Brendan Rodgers

[Vermilion]

He's compounded it slightly by immediately coming out and saying the Villa game was a blip.

Then again, he may truly believe it was, and is just being honest.

[Sarb]

I don't think that's enormously fair to be honest.

The issue, for me, is the squad. There's no goals in it. Take Suarez out we have no regular goal scorers whatsoever. For me it wouldn't matter one jot what manager we had right now and how they were trying to play, we still wouldn't be scoring enough.

I see nothing wrong with the philosophy Brendan is trying to impart, and I don't see it as being at all inconsistent with that quote from Fagan. The problem is that 2 of the front 3 positions are being taken up by players who either due to age/stage of development, or due to ability, are not goal scorers. And now Gerrard has gone from a 15 goal/season to a 5 goal/season midfielder, neither are any of the midfielders either.

Now if we give Rodgers proper time to build a squad as he wants it and this problem remains, then by all means we can hold him to account for it. But at this stage viewing the problem as him specifically, despite 4 managers in 4 years having failed to get consistently adequate performances out of this group, is unfair.

Have to agree with you MrM. Only just registered on this forum but been reading this and other forums for a while. Appreciate that BR has made some mistakes but with our fans I just don't think he can win. Hodgson was a bizarre choice, but I don't know since when we've started judging managers within 3 or 4 months (some after 3 or 4 games). That's a small club mentality and I'd even argue that FSG are slightly more clued up than some of our fans. If we get into a cycle of sacking managers after a year, then that will cement our mid-table status.

BR needs to be given this season and part of next to be properly judged. Yes pass and move was the Liverpool Way, but in all honesty we haven't played that way for a number of years. We've always had a match-winning Gerrard who bailed us out season after season. This team no longer has that. For whatever reason, Suarez is the only match winner we have at the moment. You can't build a team in one window or 3 months. It takes a while. For years we relied on one or two players, but I honestly believe that Rodgers is trying to create a solid team and squad. I hope he does it.

The top 2 comment was misinterpreted. When he said the comment about 7th he was slated. Now he is slated for this as well. Not sure anyone can win with our fans at the moment

[Vermilion]

Tbf i don't think too many are definitively judging him a success or failure yet ?

[Dr-Gonzo]

Regardless of lack of fire power, it's undoubted, he's underachieving with the squad at his disposal.

We've a back four of England's best right back, Denmark's best player, Slovakia's best player and then the weaker link at left back. Worrying this defence is being made to look average at best and it's not even by targeting the left back.

It's all well and good saying Rodgers needs time to build his squad. But never in my life have I heard of a club completely disregarding results in the short term, until a manager has the players to play his style of football. He should be getting the best out of what he has and slowly changing the squad in his image.

Of course there's not going to be rapid improvement from the get go, but he should at least be able to tread water for a season or two, until he gets more of his players in. Failure to do so and going as far backwards as we have been doing would be called changing too much too soon, something he's admitted to doing at Reading, and said he learnt from. Well not where I'm sitting he hasn't.

Rodgers needs to be much more pragmatic with the players he's got and stop making a team of internationals look like they're worse teams, then average but well built sides like West Brom and Everton.

[CAD]

I don't think that's enormously fair to be honest.

The issue, for me, is the squad. There's no goals in it. Take Suarez out we have no regular goal scorers whatsoever. For me it wouldn't matter one jot what manager we had right now and how they were trying to play, we still wouldn't be scoring enough.

I see nothing wrong with the philosophy Brendan is trying to impart, and I don't see it as being at all inconsistent with that quote from Fagan. The problem is that 2 of the front 3 positions are being taken up by players who either due to age/stage of development, or due to ability, are not goal scorers. And now Gerrard has gone from a 15 goal/season to a 5 goal/season midfielder, neither are any of the midfielders either.

Now if we give Rodgers proper time to build a squad as he wants it and this problem remains, then by all means we can hold him to account for it. But at this stage viewing the problem as him specifically, despite 4 managers in 4 years having failed to get consistently adequate performances out of this group, is unfair.

Yup - everything else is Chelski kneejerk at its worst. Continuity is key.

[The_weatherman]

Regardless of lack of fire power, it's undoubted, he's underachieving with the squad at his disposal.

We've a back four of England's best right back, Denmark's best player, Slovakia's best player and then the weaker link at left back. Worrying this defence is being made to look average at best and it's not even by targeting the left back.

It's all well and good saying Rodgers needs time to build his squad. But never in my life have I heard of a club completely disregarding results in the short term, until a manager has the players to play his style of football. He should be getting the best out of what he has and slowly changing the squad in his image.

Of course there's not going to be rapid improvement from the get go, but he should at least be able to tread water for a season or two, until he gets more of his players in. Failure to do so and going as far backwards as we have been doing would be called changing too much too soon, something he's admitted to doing at Reading, and said he learnt from. Well not where I'm sitting he hasn't.

Rodgers needs to be much more pragmatic with the players he's got and stop making a team of internationals look like they're worse teams, then average but well built sides like West Brom and Everton.

