Brendan Rodgers

[Lecter]

You can see why Rodgers persists with Allen, Johnson, et al.

I absolutely cannot see this

It goes against the entire philosophy of the club

You always had to earn the right to wear that shirt in the next game and neither of them have done that recently

[Sarb]

They're not crap, they're ineffective and the players need to shoulder some of the responsibility. Allen has looked average, but Can hasn't set the world alight. You can see why Rodgers persists with Allen, Johnson, et al.

The snippet about not wanting to play committee signings is a tad ridiculous.

So he is constantly picking players not following his instructions whilst benching players who played well. I am probably missing something then I guess.

Allen is awful. Allen and Lucas in the same midfield is one of the most ridiculous and pointless things you can do.

Tell you what though, losing 7 league gemes and a few cup games. There is something seriously wrong with his instructions. Palace hadnt won a game for months before they dismantled us. Those kinds of defeats are embarassing

[Lecter]

Allen has looked average, but Can hasn't set the world alight.

"Average" thats being generous, in fact ****ing ****e would be a generous description of Allens performances

Can has barely played so its no wonder hes not showing enough and I would argue that in the Chelsea game he was one of our best performers yet one week later finds himself exiled to the bench never to be seen again

Absolute ****ing ****e, if that article is in anyway a leak and designed to paint Brendan as hard done by its done exactly the opposite

Its only highlighted his errors even more

[Sarb]

I absolutely cannot see this

It goes against the entire philosophy of the club

You always had to earn the right to wear that shirt in the next game and neither of them have done that recently

Totally gone agains the philosophy that served him well last season too

[DannyMan2006]

I wonder what his instructions are to Allen

"Dont tackle or compete for possession, get knocked off the ball as often as possible. When you get the ball make sure you look who is behind you and to the side of you and pass to them and never ever threaten the opposition box"

"Thats it top man Joe, follows my instructions and can be relied on as hes one of my experienced heads on the pitch"

It's funny as Allen is very disciplined and is frequently in the right place to make a tackle of receive possession.

The issue is he can't make that tackle and can't do anything with the ball. You just have to hope that when the opposition see Allen they knock it sideways instead of having a go at Allen, like Valencia did.

[Muddled]

I absolutely cannot see this

It goes against the entire philosophy of the club

You always had to earn the right to wear that shirt in the next game and neither of them have done that recently

You're in desperate need for a result, regardless of performance.

Do you turn to experienced players who have been there before, who understand what you ask of them and have done it before for you? Or do you turn to youth, players who are naive, prone to mistakes and who tend to do their own thing?

That's before you even consider protecting these future players from the immense pressure the club is currently under.

[Robbie-9-Fowler]

Was the committee even in during his first window?

There is no way I'll believe he didn't want Borini and Allen, they're his signings.

There were rumours he didn't want Sturridge, but because it worked out.. No mentions in the article, its heavily one sided.

[Doc_Piptorious]

They talked about that, said they didn't make it up they watched with their own eyes a different player last year. That although he makes similar mistakes with Southampton in terms of positioning he only made 1 mistake that lead to a goal and showed clips last year of our defenders defending as individuals leaving huge gaps.

Like most of us on here, they are experts after the event.


They were not highlighting the mistakes he made with Southampton when they were on about him earlier in the season. But now that Lovern has been poor this season they now can point to mistakes he made last season.


Great players don't always make great managers and the same applies to ex players and expert analysis.


Does not in any way detract from how Lovern has played this season, but I tend to take the "expert" opinion of Carragher, Neville and anyone else on Sky with more than a pinch of salt.

Put someone like Rafa, or Mourinho on and have them talk about defensive tactics and who they would put into one system or another and then my ears will prick up, but the Sky method of dressing up the obvious and passing it off as "expert" analysis does nowt for me.

