Brendan Rodgers

[Fan65]

Injuries & bans will probably dictate the team selection.

Latest not availables (probable), Gerrard, Skrtel, Lallana, Sturridge

Added to Ibe, Flanagan, Balotelli (Useless) Lambert (sub only) Borini ( not good enough)

Mig
Can
Lovren
Sakho
Moreno
Lucas
Hendo
Allen
Coutinho
Markovic
Sterling

Leaving us with these alternatives

Manquillo ( a really good prospect)
Johnson ( Good player but doesn't fit in now)
Enrique ( Good player but better than who? )
Toure (V good player)
and a selection of untried youngsters

I'd like to see Toure in for Can and Can in Midfield instead of Allen although Allen is playing well now.

[captainfog]

Quality over quantity this summer.

We won't be able to do that if we don't make CL.

[ronanm]

After 2.5 years I still don't know if BR is the right man. He has done some excellent things here but I can't help but think our competitors for top 4 haven't been particularly strong during his tenure (City last year and Chelsea this aside) so anything less than 4th would be disappointing irrespective of how we started the season. Europe was a particular low point.

[The_weatherman]

After 2.5 years I still don't know if BR is the right man. He has done some excellent things here but I can't help but think our competitors for top 4 haven't been particularly strong during his tenure (City last year and Chelsea this aside) so anything less than 4th would be disappointing irrespective of how we started the season. Europe was a particular low point.

After the turnaround in december I'll give him until the summer and see how it is then. He has a new contract so maybe we should give him another season but he needs to deliver next season, we need CL football.

[Yozza]

After 2.5 years I still don't know if BR is the right man. He has done some excellent things here but I can't help but think our competitors for top 4 haven't been particularly strong during his tenure (City last year and Chelsea this aside) so anything less than 4th would be disappointing irrespective of how we started the season. Europe was a particular low point.

Waits for BigChiefs' reply.......

[captainfog]

While we certainly did spend about that much, I think there are several issues with viewing it quite so simplistically and I don't think FSG will. Incomings are relevant, no desire to go back to Rafa-style net & gross spend arguments but our latest accounts show a reduction in wages a a % of income, a reduction in loss on players etc, and then there's obviously the Suarez fee (part of which could be argued was because of the way he became world class under Rodgers) things FSG will definitely be aware of and consider as relatively sound management which meant our spend was within affordable limits and may not have led to massive losses on many of those brought in either.

I don't think they are silly enough either to view top 4 as a fundamental requirement every single season in what is a highly competitive league in which each season a 1 or 2 teams with equal or greater resources than us will miss out if we make it.

Also well, I have no desire to get into committee/Rodgers arguments either, but would he be held responsible alone for the result of the spending? I doubt it myself.

I very strongly believe that without a total disaster in the last 8 games Rodgers will be here next season. He (and the committee) absolutely cannot repeat the same errors that have previously been made this summer and if we do I think he will suffer for it, but I don't think it at all likely he will be sacked this summer if/when we finish 5th.

Rodgers is on the committee and I think it's only fair that all the members take shared responsibility for the huge sums wasted. Only the club knows who pushed for certain players (although the Rodgers mouthpiece, James Pierce at the echo, gives us a good idea), but they all shoulder some of the blame.

If no changes are made to the committee (either personnel or structure) are you confident of a successful transfer window? Because I'm not. We really can't afford to sign more Bago****ties and Lovrens.

[dom9]

Rodgers is on the committee and I think it's only fair that all the members take shared responsibility for the huge sums wasted. Only the club knows who pushed for certain players (although the Rodgers mouthpiece, James Pierce at the echo, gives us a good idea), but they all shoulder some of the blame.

If no changes are made to the committee (either personnel or structure) are you confident of a successful transfer window? Because I'm not. We really can't afford to sign more Bago****ties and Lovrens.

Balotelli aside, I'm not sure anybody could have predicted that Lovren would have been this bad. A premium was paid for a supposed safe pair hands. Sometimes signings turn out to be inexplicably bad.

And it happens to all clubs. How many people thought that Falcao and di Maria would be so ineffectual for Utd? Sanchez hasn't exactly set the league on fire at Arsenal either. Even Fabregas is looking lost after a strong start.

