Brendan Rodgers

[baitman]

My issue with this that if we are changing the transfer system, recruiting people now (DoF) it is already too late for this summer, we should have already identified our transfer targets and be getting things ready to put in offers.

My fear is that regardless of who the manager is and who is in charge of transfers come July we could still have a horrible transfer window because all the build up work has been done by the old system (transfer committee) or if has been done by the new guy has been somewhat rushed through.

If we wanted a DoF he should have been appointed before now if he is to have any impact this summer.

having said that though, i would still be in favour of a major restructure and go with a DoF.
it might mean we tread water a bit but it should pay off in 3-5 years and onwards. there is no quick fix, so best to stop trying to paper over the cracks.

[CJ]

Lee

assassin

[marcus50bucks]

Coutinho Exclusive: Why Rodgers is right man to lead Liverpool FC forward

19:00, 22 MAY 2015
BY JAMES PEARCE

Reds' Player of the Year says owners must stick with manager

Philippe Coutinho has urged Liverpool to keep faith with manager Brendan Rodgers as he insisted: “He’s the right man to take this club forward.”

The Brazilian midfielder, who swept the board at this week’s Liverpool FC Player Awards, says he has Rodgers to thank for producing the best form of his career.

Coutinho admits as a team Liverpool have fallen short of the targets they set at the start of the campaign with no Champions League qualification and no silverware to show for their efforts.

However, the 22-year-old says Rodgers will ensure that the Reds kick on next term.

“I have always believed in and trusted in this manager and that remains the case,” Coutinho told the ECHO.

“I know how hard he works to lead Liverpool Football Club. I see what he does inside the club. He’s an excellent coach.

“I am very grateful to him. I wasn’t playing much at my previous club but Brendan brought me here and gave me the chance to show what I can do.

“He has helped me improve as a player and I’ve learned a lot from working with him.

“I am sure he’s the right person to carry us forward. I’ll be very happy to continue playing for Brendan and I want us to win trophies together from next season onwards. I’m sure next season will be better.”

We can't afford to start next season as slowly as this year
Coutinho believes the squad will benefit from the experiences of this season, which saw Liverpool recover from a dismal start to launch a spirited revival prior to their struggles over the past two months,

“We have a very young group here,” he said.

“For a lot of the players this was their first season in the Premier League.

“Last season a lot of new players joined the club and I know myself that it’s not easy moving to a new country.

“It took time for everyone to get used to each other this season. But we worked hard and then around the halfway point of the season things started to look up.

“We performed well and went on a good run. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to keep that going.

“I’m sure the squad will be strengthened this summer and then the key will be to have a good pre-season. We can’t afford to start next season as slowly as we did this season. The Champions League is where we all want to be and we’ll try to achieve that next season.”

Coutinho provided one of the few positives for Liverpool this term with his eight-goal haul and eye-catching talent securing him a place in the PFA Team of the Year.

It's been my best season on a personal level
At this week’s club awards night he was crowned Player of the Year and Players’ Player of the Year. He also won Goal of the Year for his strike against Southampton and Performance of the Year in recognition of his match-winning display against Manchester City.

Team-mate Raheem Sterling may be trying to force a move away from Anfield but Coutinho, who penned a new long-term deal back in January, is going nowhere.

“The awards were a huge surprise for me, I didn’t expect it at all,” Coutinho said.

“It was a very special evening for me. But I don’t like to talk about myself a lot.

“It’s a team game and I would rather pick up trophies for the team than for myself.

“I didn’t have injuries so I was able to play many matches this season. I do consider it as the best I’ve had on a personal level.

“But I’m still only 22 and there is still a lot of room for improvement. Every season I want to improve and get better.

“I’m very happy here. I want to score and create more goals and do more for Liverpool.”

The Reds go into Sunday’s final game of the season at Stoke City needing victory to guarantee a fifth-placed finish. Fail to win and they could end up as low as seventh if Tottenham and Southampton clinch maximum points.

Coutinho says Rodgers’ men have a duty to produce a response in what will be Steven Gerrard’s final appearance for the club.

“It’s still a very important game for us,” he said.

“We need to win to ensure we finish fifth and we want to go out on a high, especially with it being Stevie’s last game.

“We know we didn’t perform well enough against Crystal Palace last weekend. We need to play better and win as a thank-you to our supporters. They have been with us throughout the season and we must get the three points for them.”

