Brendan Rodgers

[Exiled_red]

I don't think Sturridge would be playing if he was at risk of picking up another injury. Danny would refuse, as Rodgers has moaned about in the past. He always used to refer to Suarez how he would play through the pain and any little niggles, whilst Danny wouldn't.

Clearly Danny is fit & available to play. What it comes down to is if he can have an effect on the game without match fitness. I think ideally we'd rather not risk playing a player who may be off the pace. And this is where the gamble comes in.

I think Danny has showed in the past he doesn't need match fitness to have an effect on a game, but that invariably was with Suarez doing the running. Might be different today. Personally I'd have started Ings and brought Studge on for the last 30mins. I'd have then played him for the full ninety or as much as possible v Carlisle & Sion and then went from there.

I had wondered why we didn't give him a run out on Thursday, but having thought about it I guess is that if we had he probably wouldn't have trained between than game and this one then. - Presumably the players who played on Thursday would get most of Friday off given it would probably be the early hours before they get home, and usually they rest the day after a game. If I remember correctly Sturridge usually had longer rest/recovery periods after games (it was Hodgson's refusal to allow him this that caused the injury in the first place) which would probably mean missing some / all training on Saturday and the game is today so I can imagine in such a scenario why he didn't play midweek. So I'm nost sure if he could handle Thursday then Sunday games while he is still recovering.

[Slinky Skills]

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers enters eye of the storm but wins must keep coming

Even the Liverpool manager's strongest supporters may now be asking questions, writes Chris Bascombe

By Chris Bascombe
9:01PM BST 19 Sep 2015

When Liverpool renovated the training HQ at Melwood during the summer they should have inserted a hurricane warning system.

It would be flashing code red if Liverpool fail to beat Norwich City at Anfield on Sunday. The menacing clouds that hovered after defeat by West Ham United thickened after the tame loss against Manchester United.

Liverpool have four winnable home games in succession. Anfield should be a sanctuary for Brendan Rodgers, but has potential to be the most damning court chamber. The manager’s boardroom supporters will be feeling uncomfortable if the next few weeks do not meet the required standard.

A manager’s position is never more precarious than when the wisdom of the executives is as much a source of debate as the qualities of the coach

Since Fenway Sports Group bought the club, Anfield has been awash with reassuring sound bites. Whatever the outcome there has to be a “vision”. The designs have to reflect a “strategy”. Success can’t be guaranteed, but so long as there is an idea to rally around, whether it’s a style of play or a vow of steady progress, everyone must pull in the same direction.

Rodgers himself was the ultimate champion of this in 2012, the 180-page document he produced convincing his employers he not only spoke their language but could author the FSG manifesto. “I always wanted to go into a club with a clear philosophy about where everyone is heading and going,” he said three years ago.

“To define a model of play that can entertain and win. My world has been devoted to that. I’d rather lose a game trying to win it than lose it trying to not get beat.”

Even amid the debris of last season Rodgers’s determination to reconnect with his philosophy saved his job between January and a home loss to Manchester United in March.

He suggested last weekend that it could be Christmas before the latest recruits give the team the identity he desires, but he knows he won’t get that long this time. Not after last season.

Behind the show of unity and continuity, Rodgers’s retention last summer was no formality. The inclination was always to back him having extended his contract a year earlier, but the external debate echoed much of what was discussed internally.

What must be remembered is that FSG is a collective – a joint enterprise with varied opinions. There is a power pyramid, but ultimately those at its head are answerable to stakeholders in the United States. Many within FSG had doubts but the majority shareholders – especially President Michael Gordon – were determined then (as now) that cool heads must prevail.

Sceptics were persuaded to give Rodgers time to reconstruct, the mitigating circumstances such as Luis Suárez’s sale and Daniel Sturridge’s injury wrecking the season but saving his job. The much-discussed transfer committee may have confused supporters as to who was really sourcing the new recruits, but it also proved a useful shield for the manager as the squad had many architects.

Ask where it has gone wrong over 14 months and you need only compare the side that last faced Norwich to that losing so meekly at Old Trafford a week ago. Through a combination of sales, contract expiration and injuries, only three – Simon Mignolet, Martin Skrtel and Lucas Leiva – featured in both games. The marvellous but defensively flawed team of 2014 did not evolve. It has been stealthily ruined.

The reinvestment in the squad was such it should not have gone this way.

The crux of the debate is whether the coach is getting the best from the players, those recruits are not up to scratch, or whether the problem is both. There are plenty at Anfield who believe the £124 million received for Suárez and Raheem Sterling has not been wasted and, in time, Rodgers will get the best from them. Crucially, that includes Gordon. He, after all, is not only FSG’s second biggest shareholder, he is on the aforementioned committee. If the strategy is flawed he is hardly going to hold himself accountable. Thus we see players who have hardly featured handed new five-year contracts, or sent on loan with an insistence they will return.

So much depends on Sturridge’s return. The striker is supposed to be physically ready to join the squad for Norwich’s visit, but for too long he has been the great Liverpool striker who always has a reason not to play.

For the time being Liverpool are keeping their nerve amid mounting pressure. If it clicks, there will be pats on the back all round for refusing to blink. If not, the board will be accused of wasting time while high-calibre, proven managers wait for a phone call. As in the last 25 years, there is much to suggest the problem is far greater than whoever sits in the dugout.

The long-term forecast for Rodgers has seemed gloomy for a while. All he can do in the short-term is head to Anfield and win, win, win and win again. Otherwise – as someone once sang – you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/liverpool/11877536/Liverpool-manager-Brendan-Rodgers-enters-eye-of-the-storm-but-wins-must-keep-coming.html

As long as get my own secretary and she's wearing seamed Stockings and high heels.

I'd give Shaggy the job as Press secretary and Slinky would be head of PR.

[baitman]

As long as get my own secretary and she's wearing seamed Stockings and high heels.

[Leyton388]

[captainfog]

**** off Rodgers, just **** off.

[Fosterbloke]

Time to say goodbye. We really can't continue down this path.

[chadrtc]

**** off Rodgers, just **** off.

I hate posts like this. You're better than that.

He needs to go though.

[captainfog]

Time to say goodbye. We really can't continue down this path.

It was time to say goodbye last season. It's a disgrace he's still the manager.

[TheElephantMan]

Time to say goodbye. We really can't continue down this path.

Changed your tune pretty quickly haven't you?

[danperkins]

Gotta go now, enough is enough. Need to stop the rot.

[captainfog]

I hate posts like this. You're better than that.

He needs to go though.

I'm sorry but I feel some real animosity towards him. He's a chancer and his continued presence is hurting the club. If he had anything about him he'd resign, but he's too self absorbed to do that.

[Rich]

Brendan "We have a way of working" Rodgers, Mister Three at the back bollocks.

[Fredo]

We're all frustrated but why the personal attacks? If he's got to go, we need to have someone lined up to replace him. If we don't there's no urgency and people should just remain patient and be civil. There's no need for that.

[redmike65]

I never watch the interviews if I can avoid them so what did he say?

[Fosterbloke]

Changed your tune pretty quickly haven't you?

I tried the blind determination but it got too much to bear.

I see the situation for what it is now - A manager that's run out of ideas and belief that he can take Liverpool FC any further.