So my point is that that you can have a sound strategy, identify quality, low risk targets, and it still to go awry.

[captainfog]

Balotelli aside, I'm not sure anybody could have predicted that Lovren would have been this bad. A premium was paid for a supposed safe pair hands. Sometimes signings turn out to be inexplicably bad.

And it happens to all clubs. How many people thought that Falcao and di Maria would be so ineffectual for Utd? Sanchez hasn't exactly set the league on fire at Arsenal either. Even Fabregas is looking lost after a strong start.

So my point is that that you can have a sound strategy, identify quality, low risk targets, and it still to go awry.

Lovren had one good season - as Shaggy pointed out, when he was in France the fans were queuing up to drive him to the airport.

The committee can only be judged on the results and while the peripheral signings have been good, right now their 3 biggest (and most important) signings of the summer haven't, to varying degrees, worked out.

At the moment they're not doing a very good job. With the exception of Sakho I'm not convinced they've really been able to significantly strengthen the first team since Sturridge and Coutinho were signed in Rodgers first season. We've had the odd bright spot, but largely it's been a catalogue of errors.

[dom9]

I'm glad I'm not on the committee.

[captainfog]

It's fair to say best laid plans and all that. Even the most successful managers probably only have a transfer success rate of 50%. But what they do is they get the key signings right more often than they don't and this is the area we are struggling in.

If things keep going awry then is it time to start looking at the strategy?

[The_weatherman]

I'm glad I'm not on the committee.

Me too

[dom9]

Yep. Although look at the catastrophic signings Ferguson presided over. Except that they were catastrophic on an individual basis but yet the team kept winning trophies.

[The_weatherman]

Yep. Although look at the catastrophic signings Ferguson presided over. Except that they were catastrophic on an individual basis but yet the team kept winning trophies.

He also got very good big ones in the bag, Staam, Ferdiand, RVP, Vidic, Evra, Carrick, Rooney, RVN, De Gea, Ronaldo, Cole, Yorke etc. He was very good at this, we can pick a few out but he was very good at transfers. He wasn't afraid to pay top dollar for a player he felt would fit in.

[frank the tank]

He also got very good big ones in the bag, Staam, Ferdiand, RVP, Vidic, Evra, Carrick, Rooney, RVN, De Gea, Ronaldo, Cole, Yorke etc. He was very good at this, we can pick a few out but he was very good at transfers. He wasn't afraid to pay top dollar for a player he felt would fit in.

i agree - for every Djemba Djemba there was an Ole Gunnar Solsjaer as well....

How you could compare Brendan with Ferguson is the way he knows when to introduce young players into the team. Brendan is very good at that and if we can supplement the young players with one or two top quality players each summer, then we should be a good bet to have long term success.

For me though, last summer's spree of Lallana (25m) Lovren (20m) Lambert (4.5m) Balotelli (16m) was a total waste of all of the Suarez money........ the first 11 isn't anywhere near as good. And to be honest, when you see Balotelli coming on and doing two thirds of **** all, it is hard to take as well. We should have had the nuts to stop the suarez transfer unless Sanchez came to LFC.....we should have got Barca onside with that to put pressure on the player.

[The Birdman]

He also got very good big ones in the bag, Staam, Ferdiand, RVP, Vidic, Evra, Carrick, Rooney, RVN, De Gea, Ronaldo, Cole, Yorke etc. He was very good at this, we can pick a few out but he was very good at transfers. He wasn't afraid to pay top dollar for a player he felt would fit in.

That's the relevant bit.

Top dollar these days is £50 million upwards, unproven, young, promising players cost £20m+

We don't have that money to compete and with FFP it means we'll always need to take a longer term view.

I don't understand how fans (not saying you) don't realise this and also accept that Rodgers is the best manager for the club at this moment of time because he develops players and makes them better.

It's about getting more than value for money - there's some stat (somewhere) that says amount of transfer fees spent + wage bill = final PL position.

The more you spend the higher you finish, that's why FFP was brought in, to safeguard Utd + Arsenal at the top table, Chelsea and City supported it to stop others coming in and doing what Abramovich and Manseur did for their respective clubs and we supported it to give us a chance of competing in the top 4 as FSG knew huge improvements could be made in income and running of the club.