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/coutinho-exclusive-rodgers-right-man-9313925#ICID=sharebar_twitter

[marcus50bucks]

REVIEWING RODGERS: SHOULD BRENDAN GET THE SACK OR NOT?

by David Segar // 21 May 2015 // 34 Comments

IT is the question being asked everywhere. From the stands to the pubs, from the offices to the bus stops, from the forums to the bloke who lives at the end of my street who doesn’t even like football and asks me to leave him alone but I shout my opinions through his letterbox anyway. Should Brendan Rodgers remain as Liverpool manager

Three years ago I didn’t want him. The wounds were still fresh from the unceremonious, albeit probably justified, dismissal of Kenny Dalglish. Who could follow such an icon as leader of this great ship? The big names couldn’t wait to say they didn’t fancy it, including one Jurgen Klopp. All of a sudden, John Henry was seen walking and talking with Roberto Martinez, then the name of Rodgers came up. A managerial rookie who impressively got Swansea promoted and settled in the Premier League, but he had one year of top-flight experience.

It had gotten to the point where I was shouting at whomever I thought was listening that Andre Villas Boas was the man for the job. Even Paul Lambert seemed to have something about him, it might have just been the glasses. Alas, it was Rodgers. Ah poo.

Mere days later and I was all turned around. I had turned a corner, if you will. The press conference to unveil the Northern Irishman blew me away. He said all the right things, carried himself with what the kids call ‘swag’, and looked every bit a Liverpool manager. “Philosophy,” he would say, and I would lap it up. “Philosophy,” he chirped, and I was hooked. “Philosophy,” I would say, with no context, and my friends asked me if I was feeling okay.

The philosophy we saw at Swansea, as far as I could tell, was ****e players not being ****e — passing, moving, pressing, winning. Danny Graham scored 14 goals in that season. Mark Gower was a major part of a dynamic Premier League midfield under him. Mark Gower? Do you know where he is now? Neither does he! The philosophy was coming to Anfield, and so were Fabio Borini and Joe Allen for a combined £26m. “That’s… err… really? They’ll help with the philosophy? Okay, I’m on board.”

It’s three years later, so now I would say is a fair time to evaluate the job that Rodgers has done in his time at Anfield. According to reports, Rodgers will have to convince FSG that he is still the right man to lead the club in his end-of-year review in Boston. Apparently dismissal isn’t under consideration, though it must be remembered that very similar things were reported about Kenny’s position before the trigger was pulled.

I said earlier this season that regardless of what happened, Rodgers should get until the end of the campaign. Even when things were at their bleakest in December, I maintained that he should get the whole campaign as a show of faith following last season’s achievements. Dismissing a manager part-way through a season should be Hodge’s honour and Hodge’s only. It should be named after him. “Are we gonna Hodge this one?” “Nah, don’t Hodge him.”

I read the comments section on here, on Twitter and on Facebook from time to time (cos I’m dead nosey like that) and have seen a few people accusing TAW contributors of being part of the ‘pro-Rodgers brigade’. Why are groups of football folk who share the same opinion always measured in ‘brigades’?

The best way of doing this is in the form of pros and cons because I have fallen on both sides of the Rodgers fence in recent times. Also this way, people can’t try and read into some underlying bias or agenda. The pros will be positive, the cons will be negative (unless one of the cons is that he’s too handsome, in which case you can probably stop reading). So here goes. You might want to go get a cup of tea or coffee/a cold beer for this, it could take a while.

Why Brendan Rodgers should continue as Liverpool manager

Last season:There’s no way of getting into the pros without bursting into song about last season. I have been a Red since the early nineties (whadya mean ‘sucks to be me’?) and there have been some highs. Not many, but they’ve been there. Obviously Istanbul is unparalleled, but in terms of an extended period of time, last season was the best I’ve ever had. *lays back and lights up a cigarette*.

Last season was an outrageous journey not just for how close we came to an unbelievably unlikely title, but for how we got there, playing football the way everyone wants it played, how the game wants it to be played, a style that was no doubt the intention of the game’s inventors when they started kicking balls.

The clamour to claim that Luis Suarez was the sole reason for last season has grown immeasurably in recent weeks, but I still don’t buy it. Suarez is good, he’s amazing, but to have single-handedly taken a team that should have finished outside the top four and gotten them to second and within a whisker of a Premier League title should have not only gotten him the Balon d’Or, but the keys to Cristiano Ronaldo’s house and girlfriend.

