Brendan Rodgers

[TheElephantMan]

I haven't heard a single real person say that they want rid of Rodgers. I'm not his biggest fan, but I believe that he's probably worth sticking with for one more season unless a significantly better manager becomes available to us. The banner was pathetic. If you're going to do something like that at least have the balls to come forward and state your case. The person or people who did that are absolute ****ing cowards or they're not Liverpool supporters. Either way stop being a ****house and tell us who you are and why you did it?

[McDermotX]

That #RodgersOutClub is ****ing hilarious though.........near every post is accompanied by pictures of Rodgers in Chelsea training gear from his time there, or with that S*n T-shirt yoke from a charity walk.
Throw in pictures of Rafa, and even Houllier holding trophies and the mindset is complete.

[Kenneth]

As per usual I'll disagree with you Kenny my boy

In that case you are being ridiculous. If you think there would be people on here wanting him sacked if we had won every game then you must have lost the plot.

[topscorer]

I'm not his biggest fan, but I believe that he's probably worth sticking with for one more season unless a significantly better manager becomes available to us. The banner was pathetic. If you're going to do something like that at least have the balls to come forward and state your case. The person or people who did that are absolute ****ing cowards or they're not Liverpool supporters. Either way stop being a ****house and tell us who you are and why you did it?

Completely agree with that.

[EwarWoo]

In that case you are being ridiculous. If you think there would be people on here wanting him sacked if we had won every game then you must have lost the plot.

Yeah, they're just fickle knee jerk reactionaries. They need to have something to knee jerk to.

[Yozza]

Brendan Rodgers condemns short-termism after Liverpool aerial protest

• Plane carrying banner ‘Rodgers Out Rafa In’ flew over Anfield
• Rodgers: ‘There will always be an expectancy because of the great history’

Brendan Rodgers has condemned the short-termism of modern football and says there has been genuine progress at Liverpool despite the team going backwards in the Premier League this season.

Saturday a plane carrying a banner that read “Rodgers Out Rafa In” was flown above Anfield before the 2-1 win over Queens Park Rangers. Rodgers laughed off the stunt, claiming the pilot must have been the agent of the former Liverpool manager Rafael Benítez. AirAds, the company which hired out the plane, said on Twitter that it was funded by Liverpool season-ticket holders.

Irrespective of the aerial protest, Rodgers has been forced to defend his tenure several times this season, with Liverpool having fallen from last term’s title challenge to fifth in the Premier League and their manager’s prospects of a first trophy at Anfield ended by Aston Villa in the FA Cup semi-final. Rodgers claimed that “football had short memories” after the QPR win, a result that kept alive Liverpool’s outside chances of qualifying for the Champions League for a second successive season, given it was only 12 months ago he was behind the club’s unexpected tilt at a first league title since 1990.

He insists Liverpool will benefit from the current stability under the owner, Fenway Sports Group, and that he, plus the players, will be better for this season’s trying experiences.

“Modern football now is very harsh and is very much short-termism,” said Rodgers. “But it has shown that over the years the majority of the teams that have that stability, and if the owners and players have that belief, then it will come good.

“What we have seen here over the last couple of years is that we are definitely on the right path. This year it’s been pretty clear that it has been disappointing but I think the opportunity arises for us again next season. There is some exciting talents coming in. The players that have come in, it’s been a difficult year for them but they will be better for it. All the new players are gaining experience about the pressures of Liverpool and, again, myself will be a better manager because of it.”

Liverpool are four points behind fourth-placed Manchester United with three matches remaining and travel to Chelsea next Sunday where they will form a guard of honour for the new Premier League champions. FSG sanctioned a £117m transfer outlay last summer in an attempt to offset the damaging loss of Luis Suárez with young talent that can be developed and Rodgers insists that project remains on course.

He added: “Because of the club that Liverpool is, there will always be an expectancy because of the great history. But you always have to have a sense of perspective and the reality of where we are at. We are in fifth position, having got to two cup semi-finals in which we were disappointed not to have reached the finals in but, hopefully, we can use that and those disappointments to make us manage better in the future.”

Rodgers is understood to be still hopeful of signing the Brazilian goalkeeper Neto when his contract at Fiorentina expires in the summer

[frank the tank]

The banner has only strenghtened Brendans position in my view.


Looking at the whole situation objectively though, I maintain that the managers position should be reviewed under about 5 different metrics - not just final position in the league. Why? Because the way LFC has been run under FSG in BRs time at the club - it hasn't been like a Chelsea, United or City. And that isn't Brendans fault. He has the specific remit of developing young players and increase the value of the squad as the team progresses. Similar to Arsenal about 7 years ago when they were focused on paying off the cost of building their stadium, they focused on bringing through young players. Now in reality Arsenal qualified for the champions league every season but it was a lot easier for them to do that back then. Man City weren't a spending force back then. Also, even though they got into the CL every season, Stevie Wonder could see that they weren't actually going to win anything.