[danperkins]

This is getting ridiculous, not only are we embarrassing on the pitch we're are embarrassing off it. Always a ****ing circus with LFC. I cannot believe for a second that it was all that dastardly transfer committees fault. Clearly it's a mess back there and they & Rodgers have made severe **** ups between them. Rodgers did want Lovren, Allen, Borini.. all are ****e. Rumoured he wanted Williams & Vorm too..... so i can't buy into, he wanted all these class players that have been amazing since and the committee said no go.

The bit about Lovren being a top defender & worth paying big bucks for.. what a crock of ****! When Rodgers comes out and says we bought him because he's a leader and an organiser & Lovren comes out and says it's so not easy to lead all the time and he was used to others leading.... that leads me to believe that we simply just didn't ****ing scout him properly! Both are to blame, there is a serious issue with the way things function or don't function as the case may be.

Over the last few weeks we've seen Rodgers trying to distance himself from Balotelli, Publicly embarrass Mignolet & now this pretty blatant briefing of Pearce. We have a much better team than we are showing & it's Rodgers tactics, team selection and formations have been fundamentally wrong this season. We have literally put in one decent performance vs Spurs in all competitions this season... and even then they missed two absolute sitters in that game , that is absolutely outrageous! All these leaks that the transfer committee are culpable may have some truth in it, but at the end of the day Rodgers has mismanaged the team this season. That truth is self evident.

Things like consistently playing under performing players like Lovren, Johnson, Allen. Continuing to play Gerrard in a DM role that he clearly can't play. Leaving Lucas out in the cold for so long when he was our only actual defensive midfielder!! that's crazy stuff for any manager... especially with a ****ty defence like ours which Rodgers seemingly is not equipped to sort out. Playing Balotelli or Lambert as a lone striker when neither of them can do that job efficently. Players that have come in a performed well getted dropped the next game, showing no incentive for players to play well as their going to get benched when Rodgers reverts to type for the next game. Any random bloke down the pub watching football could tell you that Gerrard is not a DM & Balotelli and Lambert cannot play as a lone striker. The players have been rubbish too but sure the manager ultimately has to get the best out of them, that is his job.

Someone needs to go, personally I think we should **** them all out, i thought we were done with this off the pitch ****fest. What an embarrassment to a great club.

[Lecter]

You're in desperate need for a result, regardless of performance.

Do you turn to experienced players who have been there before, who understand what you ask of them and have done it before for you? Or do you turn to youth, players who are naive, prone to mistakes and who tend to do their own thing?

That's before you even consider protecting these future players from the immense pressure the club is currently under.

To me it depends on form

If those players have consistently been ****ing **** it doesnt matter how experienced they are

Johnson, Lovren, Allen have all been naive and prone to mistakes this season even on Sunday!!!!

When you are in the **** and results arent going your way you also need players who are physical, brave (in and out of possession) and will stand up and fight

I'd argue that Johnson, Allen & Lovren dont meet any of that criteria either

Can is much stronger than Allen, he doesnt tackle any worse than Allen and well he actually is positive in possession as he looks to carry the ball forward and pass forward

[DannyMan2006]

They talked about that, said they didn't make it up they watched with their own eyes a different player last year. That although he makes similar mistakes with Southampton in terms of positioning he only made 1 mistake that lead to a goal and showed clips last year of our defenders defending as individuals leaving huge gaps.

He left gaps lays year, which they showed. They weren't punished because he had Morgan and Wanyama who sat deep and dropped into the gaps. They also track runners into the box that ran into the gaps. In fairness, whilst it's obvious to see now, it wasn't probably so obvious to scouts as maybe they thought that's the way So'ton played.

For So'ton he looked great. He was very aggressive to the ball. He could be. If went out of position when he did this he had cover. He also looked better on the ball as he always had the pace of Rodriguez to hit which stretched teams, or a simple pass to Morgan or Wanyama. At present, until MUFC game, we didn't have runners in behind to hit so play was condensed.