That wasn’t possible, especially considering how much less of a player Suarez had been before Rodgers arrived. He was still brilliant, but not ‘as many goals as I can fit into their goal’ brilliant. Rodgers managed the team to second last season, and it was brilliant. He was brilliant. Brilliant.

Ability to develop young players: Rodgers gives youngsters a chance. The likes of Jonjo Shelvey, Andre Wisdom and Raheem Sterling were all regulars in his first season, while Suso made a few appearances. Jon Flanagan came in last year and this season the likes of Sheyi Ojo, Cameron Brannagan, Danny Ward and Jerome Sinclair have all been making the bench, with the latter starting to make cameo appearances.

There are plenty of rivals who wouldn’t dream of doing the same unless the title is already won (who on earth could he be referring to? The Loftus-Cheek of it) and youth is very much a direction that the club needs to be making the most out of given its inability to compete financially with the very top clubs.

Bad luck with injuries: Losing Suarez was inevitable, but it was okay because we still had Daniel Sturridge. One half of the SAS was still about at Anfield, and as long as he was here, we still stood a chance of… oh he’s injured. Well that’s okay, we’ll manage for a few games, oh I mean a few weeks, oh I mean a few months. Okay he’s back, and he’s scoring, now we mean bus… oh he’s injured again.

On top of that, key players such as Lucas, Sakho and Lallana have also missed large chunks of the season, and given how much better the team looks when all of these players are available, you can’t underestimate the effect their absences have had.

He’s media friendly: Some see this as a negative, but I love it. I was sick and tired of reading nonsense about Rafa Benitez just because he rubbed some journalists up the wrong way, and Kenny’s dismissal of the media was both hilarious and uncomfortable in equal measure. The media quite like Rodgers, and so it’s rare that we have been subjected to hatchet jobs like the kind we saw under the previous two managers (Hodge not included).

He gets it: In spite of what some people say, Rodgers gets what it means to be Liverpool manager. While people fixate on the ‘par’ comments and the other soundbites designed to dampen high expectations, let us not forget the countless times that he has said that he is manager of one of the biggest clubs in the world, how it is a privilege for him to be here and that every player in the world should want to come here. If you still have doubts, just watch his first press conference again (above).

Ability to adapt and find solutions: One of the most ridiculous criticisms I’ve heard of Rodgers is that he’s stubborn. That’s like saying Rafa Benitez was a big cuddly teddy bear (I wish he was). He changes things if they need changing. The Reds weren’t efficient enough in front of goal, he changed it. They weren’t getting the most out of the strikers, he changed it. The defence was conceding too many, he changed it.

There is of course the argument that he changes things too much (which I may get to later), but the worst thing a manager can do is continue to do something that clearly isn’t working. Rodgers is a doer.

For all the poor play and results in the first half of the campaign, Rodgers went for the back three solution and it worked, it worked very well. We went from a team that couldn’t string three passes together to one that went three months unbeaten. That was a phenomenal achievement for a squad that had shown little else before (or after) then.

Stability: He’s been manager for three years. Any new manager would start at year zero, maybe want to move numerous players on, change all the backroom staff, implement a new style, perhaps even change the nets back to white. By sticking with the same manager you should, in theory, avoid rocking the boat. The last thing this club needs is any more instability.

Semi-finals suggest trophy is getting closer: This may not be a popular one, but two semi-finals is a good sign. Losing them wasn’t, but getting to them shows that going all the way isn’t that far off. Every cup game is a one off (unless you draw or its two legs of course) and so a cup run is reliant on never having an off day. This Liverpool will always throw an off day here or there. If a greater consistency can be achieved then there is no need to panic about the lack of trophies, they will come. In a season where we won no trophies, we were within two games of winning two.

Gerrard says so: Steven Gerrard is our captain, Steven Gerrard is a red, Steven Gerrard plays for Liverpool, and he rates Brendan Rodgers. Some have said that they’re empty words forced on him by the club, but he’s said them so often and with such context, like the ‘I wish I’d met him 10 years ago’ line. Not everything Gerrard says is sacrosanct, but he knows his onions and he knows about playing for LFC. If he rates him, who are we to argue?

Well, me. This is the part where I argue.

