Brendan Rodgers

[BigChief]

It's only five games. That's not really enough to know whether we're not very good and have just been lucky or if actually we're simply grinding out results while not playing all that well and can look forward to much better form to come.

The answer will emerge in time so for now I'm just enjoying the fact we beat Manchester United and we're top of the league.

No matter how many times its said, still makes you want to

[Fosterbloke]

It's only five games. That's not really enough to know whether we're not very good and have just been lucky or if actually we're simply grinding out results while not playing all that well and can look forward to much better form to come.

The answer will emerge in time so for now I'm just enjoying the fact we beat Manchester United and we're top of the league.

It's too early as players are in different states of fitness and new players are bedding in.

I'm enjoying being top of the league for now. If we're in the top 4 at Christmas then we can realistically believe but either way, a true assessment can be made.

[Tee]

I think LFC under Houllier in 99/00 was the closest I had seen to George Grahams Arsenal. General football philosophy was "don't concede and Michael Owen is likely to nick one"

Awful football. Actually I cannot even call it football, it was an embarrassment to the footballing heritage of this club.

[el matador]

Awful football. Actually I cannot even call it football, it was an embarrassment to the footballing heritage of this club.

it was **** but it was effective.

being continental you would have thought he would have brought some flair with him but it was just functional crap that hodgson builds his teams on.

we didnt have any financial restrictions then either so you wonder why houllier went down that route.

[Tee]

it was **** but it was effective.

being continental you would have thought he would have brought some flair with him but it was just functional crap that hodgson builds his teams on.

we didnt have any financial restrictions then either so you wonder why houllier went down that route.

The 5 trophies don't lie I suppose, but it was dire watching us play. And how many corners did we turn under Houllier? Must have been a world record.

[Redspin]

I'm not complaining. I'm worried, that is a big difference.

We should always try to get better and that means that you need to look at what isn't working and fix it.

Our second half is a big problem and need to be fixed. If Rodgers is an excellent manager then he will fix that problem. It may take a month or two to fix it but I'm very confident that he will fix it.

"A big problem"?? We've only conceded one goal - that's one goal - in the second half of just one of the four games we've played. We've won three and drawn one of those games and only Swansea have put us under a modicum of pressure (for half an hour) in any of those games.

If you're worried mate, I'd hate to come on here and read your depressing comments if we'd actually lost any of those games.

You don't really seem to enjoy being a Liverpool supporter to be honest. You're glass isn't half full; it's been dashed to the ground and is in a thousand pieces.

[Redspin]

I'm not completely sure where there supposed second half collapses have been, the first goals we've conceded all season were on Monday.

Against Manure for example I thought that was great managerial tactics from Rodgers as he knew like the rest of us that they were incapable of creating anything and effectively closed the game down, how many chances did they create in the second half against us? I can't think of any other than a long range effort from Nani which was speculative at best

Well said. Arn said Man U totally dominated the second half, but in the game I watched they spent an eternity passing the ball sideways, had not a clue what to do with the ball when they got within ten yards of our penalty area, had zero penetration in their play and were restricted to a speculative shot by Nani (which didn't happen until the 76th minute), which was bread and butter for a premier league goalkeeper, and a half chance for van Persie. That was the sum total of their apparent "total domination". They wouldn't have scored if we'd played for another hour.

[Neil Young]

Arn in talking negative bollocks shock.

[MrMichael]

I think some people are forgetting that there are 2 teams in a football match. That, and that the manager, though important, does not actually play the game on the pitch himself.

In all our games so far we have dominated the first halves. None of these teams have been mugs and all of them have made changes to their approaches to bring them back into the games in the second half. Is it really much of a suprise that against last year's champions while 1-0 up they had more of the play (while not looking threatening) later in the game? If people are expecting us to dominate every team we play for 90 minutes they are always going to be disappointed. I'm not so sure this is a tactical decision by Brendan which is determining how we play as much as the natural course of two sides playing a game of football.

