Brendan Rodgers

[BG1973]

I don't think anyone should be exempt from criticism, ever. Not at a club the size of LFC. No room for sentiment in football. But there should be some faith shown I think based on past exploits.

Yes we lost a great player and much of last season was down to that player. But may I remind you people that some of our beloved fan base thought Suarez wasn't good enough to lead the line for LFC. And I will hold my hands up and say I didn't think he was a good enough finisher and needed a poacher alongside him.

Well guess what. Rodgers made him from a good player to a world class player. And that is something people tend to forget about. Rodgers recognised the ability and saw him on the training field and was brave enough to build a team around him.

So when people are having a go at Rodgers they should remember the above. I can't see myself what he sees in some players. But I don't spend the time around the players that he does. I am 100% convinced he'll get it right. Those that aren't convinced, should show a little faith.

Not trying to have a go at BR or anything but I don't entirely buy into this.

Suarez was a great player when he arrived but his finishing was lacking nder Kenny. I don't think a coach can suddenly teach a great player how to finish. I would argue that comes from feeling more relaxed and confident.

Suarez eventually ended up playing with better players, giving him better service and had got used to the league. I would argue that was more instrumental in his improvement.

You could argue BR was responsible for those better players but as far as teaching Suarez anything that made a good player great, I'm not sure to what extent that actually happened. As far as I can tell he simply started converting more chances.

[Bender]

you'll be getting banned for highlighting that lot...

when I look at that, there's possibly only 4 players who I'd say are good enough to be in the starting 11 for us too (when everyone's fit). The rest are not better than squad players to drift in when someone's injured. There's a few that have potential, but if we're being honest, very few would get into a best 11 for us over the last say 10 years.

[frank the tank]

That is horrible reading alright.....

when Brendan came in, i thought that he would really bring on the young players we had at the club - that the groundwork laid by Rafa in the academy would bear fruit and that we would be in a position to only need to add top class players to the group.....

He has done a good job of bringing Sterling through - but to be honest it could be argued that is like Houllier claiming to have discovered Stevie G.....in reality he was just the manager when a world class talent came through from the youth system.....

The likes of Flanagan, Wisdom, Wilson, Rossiter......it is if Rodgers can bring these players through and make them first teamers where he will be judged as a sucess or not from the point of view of bringing through young players.

[Shaggy]

Not trying to have a go at BR or anything but I don't entirely buy into this.

Suarez was a great player when he arrived but his finishing was lacking nder Kenny. I don't think a coach can suddenly teach a great player how to finish. I would argue that comes from feeling more relaxed and confident.

Suarez eventually ended up playing with better players, giving him better service and had got used to the league. I would argue that was more instrumental in his improvement.

You could argue BR was responsible for those better players but as far as teaching Suarez anything that made a good player great, I'm not sure to what extent that actually happened. As far as I can tell he simply started converting more chances.

[DannyMan2006]

Not trying to have a go at BR or anything but I don't entirely buy into this.

Suarez was a great player when he arrived but his finishing was lacking nder Kenny. I don't think a coach can suddenly teach a great player how to finish. I would argue that comes from feeling more relaxed and confident.

Suarez eventually ended up playing with better players, giving him better service and had got used to the league. I would argue that was more instrumental in his improvement.

You could argue BR was responsible for those better players but as far as teaching Suarez anything that made a good player great, I'm not sure to what extent that actually happened. As far as I can tell he simply started converting more chances.

He was put in better positions and our style of playing was built around him. Kennys was built around Carroll, buying likes of Adam & Downing. Rodgers first decision was to **** off Carroll who'd cost £35m. That was a massive decision.

IMO Suarez wouldn't have performed to the level he did without Rodgers. And I doubt he'd have ever moved to Barca or a club of that ilk. I get what you're saying, it's hard to say for sure. He obviously converted more chances because he was more in balance, which came about through being in better positions.

But whilst the Suarez we signed would have done better initially with the team built around him, I still think he improved massively under Rodgers. How much down to Luis and how much down to Rodgers is up for debate. But as Rodgers has improved a lot of players under his guidance, I'd give him some benefit of the doubt.

[Vermilion]

Wish you guys would stop it!

Right now i'm struggling to come up with anything i could truly credit BR with as having moved the club forward.

All his signings seem to be flops or erratic buys, his tactics are under scrutiny like never before, and he's not really showing us that he's a CL manager in the making either, his back room staff are under the soptlight too, scouting looking like it's an issue.

Early days though ? I'm sure we'll just click and be on our way, because we needs to show we're going places, otherwise our best young players will.

[Maxiedge]

I think Brendan is still learning the game himself and learning from his mistakes. It's easy to forget he's still not 40 yet. Just like footballers, I think in 5 years time, he'll be one of the best around

With regards to signings, I've been thinking about how it came to be such a monumental mess and my thoughts are that most of these players would be ripping it up for for teams outside the top 5/6 but there's a different type of pressure that comes with playing at Liverpool that makes them initially uneasy and tepid.

That's why I think we've gone for the wrong caliber of players. What we needed was top class, finished article to come in to the team that finished second last season and take them onto another level. I think Brendan's still learning that signing top players for Liverpool is different to signing top players for Swansea. Someone like Markovic would probably be ripping it up at Swansea right now but it's a different proposition at Liverpool.

As I said before, he's learning. I think Mourinho's learnt from his mistakes in the past and just gone for finished article this summer. It's a shame as we were in a good position to sign top caliber this summer but it seems the club have another direction in mind. I think we've just got to be patient and battle through for now. Players like Origi, Illori and Sterling could be some of the best around in 2-3 years.