If developing young players, making them into top players to compete is still the remit for the manager in this stage of the "project", then for me, Brendan is still the coach to lead the first team at the club. Why? Because his coaching of players like Henderson has shown that he can make good young players better and more consistent footballers. The integration of young players like Coutinho, Sterling, Flanagan and lately Ibe has shown that he is a very good coach to bring young players into the first team. And it is easy to forget how young the likes of Sakho, Mignolet and Emre Can are because we spent decent money on them. Even Daniel Sturridge was what, 23 when we signed him? It must be very hard to integrate so many young players at the same time and if there is more to come from Markovic and Moreno, then Brendan has done that part of his job very well. If that is the leading metric that he will be judged upon - which should have been defined by FSG at his appointment - then I don't think he has failed there one bit. IF that is his number one objective, then Brendan was probably correct a few weeks ago when he said "there is nobody better than me for this job"

The signings of Lallana, Lovren and Balotelli have been a car crash. If only we replaced Suarez with one top signing..... hindsight is a wonderful thing.

The performances this season don't really change the fact that if Brendan was tasked with developing young players, then his 3 year tenure hasn't been bad at all. If that remains the primary objective, then he should remain at the club - no doubt. And if people don't like that approach that FSG have taken, then don't take it out on Brendan. Don't hate the player, hate the game.

However, if during the summer last year FSG changed the goalposts and said "right brendan, lets ****in go for it. Lets get 3 or 4 top players and push on post-Suarez" and he selected Lovren, Lallana, Balotelli and Markovic as his 4 players that were going to make the difference, then it is a whole different story. It changes everything to be honest. I suppose we will find out during the next 2 months or so.

I think the people who are shouting for Klopp or Benitez to come into the club need to consider the overall remit of the manager. I love Benitez as a manager but would he be the guy to bring through Ibe, Rossiter et al? Or would he just buy physically strong players and base his team around that. Alonso and Masherano were young players when Rafa brought them to the club - as was Torres - but they weren't really players that needed developing. He didn't really bring through anyone from the youth team and make them a star. Rafa's counter to that would be that he changed the whole club and put the proper youth structure in place - the same one that got us 5.5m for Shelvey and brought Sterling to the club.

The big love-in for Klopp from some quarters is interesting as well. It is almost as if his name is just mystical and people want to believe something that isn't there. In reality his Dortmund team did great in the champions league a few years ago however i would ask this: take any manager in the premier league - a random mid-table manager. Say Alan Pardew or Tim Sherwood (I've picked the two biggest knobs on the circuit to make my point!) and gave them a team that contained Lewandowski, Goetze, Reus, Hummels, Gundogan and Subotic. I genuinely think that they would make a good fist of german domestic football......and they might even get to a CL final as well. If Klopp was the man that brought all those guys through then it changes things but i'm not sure he was.



For me, this time next season we could all be uber-optimistic once again. I also think that being out of the champions league for a season may actually help our squad develop. It will hopefully give Brendan opportunities to bring even more young players through via the Europa and CapOne cups next season and also now that players like Coutinho, Sturridge, Sterling if he stays and Henderson have had a taste of CL football, they will have that extra bit of motivation to get back there.

[EwarWoo]

Wow. Top post, well worth the long read.

[Yozza]

****in' hell that was Tomkins-esque

Summary anyone?

[baitman]

...take any manager in the premier league - a random mid-table manager.
Say Alan Pardew or Tim Sherwood (I've picked the two biggest knobs on the circuit to make my point!) and gave them a team that contained Lewandowski, Goetze, Reus, Hummels, Gundogan and Subotic. I genuinely think that they would make a good fist of german domestic football......and they might even get to a CL final as well. If Klopp was the man that brought all those guys through then it changes things but i'm not sure he was.

its a good point, and the same could also apply to brendan with us last year.

you could have had any half decent mid table manager, then add suarez, a fit and flying sturridge, a willing sterling, etc.

[The_weatherman]

its a good point, and the same could also apply to brendan with us last year.

you could have had any half decent mid table manager, then add suarez, a fit and flying sturridge, a willing sterling, etc.

Good point actually.

[gratziani]

But would they have found a system to play all four as attacking players. Would Sterling even have been in the team ? especially with Coutinho as well.

Sturridge at previous clubs was usually shifted out wide as one of the front three.

United have Falcao , RVP and Rooney but never have played them together very often when ours had the Kahunas to go for it.

[The_weatherman]

But would they have found a system to play all four as attacking players. Would Sterling even have been in the team ? especially with Coutinho as well.

Sturridge at previous clubs was usually shifted out wide as one of the front three.

United have Falcao , RVP and Rooney but never have played them together very often when ours had the Kahunas to go for it.

I'm sticking to the other point

But maybe other coaches would not have gotten the best out of Lewandowski, Gotze or Gundogan.

[gratziani]

I mean Sherwood has got the best out of Benteke lately whilst the previous numbnut didn't even play him sometimes.

[BigChief]

Good post frank, hit the issue on the head. Lots of reasons to be optimistic, but also quite a few to keep our hairs turning grey(er).