.html

[Kenneth]

Ah, the Belfast telegraph, aka FSG's mouthpiece.

[red g]

Ah, the Belfast telegraph, aka FSG's mouthpiece.

\could be Brendan leaking it to his friends back home

[Hemingway]

It's a long video but some interesting points. LFC stuff from about 18 mins onwards but there is some context and prior discussion regarding the overall league data before this

Thanks for posting for this, really interesting.

If anyone doesn't want to watch the whole thing (it's interesting, I'd recommend it) the basic idea is that we're a very counterattacking side in recent history, but had a huge drop-off this year, and the speaker looks at who we maybe should've gone for last summer who would've fit us better instead of Balotelli. The other stuff is interesting too, though not explicitly LFC-related.

Thought he summed it up well when he looked at Balotelli's profile compared to the others: "If we wanted to keep the counterattacking presence, we wouldn't necessarily have picked him. But that's not to say he doesn't have any interesting factors." Basically getting at the idea that Balotelli (while perhaps not very good) isn't total ****, but if we wanted to counter and play up-tempo he didn't make sense. Given that the numbers people on Der Committee will have been looking at the exact same data, either they were blinded by the shot totals or there was a breakdown in communication about the way we wanted to play. Or everyone's an idiot. The whole transfer makes less sense every day, shame so much of the season comes down to that mistake.

Suarez and Sturridge massively outperforming expected goals vs. actual goals last year was interesting too. Even Messi and Ronaldo don't consistently outperform expG at that rate. That was always coming back down to the earth. ("Over the long term, you can't be that far away from the line.") Was just reading an older piece the other day about how we scored set piece goals at an unsustainable rate that season too. That's looking like a real lightning in the bottle year, since to make a run at the title we needed: the third-best player in the world playing out of his head, his world-class strike partner playing out of his head, and set piece goals going in at a rate far higher than you could rightfully expect. None of which is sustainable year-on-year.

[Marvel]

Thanks for posting for this, really interesting.

If anyone doesn't want to watch the whole thing (it's interesting, I'd recommend it) the basic idea is that we're a very counterattacking side in recent history, but had a huge drop-off this year, and the speaker looks at who we maybe should've gone for last summer who would've fit us better instead of Balotelli. The other stuff is interesting too, though not explicitly LFC-related.

Thought he summed it up well when he looked at Balotelli's profile compared to the others: "If we wanted to keep the counterattacking presence, we wouldn't necessarily have picked him. But that's not to say he doesn't have any interesting factors." Basically getting at the idea that Balotelli (while perhaps not very good) isn't total ****, but if we wanted to counter and play up-tempo he didn't make sense. Given that the numbers people on Der Committee will have been looking at the exact same data, either they were blinded by the shot totals or there was a breakdown in communication about the way we wanted to play. Or everyone's an idiot. The whole transfer makes less sense every day, shame so much of the season comes down to that mistake.

Suarez and Sturridge massively outperforming expected goals vs. actual goals last year was interesting too. Even Messi and Ronaldo don't consistently outperform expG at that rate. That was always coming back down to the earth. ("Over the long term, you can't be that far away from the line.") Was just reading an older piece the other day about how we scored set piece goals at an unsustainable rate that season too. That's looking like a real lightning in the bottle year, since to make a run at the title we needed: the third-best player in the world playing out of his head, his world-class strike partner playing out of his head, and set piece goals going in at a rate far higher than you could rightfully expect. None of which is sustainable year-on-year.

Perhaps this could explain the links to immobile. Unlike balotelli he doesn't stand still and will run the channels but he hasn't exactly performed well at Dortmund who are a counter attacking team.

Hes a slightly better borini.

[Bender]

Liverpool owners give Brendan Rodgers £45m kitty despite poor season

BY STUART MCKINLEY – 22 APRIL 2015

Brendan Rodgers will head to Boston for showdown talks with Liverpool’s owners next month, where he will be assured that his job is safe — for now. The Carnlough man will continue in the Anfield hotseat despite making unwanted history, as Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final defeat to Aston Villa means he is the first Liverpool manager since the 1950s to fail to win silverware in his first three seasons in charge.

Club chief John Henry and the Fenway Sports Group will continue to back Rodgers because their long-term plan — which his appointment in 2012 was central to — remains on track. However, he will be told that a significant improvement is needed.

They will keep faith in Rodgers even though they face the prospect of missing out on a massive £40m if Liverpool fail to qualify for next season’s Champions League. The Reds are currently fifth in the Premier League and the £116m spending spree which Rodgers undertook last summer, following the sale of Luis Suarez to Barcelona, was designed to bring at least a top-four finish.

The owners accept, however, that there are mitigating factors on Rodgers’ behalf. The sale of Suarez, injuries to key players like Daniel Sturridge and having to bed in new faces was always going to make it difficult for the manager to stage a repeat of last season's Premier League title challenge.