Why Brendan Rodgers should be dismissed as Liverpool manager

Dramatic fall this season: There’s no two ways about it. This has been a bad season for Liverpool. From the great heights of last year, the club has fallen not just out of the title picture, but out of the top four altogether. Some, including the manager himself, have argued that people see this season in a worse light because of the successes of last season, which admittedly saw Liverpool overachieve quite significantly.

However, when Rodgers took over if you’d told me that the Reds would finish outside the top four with less than 66 points in his third season, I would say that isn’t good enough, regardless of how the team did in any previous year.

Inability to perform in Europe: The incredibly limp displays in the Champions League, and then Europa League, showed that Rodgers still has an awful lot to learn about managing in European competition. In his first season he experienced the Europa League, and didn’t overly impress, but it was his first time.

The expectation was that he would have evolved and learned enough to at least get Liverpool out of what appeared to be a pretty straightforward Champions League group stage (Real Madrid aside). What followed was six poor performances with just one — fairly lucky — victory at home to Ludogorets.

Numerous points dropped to poor teams: It has been a characteristic of Liverpool in the Premier League era to drop silly points to silly teams in silly ways. If Arsene Wenger and his Arsenal side have taught us anything in recent years, it is that disposing of these teams gets you top four. You can be fairly poor against the sides with genuine quality, as long as you do your job against the sides you should beat.

This season has seen an unwelcome return to those days for Liverpool. In games against the bottom half teams, the Reds have won only 34 points from a possible 60, only managing to do the double over Burnley and QPR.

Bad quality of football: It has not just been the poor results, but the performances that went with them. There have been plenty of games this season where the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal and Manchester City have dropped points against lesser teams, but more often than not they’ve been in smash and grab situations.

With Liverpool, many of the losses this season have been fully deserved. In defeats to Hull, Crystal Palace (home and away), Newcastle, Aston Villa (league and cup) and West Ham, Rodgers had very little to complain about in terms of luck. On each occasion the opposition were simply better. Liverpool had not laid siege to their goal, not dominated large periods of the game or looked particularly in control. They were just beaten by teams that played better on the day.

There have even been successful games where the quality of the football on show hasn’t really been up to scratch. Wins over Burnley (away), QPR (home and away) and Stoke (home) in particular were laboured and somewhat fortunate. Even during the unbeaten run in the middle of the campaign, there were a few outings where Rodgers and his men could consider themselves fortunate to have emerged unscathed.

Failure to take advantage of a poor Manchester United: This comes back to the failure to finish top four, but the worst part of it has to be that Liverpool have finished behind their fierce rivals, who themselves haven’t even had a particularly good season. Their overall play may not be quite as drab as it was under David Moyes, but Louis Van Gaal’s United team have dropped plenty of points themselves in this campaign. In fact they are on course to only achieve a handful of points more than they managed last season.

Their higher position is merely due to the failings of the likes of Liverpool, Everton and Tottenham. This season was a real opportunity for Liverpool to keep United down by keeping them out of the Champions League, and allowing them back into it will only make it a much harder feat to achieve next season.

Inability to get anything out of strikers: It has been widely acknowledged that, after the departure of Suarez, Rodgers was dealt rather a bad hand of strikers to take his place. While they are far from world beaters, Mario Balotelli, Rickie Lambert and Fabio Borini have managed just eight goals between them this season. Eight.

They are certainly not the three I would have picked, and there is an argument to say that they’re not who Rodgers would have picked (though he supposedly did have a big hand in the signings of Borini and Lambert, and at least signed off on Balotelli). However, the fact is that Lambert scored goals, and assisted them, at Southampton. Balotelli scored goals at Milan, and Borini managed a healthy amount at Sunderland.

It’s understandable that they haven’t replaced the goals of Suarez and Sturridge, but they’ve barely replaced the goals of Martin Skrtel between them. That is more than just a lack of ability, that is mismanagement. They clearly don’t fit the way Rodgers wants to play, so why were they signed? Why couldn’t Rodgers adapt the side so that they were more catered for seeing as no-one else was forthcoming with goals? Why wasn’t anything done about it in January?

Odd handling of players : Speaking of mismanagement, while Rodgers man management skills have been brilliant on occasion, they appear to have been somewhat lacking with others, in particular Lucas, Lazar Markovic, Balotelli, and before them Daniel Agger, Nuri Sahin and Pepe Reina.

