Brendan Rodgers

[Alex]

Why not put the extra 2 men in the middle of the area then, and compete there?

[el matador]

Why not put the extra 2 men in the middle of the area then, and compete there?

you put your smallest least physical men on both posts players that otherwise would contribute in the middle.

[Alex]

I know how men on the posts work. I am just not a fan.

[Muddled]

if you're playing against teams that don't have a big aerial threat fine don't put two men on the posts use one near post instead because statistically that's the most dangerous area to defend.

But stoke are very good in the air so it makes sense to mark posts at corners. You're not going to win every header so why not put more protection on the line and try to pick up the second balls or knockdowns instead.

The Ring O'Bells didn't put men on either post during our '****ty' Sunday league game. Maybe I should tell the lads they've got the basics wrong?

Or perhaps, we've been drilled to mark our man, get to the ball first and have two runners looking to intercept and clear the ball parallel with those posts? I'm not saying we're right or you're wrong, but you've gotta open your eyes and see that there are different ways of doing the same thing. Gerrard couldn't make his mind up and Agger tried the long way round to mark his man - individual mistakes that wouldn't have highlighted nobody on the posts if they'd done their job correctly.

[MrMichael]

I'm just au fait with all the facts

That's all it was - it felt worse because we'd been spoiled. We fell away in the last two games but were in the hunt throughout and our impressive goal difference suggests we were more than decent value from August to April. Our home record after 36 games (as I posted) was P18 W13 D3 L2. Pretty good.

Re overrating players. From that side - and the title challenging side the season before - only really Reina, Lucas, Skrtel, Agger and Gerrard have survived. Johnson was added to the title-challenging side but he missed a fair number of league games (about 15) in 2009-2010, while Agger was not a regular (Skrtel paired with Carragher mostly).

With the exception of Johnson who wasn't here, they all proved, however, that they can contribute to a title challenging side in 2008-2009.

Fast forward to 2012 and Gerrard is clearly not the same player and never will be, while Reina has declined and we don't know if he'll ever get back to what he was. Lucas has suffered a serious injury and we're waiting to see if he can get back to the high level he was at before. So that leaves Skrtel and Agger who remain from the halcyon Benitez era and are still at their peak. The squad now is vastly different. And vastly inferior.

Don't disagree with most of that I think though there does need to be an adjustment of expectations in line with that last sentence. If that squad finished 7th, regardless of it being a close 7th, and is now "vastly inferior".....

great teams always have players who contribute and look so much better in that title winning (or nearly title winning in our case) team.
but put them into a weaker team and sooner or later you'll see their real value.
the only indisputable fact about rafa's reign imho is this: you give a manager time and money and you'll see his vision unfold. if he's got a vision and the talent, that is. which rodgers does, again imo.

Spot on.

Aside from the deluded, no-one expected us to finish in the top 4 this season. However most of us expected some sort of challenge, and a finish of around 6th place, maybe 7th. That was not an unrealistic expectation and nor does it overrate our players. Without a vast improvement, a top 7 finish looks unlikely. We have been unable to beat a single team in the top half. However you dress it up it isn't good enough, and it is not unrealistic to expect better.

Every single time we win a game people start talking about 4th or better. You're right, 7th isn't unrealistic, but 4th, imo, really is. And plenty of people on this site and others do act every weekend like we have an entitlement to be right up there. Imo there are 6 teams in this league who are significantly ahead of us either in terms of players or squad development. We're then in the "much of a muchness" pile with a bunch of other very average teams. Before the Stoke game we were 8th, now we're 10th. If we can sign 2 players who can score goals, its not at all unlikely that we improve a bit in the second half of the season and finish 7th or 8th. That will, imo, be about par for the course with this squad as it is now. Yes Rodgers need to start getting the optimum out of this squad, but everyone can see he was left in a difficult position after the summer and there is still plenty of time to scrape together an acceptable final position to this season. What we need to see are signs of improvement, definitely, but we need to be prepared for that to take time.

Why get het up about Bodge trying to get shut of Agger? He (Agger) is 'only decen't', right? Surely it would have been no hardship to get another 'decent' defender in, and you never know, we could easily got a somebody better than 'decent' that would be more help to us now.

As the time wasn't Hodgson playing Carra & Kyrgiakos or something hideous like that? Agger, although I don't believe him to be world class (at least without the right partner), has been a loyal servant to the club was certainly better than the way he was treated. Hodgson's version of a decent defender was Konchesky ffs.

Good post.

I would also like to reiterate a point made by dww in another thread. Rodger’s system is suffering greatly from a chronic lack of firepower upfront in the sense that it is making our midfield and defense look weaker. We are much more easier to defend against due to our inability to score which gives the opposition confidence and drains the confidence away from the rest of the team. The increased pressure on the midfield and the defense make us more susceptible to mistakes and counter attacks.

Of course I wouldn’t absolve Brendan totally of the blame also. We invested a decent sum in the summer on Allen, Borini, Assaidi, and Sahin ( I rate all of the signings by the way). I think from a long term perspective they will all turn out to be good signings. However I think he should have invested it on one more forward.

The January transfer window is key. I know Sturridge is almost certain. But I wish instead of attempting to spend 5-6 million on Ince, we spend 7.5 million on Ba. The drunk bacon face at Mancs in a sense is showing us the way to move up the table – Rooney, Hernandez, Wellbeck, Van Persie. Now they are consistently linked to Lewandowski. Have goalthreats with movement and intelligence upfront and then the lack of control or bite or aerial dominance in the central defense will start mattering less and less.