Liverpool's American owners will sit down with Rodgers after the final Premier League game of the season on May 25 to carry out a detailed analysis of the season. Although the target of Champions League football may not be achieved, it is understood that they are happy that the club is financially stable and Rodgers is working within the wage structure, as well as fulfilling a commitment to sign young players and integrate them, plus academy products, into the first team.

Rodgers will, however, find that his summer transfer budget is less than half what it was 12 months ago, at around £45m, with strengthening the forward line the priority for the Liverpool boss. The reduced spending power won't prevent Rodgers from making a move for long-term target Yevhen Konoplyanka.

The Ukraine international is available on a free transfer from Dnipro and after failing with a last-gasp bid in January 2014, Rodgers will pencil him in high on his summer wish list. A fee of £18m is expected to prise Argentine forward Juan Iturbe from Roma, even though the 21-year-old has yet to win an international cap.

Liverpool are also in the chase to sign Dutch striker Memphis Depay from PSV Eindhoven, but they will find that his price has gone up significantly since Tottenham offered £15m for the 21-year-old after he impressed at the World Cup last summer. This time it will take around £25m to bring him to England.

Belgian striker Divock Origi is expected to be brought into the first-team squad after a season on loan with Lille.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/liverpool/liverpool-owners-give-brendan-rodgers-45m-kitty-despite-poor-season-31161274.html

£45million no doubt we'll swell the squad with more squad players,anway next season will be Rodgers last unless we do what we did last season and get 3rd or higher,i don't believe winning a domestic cup will be enough.

[Marvel]

£45million no doubt we'll swell the squad with more squad players,anway next season will be Rodgers last unless we do what we did last season and get 3rd or higher,i don't believe winning a domestic cup will be enough.

Despite all the media assurances I'm not totally convinced that Rodgers will still be here next season. Top managers like klopp dont come around that often and if we miss out this season and next season is worse who can we turn to.

Rory smith has been making is abundantly clear that fsg do admire klopp on every podcast / show you listen to. There could be something in it.

[Bender]

Despite all the media assurances I'm not totally convinced that Rodgers will still be here next season. Top managers like klopp dont come around that often and if we miss out this season and next season is worse who can we turn to.

Rory smith has been making is abundantly clear that fsg do admire klopp on every podcast / show you listen to. There could be something in it.

ok didn't know that,anyway this meeting could be interestng,if any clubs want klopp moves need to be made now

[Marvel]

ok didn't know that,anyway this meeting could be interestng,if any clubs want klopp moves need to be made now

The risk we have to weigh up is that Rodgers could be the next guardiola in a couple of years time. If we get rid of him now and he does develop into a top manager we will look like chumps. Equally, in a couple of years time he might be at west ham.

Not sure how fsg make this decision.

[Kenneth]

The risk we have to weigh up is that Rodgers could be the next guardiola in a couple of years time. If we get rid of him now and he does develop into a top manager we will look like chumps. Equally, in a couple of years time he might be at west ham.

Not sure how fsg make this decision.

If he takes over barca and inherits some of the finest young players of all time, he could well become Guardiola esq. He won't though, especially if he's sacked from Liverpool.

[BigChief]

The risk we have to weigh up is that Rodgers could be the next guardiola in a couple of years time. If we get rid of him now and he does develop into a top manager we will look like chumps. Equally, in a couple of years time he might be at west ham.

Not sure how fsg make this decision.

Absolutely spot on. Its just so hard to call, if faced in this position in a game of blackjack surely you've got to stick right?

My opinion is he's **** at buying players, I would take that completely out of his hands and just put it in the committess/DoFs/scouts without his sway. He might have complained about this 3 years ago when we tried to get him in but now he won't argue too loudly knowing its potentially his last season with us.

This season we had no Suarez and Sturridge but our biggest issue was we still had Gerrard. Rodgers couldn't drop the club legend and our CL qualification suffered as a result. The points dropped from Aug-Nov were insurmountable even though we gave it a good go after that.

Rodgers will not have the Gerrard Conundrum (as I titled it last August) plus he'll have slightly better strikers should we spend correctly. All our new 'squad' players will have matured too and be ready for a better tilt at CL qualification.

[Kenneth]

His decision making this season has been weird, and it's been a **** season, no question. But he is young and is still learning. For me it comes down to recruitment as the biggest issue too. If we had the strike force of any of our rivals we would be looking at this season very differently. Sturridge, Balotelli, Lambert and Borini is a shameful quartet for LFC, only one is of the required quality, two of them should be at the likes of Sunderland and one isn't even a footballer by profession. I don't know who is responsible for the situation but whoever they are they need to be sacked. They blew our best chance for years of cementing a place in the CL positions and European elite. If Rodgers wasn't culpable then keep him and replace those who were. If he was he has to go.

Same goes for here, everyone who said Mario Balotelli was 'a gamble worth taking at £16m' needs a permaban.