The first three have been very oddly treated in the last year, being wholly relied on for a very important role in the team one minute, and then completely bombed out of the matchday squad the next. Markovic is a young player in a new country who is apparently suffering from homesickness. He has adapted relatively well to a new role as wing back, but whenever a slightly below par performance is put in, he’s subbed at half time and often left out of the next squad entirely. The manager is entitled to do this of course, but it doesn’t seem to be treatment extended to any other player, apart from maybe Balotelli.

The Italian has been far from impressive at Anfield, but he is the best fit striker on the books at the club (with Sturridge constantly sidelined), and his omission from several matchday squads when supposedly fit has been odd to say the least. There may be perfectly reasonable underlying reasons for this, but it does make you wonder when you think of what Agger, Sahin and Reina have previously said about Rodgers, accusing him of freezing them out of the squad and a lack of communication, which leads me to…

Dismissal of experienced heads: Something that got me thinking the other day was when Rodgers commented that the team needed more experience. It reminded me of the summer he came in and instantly dispatched of Dirk Kuyt and Maxi Rodriguez. At the time it appeared to be part of his philosophy, to promote youth and lead with dynamic players. However, the side of that first season often looked lost, with too many inexperienced youngsters having to take the lead.

Given the levels that Kuyt has maintained since moving to Fenerbahce and Liverpool’s struggles with numbers of competent goalscorers (even last season we only had two, they were just very very good at it), I still can’t see the reasoning behind that sale, especially when you consider that the club is reportedly now trying to sign James Milner, the English Kuyt. Imagine if we’d had Dirk instead of Iago Aspas last season.

A year later and Reina and Agger were gone too, and many recent reports suggest that Lucas is no longer wanted either. It is a curious way to behave, selling your experienced players and then wondering why your squad is so inexperienced.

The murky waters of ‘philosophy’: Did you see earlier on where I was gushing about the Brendan Rodgers philosophy?

Now I feel like I’ve wised up a bit. Philosophy, to me it’s just a made up word. A politician’s word, so young fellas like yourself can wear a suit and a tie, and have a job. Sorry, went a bit Shawshank there. Basically having a philosophy means giving yourself extra time in a job by simply saying you have one.

Look at Spurs. Tim Sherwood comes in as just a manager. No philosophy, just try to win games while wearing a child’s coat. He won a fair few, but was still dismissed. Mauricio Pochettino comes in, with a philosophy. He has a worse win ratio than Sherwood, but you never know what might happen because he has a philosophy. Spurs fans are happier with Pochettino than they were with Sherwood, because he has a philosophy. This apparently takes more time to implement than just managing a team to win games.

It is then not clear whether it is a positive or a negative that Rodgers has abandoned his philosophy several times over since coming to Liverpool. When he arrived he preached death by football, passing the opposition into submission, overwhelming them with possession and pressing. Last season he kept the pressing, but ditched the possession, and it worked extremely well.

The worrying part is that last season’s transfer strategy was supposedly built around this new philosophy of high pressing and counter attacking, largely in a 4-4-2 diamond formation. The abandoning of the style of play and formation rendered most of the £120m spent fairly pointless, or at least misguided. Players like Markovic, Can and Moreno were soon being asked to play out of position. They did pretty well, but it was fairly farcical that it got to that stage nonetheless.

Two strikers wanted: There is an argument that, given how the team did so well last season with two top-class strikers, that the addition of two more this summer will cure all ills.

That is probably true, but surely the counter argument to that is: wouldn’t near enough every team be significantly better with two world class strikers in it? If you put last year’s Suarez and Sturridge into, say, Southampton’s team, I’d be pretty confident of them making top four. It seems like more of an indictment than a plus for Rodgers that without ‘top class’ strikers, his teams look toothless and disjointed so often.

Unwillingness to work with a Director of Football: This was more than understandable when Rodgers was appointed, and it was admirable that he took FSG on to that extent. They wanted the DoF model, Rodgers refused, they gave him the job anyway.

Reports suggest that Rodgers will be told he now has no choice in the matter when FSG give him his end of year review, and as John Gibbons alluded to in his recent piece on the unsung successes of Damien Comolli’s time at the club, whatever you think about the DoF model, it can’t be any worse than the current Transfer Committee strategy. If Rodgers isn’t willing to compromise for the good of the club, then that could be a problem.

Soundbites: This is incredibly minor, but needs saying (unlike a lot of Rodgers’s recent quotes). I don’t think it’s remotely important what a manager says to the media, just what he says behind closed doors to his players. However, it is really more what you can read between the lines of his recent quotes.