Great post, agree 100%. For me it's even worse given how condensed the league is, we are throwing away an opportunity to finish in Europe IMO.

[danperkins]

he just cannot help himself
he could say whatever it takes to motivate the players in private, but then going public with a 'we could finish second' but then bending over for villa...

was silly and hope he has learned a lesson for it

[danperkins]

Regardless of lack of fire power, it's undoubted, he's underachieving with the squad at his disposal.

We've a back four of England's best right back, Denmark's best player, Slovakia's best player and then the weaker link at left back. Worrying this defence is being made to look average at best and it's not even by targeting the left back.

It's all well and good saying Rodgers needs time to build his squad. But never in my life have I heard of a club completely disregarding results in the short term, until a manager has the players to play his style of football. He should be getting the best out of what he has and slowly changing the squad in his image.

Of course there's not going to be rapid improvement from the get go, but he should at least be able to tread water for a season or two, until he gets more of his players in. Failure to do so and going as far backwards as we have been doing would be called changing too much too soon, something he's admitted to doing at Reading, and said he learnt from. Well not where I'm sitting he hasn't.

Rodgers needs to be much more pragmatic with the players he's got and stop making a team of internationals look like they're worse teams, then average but well built sides like West Brom and Everton.

All fair points

[Sarb]

Yup - everything else is Chelski kneejerk at its worst. Continuity is key.

Agreed. I don't think any fan accepts their team losing. But we constantly criticise the likes of Chelsea and mock them for changing managers constantly when we're mocking and judging our own after a few games into a season. And there are plenty who have been doing it for months

[RichC]

Agreed. I don't think any fan accepts their team losing. But we constantly criticise the likes of Chelsea and mock them for changing managers constantly when we're mocking and judging our own after a few games into a season. And there are plenty who have been doing it for months

well said

[Redspin]

he just cannot help himself
he could say whatever it takes to motivate the players in private, but then going public with a 'we could finish second' but then bending over for villa...

In fairness to the manager he didn't actually say that did he? He just said that while we were four points of fourth we we were also only eleven points off second place and we should aim as high as possible. It was a reasonable comment to make and was distorted in the media and the distortion has been repeated on here with abandon. People may have inferred that he said we could finish second but he did not actually say that

[Sarb]

In fairness to the manager he didn't actually say that did he? He just said that while we were four points of fourth we we were also only eleven points off second place and we should aim as high as possible. It was a reasonable comment to make and was distorted in the media and the distortion has been repeated on here with abandon. People may have inferred that he said we could finish second but he did not actually say that

Exactly right. He has been totally misinterpreted in what he said. Worse still we seem to take journalists words as gospel when it fits in with what we want to believe.

[baitman]

Regardless of lack of fire power, it's undoubted, he's underachieving with the squad at his disposal.

We've a back four of England's best right back, Denmark's best player, Slovakia's best player and then the weaker link at left back. Worrying this defence is being made to look average at best and it's not even by targeting the left back.

It's all well and good saying Rodgers needs time to build his squad. But never in my life have I heard of a club completely disregarding results in the short term, until a manager has the players to play his style of football. He should be getting the best out of what he has and slowly changing the squad in his image.

Of course there's not going to be rapid improvement from the get go, but he should at least be able to tread water for a season or two, until he gets more of his players in. Failure to do so and going as far backwards as we have been doing would be called changing too much too soon, something he's admitted to doing at Reading, and said he learnt from. Well not where I'm sitting he hasn't.

Rodgers needs to be much more pragmatic with the players he's got and stop making a team of internationals look like they're worse teams, then average but well built sides like West Brom and Everton.

[Tee]

Regardless of lack of fire power, it's undoubted, he's underachieving with the squad at his disposal.

We've a back four of England's best right back, Denmark's best player, Slovakia's best player and then the weaker link at left back. Worrying this defence is being made to look average at best and it's not even by targeting the left back.

It's all well and good saying Rodgers needs time to build his squad. But never in my life have I heard of a club completely disregarding results in the short term, until a manager has the players to play his style of football. He should be getting the best out of what he has and slowly changing the squad in his image.

Of course there's not going to be rapid improvement from the get go, but he should at least be able to tread water for a season or two, until he gets more of his players in. Failure to do so and going as far backwards as we have been doing would be called changing too much too soon, something he's admitted to doing at Reading, and said he learnt from. Well not where I'm sitting he hasn't.

Rodgers needs to be much more pragmatic with the players he's got and stop making a team of internationals look like they're worse teams, then average but well built sides like West Brom and Everton.

Nail on the head.

[el matador]

we just need to go back to doing the basics well namely being well organised and solid in defence and competitive in midfield.

If we cant score goals because of a lack of forward players thats fine and we can accept that and hope its put right in january but thats no excuse for conceding goals and looking fragile either.

I think rodgers has to be given at least three signings in january - sturridge, ince and walcott - and of all those walcott should be the priority. Once he has his three forwards who can all score goals maybe we're looking at a different team with a much bigger threat going forward.

But again, it still doesnt address the midfield and defensive areas.