Rodgers will get till the end of the season. I think the trajectory the team displayed at the end of the season will determine his fate. Houllier was sacked despite qualifying for the CL because it was obvious to everyone that he had taken the team as far as he can. Kenny’s team was on a downward trajectory in the second half of the PL season which caused his departure.

From a public opinion perspective also I think FSG will think twice before sacking Rodgers. They took a brave decision to appoint him when LVG and Rafa were available. So I think he will get a little bit more leeway.

On your last point, I have started to feel we have, or atleast I personally have overrated some of our "world class" players. This is now the fourth manager they are underperforming for. Maybe they are not as good as I ( or several of the fans) imagine them to be.

Exactly how I see things too. Get out of my mind!!!!!!!

[Cormack74]

Blimey, the best part of 7 more pages on Brendan since I last called in.

Edited highlights anyone?

[Mattshark]

Blimey, the best part of 7 more pages on Brendan since I last called in.

Edited highlights anyone?

El-Matador turned into Martin Samual.

[peekay]

Exactly how I see things too. Get out of my mind!!!!!!!

Haha. I have not been consistently pro-Brendan as you or maybe DM2006 have been. In fact if you dig up past posts you might find posts by me criticizing him.

My support of him is currently based on hope and faith than pure rational logic, honestly. I also don’t see any other manager significantly improving us until the goal scoring issue is resolved. Couple of more Villas and Stokes and I think pressure will start to tell on Rodgers. I also think the attitude of the squad in the second half will give us a lot of insight on whether he deserves another year or not.

Even if Brendan did not live up to his promise, I think by the time he leaves, we will have a young squad on reasonable wages which a good manager maybe able to build from.

[Muddled]

Blimey, the best part of 7 more pages on Brendan since I last called in.

Edited highlights anyone?

Lots of Rafa chat, sprinkled with some cheeky pot-shots of folk being branded 'Rodgers Apologists' and a heavy dose of U10 training techniques being the only way of undertanding 'the basics'.

As always with Est - you're either side of the divide and it's hard to find any common - or even middle - ground. So yeah, nail your colours to the mast and pick your corner, it's gonna be a fun-packed period of time.

RCDNW or the other acronym which currently escapes me.

[G]

Lots of Rafa chat, sprinkled with some cheeky pot-shots of folk being branded 'Rodgers Apologists' and a heavy dose of U10 training techniques being the only way of understanding 'the basics'.

As always with Est - you're either side of the divide and it's hard to find any common - or even middle - ground. So yeah, nail your colours to the mast and pick your corner, it's gonna be a fun-packed period of time.

RCDNW or the other acronym which currently escapes me.

[danperkins]

Lots of Rafa chat, sprinkled with some cheeky pot-shots of folk being branded 'Rodgers Apologists' and a heavy dose of U10 training techniques being the only way of undertanding 'the basics'.

As always with Est - you're either side of the divide and it's hard to find any common - or even middle - ground. So yeah, nail your colours to the mast and pick your corner, it's gonna be a fun-packed period of time.

RCDNW or the other acronym which currently escapes me.

[peekay]

Lots of Rafa chat, sprinkled with some cheeky pot-shots of folk being branded 'Rodgers Apologists' and a heavy dose of U10 training techniques being the only way of undertanding 'the basics'.

As always with Est - you're either side of the divide and it's hard to find any common - or even middle - ground. So yeah, nail your colours to the mast and pick your corner, it's gonna be a fun-packed period of time.

RCDNW or the other acronym which currently escapes me.

[Phoenix07]

Twitter conversation from RAWKite royhendo and G's favourite man Gareth Roberts from The Anfield Wrap.

Gareth Roberts@robbohuyton

@royhendo @daniellewarren Yeah, I think you're right mate, Which makes a big name figure coming even less likely.

1hRoy Henderson@royhendo

@robbohuyton @daniellewarren I wonder what Rodgers makes of it after his first presser Gareth. He ended up with exactly what he didn't want

53mGareth Roberts@robbohuyton

@royhendo @daniellewarren Yep. I remember him cutting across Ayre to make the point that he had the final say. He was adamant about it.

50mRoy Henderson@royhendo

@robbohuyton @daniellewarren that's right you were there at that one too eh? How's his demeanour been? Upbeat?

45mGareth Roberts@robbohuyton

@royhendo @daniellewarren Good when we seen him, but then that was on the back of Fulham. Seems to love the club, not sure he loves FSG...

44mRoy Henderson@royhendo

@robbohuyton @daniellewarren what was the script about Assaidi? Not his signing?

41mGareth Roberts@robbohuyton

@royhendo @daniellewarren Yep, not his signing. And he's been knocked back on more than Dempsey, too.

38mRoy Henderson@royhendo

@robbohuyton @daniellewarren All based on age? Am guessing you can't say much more.

33mGareth Roberts@robbohuyton

@royhendo @daniellewarren No, don't think just on age mate. Believe he wanted other players from Swansea but was overruled.

29mRoy Henderson@royhendo

@robbohuyton so process is 1. Propose target to 3 wise men, 2. Cross fingers. ? And the committee's targets - are they vetted by him?

[little dave hedgehog]

I know how men on the posts work. I am just not a fan.

[G]

Twitter conversation from RAWKite royhendo and G's favourite man Gareth Roberts from The Anfield Wrap.

His article and generally his opinion is usually well received by regular LFC tweeters. I'm surprised that it isn't here but each to their own.