He is a man under pressure after presiding over a bad season, and he knows it. In his time at Liverpool he has largely handled the media perfectly, often coming back from difficult situations by saying exactly the right thing in the right way and calming the worries of Reds fans everywhere.

Lately, he has been merely adding fuel to a growing fire with bizarre comments about bringing Gerrard off against Chelsea so their fans would clap him, the lack of experience in a squad he has shorn of experience himself, and in particular his insistence that performances like the drab 0-0 at West Brom were ‘outstanding’.

I’m sure he didn’t tell the players they were outstanding on that, or any other occasion he has used the word to describe a 6/10 performance, but you can’t help but feel a little patronised each time he does it. Liverpool fans are the most knowledgeable in the world, remember?

The comments don’t mean a great deal overall, but you have to worry that he has gone from being a calm and assured public speaker to one who sounds as if he’s beginning to panic, and seems to be treating every pre-match and post-match press conference like a job interview.

Availability of better managers: This one is of course in no way Rodgers’s fault, but it is perhaps the main reason as to why I and many others have been battling with the question for so many weeks.

One of the most annoying things in football is when you hear a football fan say they want the manager of their club sacked, and when you ask them who they want to come in, they have no idea.

As soon as Jurgen Klopp announced that he was leaving Borussia Dortmund after six successful years (and one rather awful one), all of a sudden football fans around the world found themselves not as happy with their own manager as they had been previously. Numerous Liverpool fans were just the same.

Even if the German goes elsewhere, there is a big chance that Carlo Ancelotti will also be unemployed soon, while the very promising Frank De Boer has stated on more than one occasion his desire to one day be Liverpool boss.

Then of course there’s Rafa, but Neil Atkinson absolutely boxed that one off with his recent nail on the head piece on the potential return of Benitez to Anfield.

It is not every summer that you get such a line-up of world class managers becoming available at once, and who knows, if the hierarchy does decide to stick for now but then pull the trigger part way through next season or next summer, they may find themselves in a position where all the good replacements have been snapped up and they either have to pay through the nose to get one, or settle for a lesser light.

So there you have it. It has taken a lot of going back and forth, reminding myself of every part of the last three years, the highs, the lows, the reasons for both, the mitigating circumstances, the alternatives, the ultimate goal and how to get there. So here it is.

On the balance of things, in my very humble opinion, IF, and it is a massive IF, a Klopp or an Ancelotti can be tempted, then I’d say the time would be right for Brendan Rodgers and Liverpool FC to part ways.

Having said all of the above about trophies, it was ironically a cup game that swayed my decision on this. When Klopp made his decision, I thought “No, we’ve got a good enough manager already. He’ll get it right.”

Then Aston Villa happened and I lost my **** altogether.

That probably makes me sound terrifically fickle, and who knows, maybe I am, but it wasn’t merely the one game, the one very badly managed game that swayed my decision. During the game itself, and during the aftermath that followed, every single doubt that I had been subconsciously storing about Rodgers and whether last season was the norm or this season was, whether he was the real deal or just a good manager with great strikers (I won’t say ‘fraud’ because that is bull**** of the highest order), it all manifested itself in 90 minutes of abject failure.

Three years into his reign, Rodgers had a relatively strong side at his disposal and sent them out against a vastly inferior side with a vastly inferior manager at our former second home, where victory would see us into the FA Cup final and give our season purpose. He lost, and he deservedly lost. I couldn’t envisage a scenario where any other top four manager with the same team would have made such a mess of it. I didn’t realise how thin the thread was that my faith in Rodgers was hanging from, but that game well and truly snapped it.

This is not me saying that I desperately want him gone and that he won’t be able to turn things around. There is still a very talented manager in there and if we are to bring in two top quality strikers in the Sturridge/Suarez mould, then I would absolutely have faith in him being able to come close to recreating the joy of last season.

However, that is highly unlikely and so we have to assume that there will be modest additions rather than superstars, with the likes of Ings (below), Milner and Benteke the strongest links so far. If that is to be the case, I would feel a lot more comfortable with a Klopp in charge, someone who has made a career out of turning unsung mediocrity into league title winning Champions League contenders, or an Ancelotti, someone with experience to more easily overcome tough scenarios.

