Brendan Rodgers

[Mark79]

We came 7th in his first season and then he benefited from Suarez becoming the best in the world and banging in goals for fun. All of this might have happened with Kenny - don't forget under him we dominated lots of game but couldn't score - even Suarez was very wasteful. How many times did we hit the post that year?

We also played some dreadful football under Kenny, but then some of the stuff we played earlier on this season was some of the worst football I've ever seen us play.

We'll never know. At least FSG have given Rodgers a fair crack of the whip which I don't think believe they extended to Kenny.

I doubt Suarez would have been nearly as good had Kenny stayed and persisted with the prehistoric 'big man, little man' strategy. Where crap like Downing and Adam were chosen (badly) to service Carroll while Suarez was left to his own devices.

Rodgers played a system and players that got the best out of Suarez.
It's not a coincidence that he was far better under Rodgers than he was under Dalglish.

[Kenneth]

Very true.

[Shaggy]

Indeed.

[Vermilion]

Aye.

[The_weatherman]

Have to agree.

For the record Danny I'm not against Rodgers, at least I'm not now he's made me eat a slice of humble pie, but I do maintain that he ****ed up half of our season. He'll probably learn from it and improve but I thought he was doing the wrong things and what he did change was too little IMO. I can admit I was wrong in wanting him sacked but I stand by my criticism.

[Vermilion]

Don't think any manager gets it right 100% of the time, especially given the circumstances, and the things he had to work out player wise.

With star players leaving/fading/injured, new and very young players coming in, if he'd have got it right straight off i'd have been amazed tbh.

[RichC]

This season was all about transition tbh it was always unlikely to be challenging for the title again with the loss of Suarez and a pretty comprehensive Summer recruitment drive which changed the look of the team dramatically.

4th is the aim for this season and it should hopefully leave us well placed to make a couple of well placed additions to the squad rather than adding en masse again which will always take time to bed in.

It was a poor start to the season but he's done remarkably well to have turned it around.

[Maxiedge]

He's done alright. Fair play

[Lecter]

I think its clear he struggled early on in the season, he had mitigating circumstances but some of it was also self inflicted imo

He found a solution and credit to him hes got things more than on track

I was never actually in the sack him now camp, I thought he would make it to the end of the season but I suspected that if things hadnt improved FSG would have canned him then

I dont think that is the case now, even if we dont get 4th he will be given another season at the very least and it would be extremely hard and churlish to argue against this

[frank the tank]

I think its clear he struggled early on in the season, he had mitigating circumstances but some of it was also self inflicted imo

He found a solution and credit to him hes got things more than on track

I was never actually in the sack him now camp, I thought he would make it to the end of the season but I suspected that if things hadnt improved FSG would have canned him then

I dont think that is the case now, even if we dont get 4th he will be given another season at the very least and it would be extremely hard and churlish to argue against this

And this would be right as well.

I think we will finish in the top 4......maybe even 3rd. And who knows, once City can't win the league then they could go even more tits-up and we finish 2nd. They wouldn't be the first team to finish 3rd in a 2 horse race!!!

Do you know what though? I think we would win the league next season if we finished 5th this season and treated the Europa league as a competition for our subs / young players.

After the game against Man City, Carragher made some very good points when he was talking about Rodgers. He was talking about the transfer committee and mentioned that when LFC signed Emre Can, it wasn't as a centre back. That Moreno wasn't signed as a left winger. That Markovic wasn't a right wing back. Basically Carragher was praising Brendan as a coach and tactician for getting these players into an effective system...... but when you consider the statement, questions also have to be asked of the transfer committee's dealings..... don't get me wrong, nobody is ever going to get all of their signings spot-on, but for me it says something when you look at the players a lot of us think should be offloaded in the summer.....Lovren, Balotelli, Lambert, Borini......3 of them were last summers signings and we would probably snap the hands off someone that offers 50% of what we paid....

For me this summer i would like to see BR bring in only 2 or 3 good players......because if we see another 6 or 7 this summer then we will take another ½ a season to integrate them again....

