Brendan Rodgers

[RichC]

The problem is we only have one style of play, and that is to press and force teams to make mistakes. When it workes, it lookes great but even with all the right personnel last year, it often didn't work out when teams either dug deep or pressed us up the pitch. We need more that that.

The manager(whoever it may be) needs to build a team larger that a sum of it's parts. Not having the amount of money the likes of chelsea, city and utd. do is a minor problem imo. We still have a lot of money to spend. Think about it, how many clubs have a budget of 100mil pounds. That with the right scouting should be more than enough to build yourself a very strong team. And with the euro dropping in value it's even better if you're looking for players on the continent, instead of oveinflated(price wise) english ones.

Money is a major issue unfortunately, if you look at where teams generally finish in the league it correlates with the wage bill. On occasions this can be upset a la last season but it seems to be the exception rather than the rule.

[DannyMan2006]

Agreed

More broadly...

Someone said earlier, and I very much agree, things would've looked very different had we signed Sanchez.

My concern is that the way we play and the level we're at, these are the only sorts of players that will move us forward. How the **** we get them I don't know. Fingers and toes crossed for a transfer policy that acknowledges that.

I think most acknowledge its a different season with Sanchez. He's essentially a poor mans Suarez. He's more than happy to play wide or centrally and would be perfect.

What we needed last summer and still do this summer, is the next best we can get. Just keep dropping the standards, but don't compromise on player type. Rodgers needs a plan, and he needs to stick to it and sign the best players ha can for it. And repeat every summer.

You may not kick on, as the best players want to play in the CL, and if you're in there regularly the best won't want to come. But every now and again you'll get lucky and the ones you sign will kick on and take you to the next level.

We are essentially following the Arsenal model. I know David Dein was one who offered key advice to FSG. The one difference is we want to keep our better players if we improve them, not ship them out. The problem is convincing the best players to stay with us until we can become a top side.

[SK]

Money is a major issue unfortunately, if you look at where teams generally finish in the league it correlates with the wage bill. On occasions this can be upset a la last season but it seems to be the exception rather than the rule.

it does have an effect when we try to compete with then for the same players (sanchez, costa, di maria etc.), but if we expand our scouting system, if we're smater at recruting them, if we look at what we can get elsewhere instead of splashing 20mil on say lovrens from english clubs, we can look for a half cheaper alternative in france or spain or germany. do we trust rodgers with doing that, and then turning those players into a well functioning machine, that doesn't brake down when one player is injured?

[RichC]

it does have an effect when we try to compete with then for the same players (sanchez, costa, di maria etc.), but if we expand our scouting system, if we're smater at recruting them, if we look at what we can get elsewhere instead of splashing 20mil on say lovrens from english clubs, we can look for a half cheaper alternative in france or spain or germany. do we trust rodgers with doing that, and then turning those players into a well functioning machine, that doesn't brake down when one player is injured?

It matters regardless I'm afraid, if the players are going to be seen as top talents potentially and we're in for them you can bet other clubs out there will be as well. The main thing I guess we can focus on trying to achieve is devise a recruitment strategy that fits into a style of football I mean not all players can end up at Chelsea, City, Madrid etc... But it's about making sure that the ones we are in for fit the clubs style and strategy.

[baitman]

we seem to have all agreed that the recruitment was ****. poor choice of [realistic] targets and options. the ones we did complete on are not, at best, consistent performers.

but then the manager has to make the best with what he now has at his disposal.
we continue to play the same system that we did with suarez and a fully fit sturridge, but without the right personnel to get the best from that system our game looked ****. the manager persisted rather than realise this wasnt going anywhere.

the 3-4-3 tweak gave us back some momentum. it also coincided with the return of lucas. playing a back three gave us two options to bring the ball out from either side. it meant it was harder for teams to press gerrard and cut off our supply. lucas was able to do the dirty work and also keep the ball moving better.
things were looking better, but we still struggled for enough regular goals.
we were still persisting with sterling as the front man but he looked knackered and was being too easily outmuscled. we very rarely took the ball down to the goal line and made a cut back. if we had we could have made better use of lambert or others.