Rather than believing that Rodgers isn’t the man for the job, it is more that there are better managers potentially available and that this season has sewn enough doubt where the risk/reward ratio has swung further away from stick to twist.

Should neither of those two gentlemen wish to take the Anfield hot seat (and admittedly Ancelotti would be a very optimistic shout) then I would happily give Rodgers another season, though this leads to another difficulty.

With one more season comes more scrutiny. Every result is already obsessed over and criticised to the max if three points aren’t achieved, and with so many seemingly turning against the idea of more Rodgers, the atmosphere around the club could become toxic very quickly and even lead to a mid-season dismissal, which would be the worst possible outcome.

If Rodgers is to stay, and as things stand it appears that he will, then he needs to be backed. He needs to be given players he can work with, and not some he has to put up with. The club must give him the best opportunity to succeed.

Some of you reading this will agree, many of you will disagree (Hi Brendan), but there is hopefully one thing that we can all agree on. Whoever is in charge come August, whether it is Rodgers, Klopp, Ancelotti, De Boer or John Carver, we all need to get behind him and commit to an unwavering belief that next year will be our year.

That’s just my philosophy.

http://www.theanfieldwrap.com/2015/05/liverpool-sacking-brendan-rodgers/

Very long article but I found it interesting and definitely thought provoking

[DannyMan2006]

Great article that Marcus.

I read it yesterday and I have to say, I completely agree with almost every word of it. Anyone who hasn't, should give that a read.

[Cormack74]

Too much for me to wade through.

What was the conclusion?

[marcus50bucks]

Great article that Marcus.

I read it yesterday and I have to say, I completely agree with almost every word of it. Anyone who hasn't, should give that a read.

[Slinky Skills]

I can't be arsed reading through it.

I bet it's along the lines of we want Rodgers out......Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Shaggy]

http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/579249/Brendan-Rodgers-insists-quit-Liverpool-outlines-summer-transfer-strategy

Brendan Rodgers insists he won't quit Liverpool and outlines summer transfer strategy

BRENDAN RODGERS is “150 per cent” confident he will lead Liverpool into next season as he prepares for an end of term review with owners, Fenway Sports Group.

By PAUL JOYCE
PUBLISHED: 22:30, Fri, May 22, 2015

The Liverpool manager said he was constantly evolving as a coach, but added FSG’s model of ownership, based on buying young players with potential, would not change.

Rodgers will meet Mike Gordon, Liverpool’s second largest shareholder and FSG’s most visible presence at the club, in the coming weeks as an annual review assesses why the campaign has fallen short of expectations.

Liverpool travel to Stoke City on Sunday still seeking to rubber-stamp a place in the Europa League and Rodgers admitted this week it had been a “difficult and trying” season “full of distractions.”

Despite that he maintains he will be at the helm shaping the club’s fortunes and believes he will be better for this term’s experiences.

Asked if he felt reassured FSG would stand by him, Rodgers said: “Yeah, yeah, 150 per cent.

“I think you evolve as a manager. Every year when you assess it and you review your own performance as a manager you hope the following year you can be better again.

“Certainly the experiences of this year will make me better. We have been clear with the identity of how we want to play since I’ve been here and obviously it hasn’t quite worked out this season as I would have liked.

“But going forward, I repeat, I will be a better manager for the experiences and hopefully go on next year to be more consistent and we can win more games than we have.”

Liverpool’s summer transfer plans will focus on signing a top class forward with Aston Villa’s Christian Benteke top of their wanted list.

There is strong interest in signing James Milner on a free transfer from Manchester City, Danny Ings from Burnley and Divock Origi will arrive at Anfield having spent last season on loan at Lille.

Rodgers does not work to a specific budget. Targets are assessed on their individual merits and it is clear that FSG’s overall policy of buying younger players who they hope can blossom will not change.

“It is very clear in terms how the model works here,” said Rodgers. “That doesn’t change. That doesn’t change. There are constant questions asked of me in terms of strategy and the model.

“You have to remember the owners have had great success in terms of working and how they want to work. Everyone here is aligned to that and have that belief in what they’ve brought to the club.

“For us it is really analysing this year in terms of all the plans, all the changes that took place last year, review that, how can we be better equipped to move forward and challenge. That will be the review.

“There is probably a lot more made of that than what it actually is. I’m constantly reviewing with the owners. There is nothing different.

“People want to write about a review, there have been a number of reviews.