[The_weatherman]

I think its clear he struggled early on in the season, he had mitigating circumstances but some of it was also self inflicted imo

He found a solution and credit to him hes got things more than on track

I was never actually in the sack him now camp, I thought he would make it to the end of the season but I suspected that if things hadnt improved FSG would have canned him then

I dont think that is the case now, even if we dont get 4th he will be given another season at the very least and it would be extremely hard and churlish to argue against this

I think he's bought himself this season and the next. He'll also have more credit in the bank if we go on a poor run IMO having turned it around once. But just as he deserves the credit he's getting he should also take criticism.

[The Birdman]

As Lec alluded to earlier I never wanted him gone but a lot of his early problems this season were self inflicted.
The genius of last season and the 2nd half of this is 100% down to Rodgers, he came up with 2 vastly different systems (diamond and 3421) he helped Suarez become the player he is, he exposed then developed Sterling and looks to be doing similar with Ibe and all that makes the start of this season even worse.

You can't excuse his handling of Gerrard, it was obvious from very early on he had gone, mentally and physically and his job as manager was to deal with that a lot better than he did.
Sakho is now our best defender, most of us already thought he was but would Rodgers have brought him back if he didn't have to?

That's not to knock him, all great managers/coaches are arrogant and Rodgers certainly has that, makes it more baffling why we (he) went into his shell early season as it is the opposite of everything he's good at.

[Muddled]

I think he's bought himself this season and the next. He'll also have more credit in the bank if we go on a poor run IMO having turned it around once.

You'd have thought that his credit in the bank would have been available this season.

[Muddled]

As Lec alluded to earlier I never wanted him gone but a lot of his early problems this season were self inflicted.
The genius of last season and the 2nd half of this is 100% down to Rodgers, he came up with 2 vastly different systems (diamond and 3421) he helped Suarez become the player he is, he exposed then developed Sterling and looks to be doing similar with Ibe and all that makes the start of this season even worse.

You can't excuse his handling of Gerrard, it was obvious from very early on he had gone, mentally and physically and his job as manager was to deal with that a lot better than he did.
Sakho is now our best defender, most of us already thought he was but would Rodgers have brought him back if he didn't have to?

That's not to knock him, all great managers/coaches are arrogant and Rodgers certainly has that, makes it more baffling why we (he) went into his shell early season as it is the opposite of everything he's good at.

I don't see any reason why Rodgers would have started this season with anything other than his diamond formation. It was tried and tested and half the squad knew the finer points of what their job entailed. The start of this season, whilst terrible, was unfortunate and I don't know what Rodgers could have done? It's not as if he had a solid defence that he could rely on to try the old 'smash and grab'.

You can't just flick a switch and suddenly change to the 3-4-3 formation. Whilst he (and the players) were working hard on the training ground, Rodgers put faith in his experienced players (Gerrard, Johnson, Skrtel) and they couldn't repay him.

The whole Rodgers showing Gerrard too much respect is any easy cop-out for people looking for excuses. Rodgers had been upfront with Gerrard about how his game time would be managed and that was one reason Gerrard was willing to listen to offers elsewhere. Rodgers was caught in limbo and a team low on confidence stuttered. That's it.

[Lecter]

I don't see any reason why Rodgers would have started this season with anything other than his diamond formation. It was tried and tested and half the squad knew the finer points of what their job entailed. The start of this season, whilst terrible, was unfortunate and I don't know what Rodgers could have done? It's not as if he had a solid defence that he could rely on to try the old 'smash and grab'.

You can't just flick a switch and suddenly change to the 3-4-3 formation. Whilst he (and the players) were working hard on the training ground, Rodgers put faith in his experienced players (Gerrard, Johnson, Skrtel) and they couldn't repay him.

The whole Rodgers showing Gerrard too much respect is any easy cop-out for people looking for excuses. Rodgers had been upfront with Gerrard about how his game time would be managed and that was one reason Gerrard was willing to listen to offers elsewhere. Rodgers was caught in limbo and a team low on confidence stuttered. That's it.

Except he didnt really start with the diamond formation