Certainly it would be good not to see this as a repeating pattern going forward, but if it does, well it also means we'll be going into every second half this season with a lead which is a decent position to be in. At our peak under Rafa we were very good at soaking up pressure from other teams and still coming out with a positive result; if we can develop a similar level of backbone under Rodgers, an ability to still get points when we aren't at our best for 90 minutes or are pegged back by another team, then the future will be pretty positive imo.

[little dave hedgehog]

i read somewhere today that b-b-b-brenny and the reds was having emergency meetings with his staff to try and figure out why our endurance levels dip so hard in the 2nd half, so there may be something in it.

[Fredo]

i read somewhere today that b-b-b-brenny and the reds was having emergency meetings with his staff to try and figure out why our endurance levels dip so hard in the 2nd half, so there may be something in it.

Brenny and the Jets

[Norbs]

I took my daughter to Valencia last year and we did all our travelling on trams. On of the stops of the system is called Benimaclet and we used to burst in to singing 'Beni, Beni, Beni, Beni-macca-let' Elton fashion when we saw a sign for it. I guess you'd have to be there

[Yozza]

I took my daughter to Valencia last year and we did all our travelling on trams. On of the stops of the system is called Benimaclet and we used to burst in to singing 'Beni, Beni, Beni, Beni-macca-let' Elton fashion when we saw a sign for it. I guess you'd have to be there

[Norbs]

Lol, *******

[Arn]

I think some people are forgetting that there are 2 teams in a football match. That, and that the manager, though important, does not actually play the game on the pitch himself.

In all our games so far we have dominated the first halves. None of these teams have been mugs and all of them have made changes to their approaches to bring them back into the games in the second half. Is it really much of a suprise that against last year's champions while 1-0 up they had more of the play (while not looking threatening) later in the game? If people are expecting us to dominate every team we play for 90 minutes they are always going to be disappointed. I'm not so sure this is a tactical decision by Brendan which is determining how we play as much as the natural course of two sides playing a game of football.

Certainly it would be good not to see this as a repeating pattern going forward, but if it does, well it also means we'll be going into every second half this season with a lead which is a decent position to be in. At our peak under Rafa we were very good at soaking up pressure from other teams and still coming out with a positive result; if we can develop a similar level of backbone under Rodgers, an ability to still get points when we aren't at our best for 90 minutes or are pegged back by another team, then the future will be pretty positive imo.

How many injuries do you think we will pick up if we continue to be dominated in the second half of the games?

When you get a lot of possession then you can because of that rest more during the game. You don't need to chase the ball to get it back.

If you chase the ball a lot then you get more tired players and tired players get injured more often.

It is also pretty stupid to play the way we do in the second half considering that Sturridge is injured and can't work his socks off. That means that our only striker can't make the runs you need to do to play counter attacking football.

When we get the ball then we can't counter attack because of that. We will be up against a packed defense in almost every attack.

If Sturridge had been fit then it would make sense to play the way we do but he isn't.

Players like Coutinho, Aspas, Gerrard and now Moses is forced to play defensive football in the second half. Not exactly their strenght to do that. To get the best out of them you must play attacking football, not defensive.

It is a reason to why teams that play the way we do in the second half in the games fade away after a few months. The players can't cope playing defensive football week in week out.

As long as they are fit then it isn't a problem but after a few months the players get more and more tired and gaps in defense that wasn't there before is suddenly there.

Play the way we do and we will get a lot of injuries and very tired players IMO.

The main reason to our success with Rafa was that we had a lot of possession. That meant that our squad was stronger in the second half of the season.

That is also probably the main reason to our success the second half of the season last season. Our squad was more fit because we had a lot of possession the first half of the season.

Many people says that Barcelona must have a super fit squad but they really don't because they can rest a lot during the game because they have the ball so much.

More possession is the same as more fit and less tired players.