“Throughout the season I’ve had great communication with the owners. I’ll speak with them at the end of the season like I did last year, like I did at the end of my first year, and like I’ve done intermittent throughout the season. There is no great big review.”

[marcus50bucks]

Rodgers: I'm 150% sure I'll be Liverpool FC boss next season

Manager insists end of season review won't result in his departure

22:31, 22 MAY 2015
BY JAMES PEARCE

Brendan Rodgers insists he’s “150%” sure he will keep his job this summer as the Liverpool boss played down the significance of the club’s end of season review.

The Northern Irishman will sit down with Fenway Sports Group (FSG) president Mike Gordon next week to look back over an underwhelming campaign at Anfield.

The owners want to establish why Liverpool failed to achieve their target of Champions League qualification and put plans in place to ensure there is no repeat next season.

However, Rodgers, who is just 12 months into a four-year contract, has no concerns that the review could lead to his departure.

“I’m 150% sure I’ll be here next season,” Rodgers said.

“There is probably a lot more made of the review than what it actually is. I’m constantly reviewing with the owners. There is nothing different.

“People want to write about a review, there have been a number of reviews and throughout the season I’ve had great communication with the owners.

“I’ll speak with them at the end of the season like I did last year, like I did at the end of my first year, and like I’ve done intermittently throughout the season. There is no great big review.”

After a spirited mid-season revival, the Reds’ form has nosedived over the past two months and they could finish as low as seventh if they don’t win their final game at Stoke City on Sunday.

From the loss of Luis Suarez, to Daniel Sturridge’s injury woes and the failure of so many new signings to live up to their price tags, it’s been a campaign to forget, but Rodgers says lessons have been learned.

I repeat, I will be a better manager

“I think you evolve as a manager,” he said.

“Every year when you assess it and you review your own performance as a manager you hope the following year you can be better again. Certainly the experiences of this year will make me better. “We have been clear with the identity of how we want to play since I’ve been here. Obviously it hasn’t quite worked out this season as well as I would have liked.

“But going forward I repeat I will be a better manager for the experiences and hopefully go on next year to be more consistent and we can win more games than we have.

“The planning for the summer has been ongoing, but of course the real detail of that will take place after the Stoke game and of course I will have greater thinking time after the weekend.”

The end of season review will examine the work of Liverpool’s transfer committee but Rodgers doesn’t expect a major shift in either the club’s structure or buying policy.

“It is very clear in terms of the model of how it works here. That doesn’t change,” he said.

“There are constant questions asked of me in terms of strategy and the model, you have to remember the owners have had great success in terms of working how they want to work.

“Everyone here is aligned to that and has that belief in what they’ve brought to the club.

"For us it is really about analysing this year in terms of all the plans, all the changes that took place last year, reviewing that, and how can we be better equipped to move forward again and challenge. That will be the review.”

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/rodgers-im-150-sure-ill-9314617

He ain't going anywhere

[TheElephantMan]

“It is very clear in terms how the model works here,” said Rodgers. “That doesn’t change. That doesn’t change. There are constant questions asked of me in terms of strategy and the model.

The model doesn't work.

[Leyton388]

He's under immense pressure and he knows it. FSG need to hold someone accountable for last summer whether that be Rodgers, the committee or both. It's not just the summer transfers that need to be scrutinised but the performance of the team as a whole which is down to the manager. The team is mentally weak and has no fight and it is up to the manager to in still this into the team

[dww]

He's under immense pressure and he knows it. FSG need to hold someone accountable for last summer whether that be Rodgers, the committee or both. It's not just the summer transfers that need to be scrutinised but the performance of the team as a whole which is down to the manager. The team is mentally weak and has no fight and it is up to the manager to in still this into the team

I assume by holding to account you mean sacked? My feeling is that we do need to address the issues but FSG have more options than that - do we need different structures, people or just to adjust elements of our policy?

As for the 'mentally weak' comment, I don't think that is black and white. We were playing poorly and everyone went on about the dressing room being lost and then we turned it around. That requires strength of mind and determination. On the other hand we have ****ed up opportunities when under pressure. There does seem to be an element of fragility there but also I think there are tactical and talent issues.

[vlahka]

4 things I'd like to see. Balls deep for 2 strikers and 1 or 2 other top ranked players. No PL players. Sack the entire coaching staff and replace. Shut your mouth.

[Muddled]

I'm not quite sure that is the way to go.

But he definitely needs to stop saying 150%.