although the team formation has been limited to some degree by injuries it is still up to the manager to field the best we can. we also need to ensure that we dont just keep playing the best players but they dont play together well enough as a team unit. in some games they have looked like a group of strangers.
we are totally unable to penetrate any team that sits deep and defends in numbers. too many static players, no runners, no one coming to the man on the ball offering for a quick 1-2 to sneak in. it really is pitiful to watch at times. we have all week to prepare to play west brom, we know whats likely to happen, yet we just run into the brick wall and keep scratching our heads wondering wtf just happened.

but brendan said we were magnificent. happy days.

[RichC]

Which comes back to making sure we sign players that suit our style of play.

Fwiw Van Gaal said last weeks defeat vs Chelsea was there best performance of the season, football manager talking his side up shocker

[baitman]

Which comes back to making sure we sign players that suit our style of play.

agree.

but then if we dont have the right players why do we persist to keep 'going again'

[RichC]

Not sure what else we can do. I think this Summer will be crucial for BR if we get it wrong and don't bring in the right players his tenure will be under threat.

I'd like to see us try and establish a club ethos on how we play a sort of blueprint of the type of players we want and how we want to be playing regardless of who's in charge.

[Exiled_red]

If you accept that there were serious issues with scouting and we were left with very little choice: Balotelli or no-one, you can understand going for Balotelli rather than going without a striker. I was one of the people who didn't want us to sign Balotelli before he came in (for a variety of reasons), but despite having serious doubts and not expecting the deal to work out well, I still didn't expect it to have worked out this badly, and to be honest I don't think anyone did.

[Exiled_red]

Not sure what else we can do. I think this Summer will be crucial for BR if we get it wrong and don't bring in the right players his tenure will be under threat.

I'd like to see us try and establish a club ethos on how we play a sort of blueprint of the type of players we want and how we want to be playing regardless of who's in charge.

I think as things stand Rodgers has a year to prove himself, another season like this and he will be gone. If we push on and make the CL he will be allowed to continue, which means this summer is make or break.

[RichC]

If you accept that there were serious issues with scouting and we were left with very little choice: Balotelli or no-one, you can understand going for Balotelli rather than going without a striker. I was one of the people who didn't want us to sign Balotelli before he came in (for a variety of reasons), but despite having serious doubts and not expecting the deal to work out well, I still didn't expect it to have worked out this badly, and to be honest I don't think anyone did.

Strangely I think there will be more options for us in the striking department this Summer than last.

[baitman]

I think as things stand Rodgers has a year to prove himself, another season like this and he will be gone. If we push on and make the CL he will be allowed to continue, which means this summer is make or break.

if he gets to stay for next year then i can see him running out the same old 'we lost many key players [gerrard, johnson, maybe lucas and sterling] so we are in a transitional period. we are rebuilding so players take time to settle in, etc. but we pick ourselves up and go again, etc'

[dww]

Strangely I think there will be more options for us in the striking department this Summer than last.

Who do you think would fit in and be of sufficient quality? I have no idea but I've been watching much less football of late.

[Exiled_red]

if he gets to stay for next year then i can see him running out the same old 'we lost many key players [gerrard, johnson, maybe lucas and sterling] so we are in a transitional period. we are rebuilding so players take time to settle in, etc. but we pick ourselves up and go again, etc'

I don't think that will wash, Johnson and Gerrard haven't been regulars this season, Lucas has missed most of the season through injury and it doesn't seem Rodgers likes him that much, so the same really applied to him.

Steling would be the only regular that would go and to be honest his performances haven't been amazing recently, plus if he goes in the summer, presumably we will get a decent amount for him. Obviously I'd prefer him to stay but IMO his loss wouldn't be as bad as losing some of the other top players we have lost over the last few years.

[captainfog]

It's difficult to sign players for a certain style of play when that style changes every 6 months.