[DannyMan2006]

Wish you guys would stop it!

Right now i'm struggling to come up with anything i could truly credit BR with as having moved the club forward.

All his signings seem to be flops or erratic buys, his tactics are under scrutiny like never before, and he's not really showing us that he's a CL manager in the making either, his back room staff are under the soptlight too, scouting looking like it's an issue.

Early days though ?

Well going off some comments Luis Suarez was player manager last year

Ever since Rodgers walked through the door we have been improving. His vision was instantly recognisable and most of us could swallow the ups and downs as we knew what he was doing. Then this summer for the first time a key component was removed. He'd built a team and then suddenly the best player was taken away.

At this point many are having issues. And I am too, despite defending him as I can't be sure what he's doing.

If you lose a player, you replace them. But you don't sign the best possible player you can get. You sign the one most suited. I mean, look at this basic outlook. A persons plays the fifa computer game and their game is based around fast players. If during the transfer window the computer bid a substantial amount for one of your players they get sold. That person would then go on the market and sign the best player they could get with the high speed stats to match the player they sold. They would not sign a better player who was slow, as the way they played the game would be hampered. If they played with a pacey lone striker and sold him and then signed a slow target man, their whole game would be compromised. They could no longer do balls over the top, they'd have to cross the ball much more.

Now, knowing the price of fast players on the ultimate team version of that game shows that even the most basic person understands that concept. But you look at the players we signed this summer...... Well I'm struggling tbh.

I can only guess that Rodgers believed the way we played was down to Suarez last year and he'd be unable to replicate that. As such he wanted to change it up, but it has taken too long to adjust. Growing pains.

[kingfunk]

Brendan Rodgers

I think a lot of people forget that last year was a one off, Rodgers and Henry have often said that finishing second was ahead of their schedule.
This season was about building a squad, not a one man team. Over the next few transfer windows we will be adding world class players to the foundation layed this summer. (Again Rodgers said this in May)
People need to be patient, i for one will be giving BR another two years. Still believe we will finish fourth.

[alonso14]

There is no easy fix to what's going on. There are no magical answers. Normally you would say hard work overcomes all problems, but we have no time on the training ground to do this.

We are playing almost 3 games a week, we have no time. Maybe the return of Daniel sturridge will inspire us. I certainly hope so because a new manager means more upheaval and yet another 3 years of transition.

There are no easy answers.

[ronanm]

[QUOTE=DannyMan2006;30046 But as Rodgers has improved a lot of players under his guidance, I'd give him some benefit of the doubt.[/QUOTE]

Henderson was young and likely would have improved. Sturridge needed a manager to show faith. Other than that, who do you mean?

[cream]

Suarez became world class under him.

[BobTheCharmer]

I think he needs to try and get us scoring again. We can be all compact and tight ala yesterday but with our defenders they are likely to **** up on at least one occasion so its been for nothing. Against chelsea we will concede at least two, so we have to work out a way of getting three. I'd rather lose 5-3 given it right go than lose meekily 2-0. This team must have goals in it.

[Leyton388]

The club knew for months Suarez was leaving and they didn't do a thing to try and replace him. Just going for one player in Sanchez wasn't good enough. There should have been a long list of strikers that we should have gone after. But like always we went for quantity over quality.

[Gibbo]

Brendan is still inexperienced, he's been learning on the job for a long time, and in a way he's been lucky that a lot of stuff that he's tried on the pitch has come off. He's hit his first real issue now and this is where we will see if he is a good manager or a great one. This is his big test how he deals with the squad now.

Looking at our first team squad(in my opinion) this is the strongest we could put out.

-------------Mignolet
Manquillo Skrtel Sahko Moreno
--------------Gerrard
--------Henderson Lallana
--------------Sterling
---------Sturridge Balotelli

The goalkeeper was a Rodgers signing, I think on the whole he has been okay(ish) but there is room for improvement for us in that area.

3 of the back four are Rodgers signings, Manquillo and Moreno for me are good purchases from what I've seen so far, Sahko probably could be if given the chance.

Lallana looks good but we did probably pay over the odds, I think he's been decent though.

Mario, well, im still clinging on to the hope that it'll click.

Think even with that, transfers are a problem, his two best ones are probably Sturridge and Coutinho, and both of these where risks that just happened to come off, and we are lucky they did to the extent they have.

I think besides the transfer issues Brendan needs to improve his stubborness, we've performed better with two up top on several occasions but yet he still decides not to play it from the start, even against Newcastle rewarding Borini and giving him the start could have improved his confidence whilst also providing us with that movement and workrate from the front that we really lack. It's really strange that everyone seems to be able to see it except Brendan himself.

Also, it seems once he's decided he doesn't want to play someone - thats it, their chances will be minimal. Sahko has performed better than Lovren in the chances he's got this season, but is being phased out. A similar thing happened with the Sahin loan, yes he didn't set the world alight completely but he was/is a talented player and was barely given a chance to prove otherwise after Rodgers decided he didn't want to let him. Even when players like Assaidi was here, I know it's a bit daft but there where games where we could've just thrown him on with the pace and dribbling he posses but the chance was never given.

Hopefully these things may come with a bit more time, and I do have some faith in Brendan doing so, but these problems, along with the defence, and the fact Brendan seems to be against any form of defensive coach, will only get worse, especially if we throw another ~£100m on players to solve the problems that the first £100m was meant to solve, especially if they dont work also.

Hopefully.