I actually thought Lovren looked OKAY against Basle when Lucas was covering. I think the only gaps Basle hit were between Johnson and Skrtel. So I guess that shows that gaps between Lovren and Moreno aren't the exception. It's the norm. In fact, the only player shown to be covering properly is Toure. Lovren and Sakho are young so I let them off slightly. Skrtel, well I've given up on him. As an individual he's probably our best defender. But I'd love to see a combo of Lovren or Sakho with Toure.

[Muddled]

So he is constantly picking players not following his instructions whilst benching players who played well. I am probably missing something then I guess.

Allen is awful. Allen and Lucas in the same midfield is one of the most ridiculous and pointless things you can do.

Tell you what though, losing 7 league gemes and a few cup games. There is something seriously wrong with his instructions. Palace hadnt won a game for months before they dismantled us. Those kinds of defeats are embarassing

It depends how you define 'very well', because to me, all I read is people suggesting alternatives because they're fed up with the performances of some players, regardless of their ability to do the job.

He's picking our best players on ability rather than form. Whether that's right or wrong, Rodgers - who works with these players every day - wants players who can grind out these results he desperately needs.

He's tweaked the team to be more resolute, something that had been gradually learned and implemented over the last couple of weeks. This has been clear to see to the detriment of our attacking football.

These instructions, tactics, whatever are attempted to be followed, but we are so low on confidence at the moment, that it just isn't clicking and playing Can, Manquillo and Borini isn't going to resolve that.

[DannyMan2006]

Here's a thought.

If a local journalist is on the Rodgers camp, what does it make you think?

I can't imagine a local journalist being in the Rodgers camp if he wasn't on stronger footing than others at the club. Put yourself in the place of Pearce. You have to have a close link with the club or you're out a job. Better to back the man who will win is it not? I understand a British scout for the club got the boot after the start of the season. Maybe someone's already aware we had issues?

[DannyMan2006]

It depends how you define 'very well', because to me, all I read is people suggesting alternatives because they're fed up with the performances of some players, regardless of their ability to do the job.

He's picking our best players on ability rather than form. Whether that's right or wrong, Rodgers - who works with these players every day - wants players who can grind out these results he desperately needs.

He's tweaked the team to be more resolute, something that had been gradually learned and implemented over the last couple of weeks. This has been clear to see to the detriment of our attacking football.

These instructions, tactics, whatever are attempted to be followed, but we are so low on confidence at the moment, that it just isn't clicking and playing Can, Manquillo and Borini isn't going to resolve that.

He did go with that, but it was a blatant shift for the MUFC game. Out the window went resolute and in came attack.

[Robbie-9-Fowler]

Like most of us on here, they are experts after the event.


They were not highlighting the mistakes he made with Southampton when they were on about him earlier in the season. But now that Lovern has been poor this season they now can point to mistakes he made last season.


Great players don't always make great managers and the same applies to ex players and expert analysis.


Does not in any way detract from how Lovern has played this season, but I tend to take the "expert" opinion of Carragher, Neville and anyone else on Sky with more than a pinch of salt.

Put someone like Rafa, or Mourinho on and have them talk about defensive tactics and who they would put into one system or another and then my ears will prick up, but the Sky method of dressing up the obvious and passing it off as "expert" analysis does nowt for me.

No not like most of us, they are experts, defenders at the highest level of the modern game winning league titles, champions league medal and plenty of cups. All that whilst working with great managers in great defences so I'm pretty sure both, who are actually well known for knowledge of the game are pretty well placed.

Neither were trying to look smart arses, the showed Lovren leaving the same massive gaps at Southampton, he wasn't punished or under as much scrutiny as he is now.

I agree its not the be all and end all but to anyone that watched it, surely it was clear as day he is still playing the same way (not talking about errors here) he gets very tight to his CB and that hasn't changed but is now getting punished.

Its made worse by the fact we as a team already had massive issues before he came here, a bad combination of a team who is **** at defending (backed up over 2 season worth of stats if you want) and a player who is suspect at times positionally and going through a rough time anyway.