Brendan Rodgers

[Baracus]

The thing is that we might be playing nice football, but we're floundering. We're no better off points-wise than we have been for the last two seasons. We are average at best and **** if we're being honest. Ten games is enough to assess where we're heading and I accept that we are doing some things better, but we don't really seem to be making any/much progress.

An idealist needs the perfect players to make his system work, a great manager gets results out of the players he has and adjusts the system to suit.

Posts from 2012 Right at the start of his tenure

Roggy = Failure

[Baracus]

Craig, Marky, IRWT come back all is forgiven save us from this Joey.

Bump :wink:

[Shaggy]

Not sure if this has been posted.

You said it Brendan

[vlahka]

I dont want a manager who complains about the champions league burdening his training time. Another season of excellent Rodger quotes to come. Heres hoping Rodgers decides he cant go by their rules and decides to go. ****ing Ings....

[Marvel]

You're not on the transfer committee are you?

Yes. I am flash Gordon.

[Leyton388]

[Baracus]

Do you not recall the self smug picture in his living room for the 5 channel show. Being Roggy

[marcus50bucks]

INSIDE LIVERPOOL: Capitulation at Stoke highlights desperate need for change at Anfield

SOMETHING needs to change at Liverpool. Many will now think it is the manager, plenty will demand it is the players and yet, perhaps, the fundamental tweak needs to come to the ownership model of Fenway Sports Group.

By PAUL JOYCE
PUBLISHED: 17:02, Mon, May 25, 2015 | UPDATED: 20:58, Mon, May 25, 2015

It is Brendan Rodgers who is at the eye of the storm today after a pathetic capitulation at Stoke on Sunday left a once-proud institution humiliated and on its knees as those in the hierarchy scramble for answers.

Supporters previously ambivalent towards the Liverpool manager watched chaos reign at The Britannia Stadium. They may acknowledge that the 52 league goals the side have scored this season equates to the same number plundered by Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge last term, but many will still have left believing there is no way forward under Rodgers.

Increasingly it appears as if last season’s title challenge was solely down to the genius of Suarez dragging an entire club towards immortality, only to fall at the last. Shorn of his talisman, the manager has made 17 half-time substitutions this term to try and fathom a solution to squalid inadequacies.

They will see a squad three years into Rodgers’ reign lacking leaders. One that has not replaced its No23 in Jamie Carragher or its No9 in Suarez even before the problems of replacing the No8 is confronted properly.

Steven Gerrard’s team-mates whisked him to Dubai after the game with Stoke to mark everything he has done for the club over 18-years when he has thought of Liverpool and little else for 24/7. The prospect of spending more time with those colleagues whose performances of late have been an affront to the traditions of the club will hardly have thrilled him.

For the first time since the pre-Billy Liddell era, Liverpool have no heroes.

Liverpool have indicated their stance on Rodgers’ future is unaltered and there is no desire to make a change despite the shambles in the Potteries, although the public backlash from angry and frustrated supporters seeking some sort of resolution has still to be factored in.

As it stands the manager’s attitude in his end of season review with FSG president Mike Gordon will determine whether that remains the case or his position becomes untenable.

So there remains the possibility of a change at the top. Yet, if the overall policy remains to buy young players with potential, rather than men with experience, then will Liverpool ever reach the heights on which the club was forged?

It is not the case that Anfield’s hierarchy lack direction. The direction is clear: invest in youth, seek value and hope they blossom into stars.

The question is whether that approach can prevail and whether FSG are the right owners for Liverpool.

FSG chose a young manager with one season’s experience in the Premier League and with no experience in Europe to replace Kenny Dalglish in 2012. They brought in someone who would clearly be learning on the job. They can be shocked to the extent it has unraveled, but they will surely know theirs was always a strategy loaded with risk.

If they wanted to minimise the hits, then they should have recruited Jose Mourinho, given him carte blanche to sign who he wanted and encouraged strong voices in Carragher and Gerrard to stay at their club and have an input.

A new manager would be hard pressed not to eke out an improvement from the abject performances of the last two months when Liverpool have beaten only QPR and Newcastle and slumped dismally against the likes of Aston Villa in the FA Cup semi-final and Hull City, Crystal Palace and Stoke City in the Premier League.

Yet if the expectation is for Liverpool to challenge, then those at the top must look at themselves in the forensic, analytical review that follows and assess their own roles in the debacle.

FSG have previously been willing to bend on some aspects of their approach. They championed a Director of Football when buying the club in 2010 and brought in Damien Comolli only to dispense with him months later. A return to that model has been ruled out.

Going forward the portents do not look good with Rodgers having said in the build-up to the Stoke game that the “model doesn’t change.”

It was a huge statement because any potential replacement for him would find themselves working with similar constraints and with a transfer committee in place.

After the FA Cup defeat to Villa, Rodgers said fifth was par-for-the-course for a squad without a striker and on Sunday he revised that and said sixth place was the right fit.

For a squad that finished second last season and had spent £110m on reinforcements that is some assertion. As was Rodgers’ admission he was not surprised by some of the displays at Stoke. How low can £20m centre-half Dejan Lovren’s stock be when he was overlooked

Gerrard, the sole driving force in the second-half as his goal testified, embraces pressure. Suarez embraces pressure. Too many of the current squad shirk responsibility when the heat is on, but that comes with inexperience.

It feels an old fashioned view where Liverpool are concerned, but trust the man you appoint and then it is easy to apportion blame.

Rodgers can stay. Rodgers can go. But the gravity of this situation means FSG are the ones in the spotlight as well.

Yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of Istanbul. Liverpool is in search of a new miracle.

http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/579817/Liverpool-Stoke-Defeat-Highlights-Change-Needed-At-Anfield

[G]

Aye the bolded parts are a bigger problem than the manager ever will be. And this bit

The direction is clear: invest in youth, seek value and hope they blossom into stars.

Hope for the best ffs instead of doing what you can to get the best both in the managers chair, in the boardroom and in the dressing room

[Muddled]

I find the David Brent comparisons a bit classless.

Clearly, some of the stuff he comes out with comes back to bite him on the bum, but he's saying it with positive intentions and to show passion for our club. Jeez, remember the down playing of expectation from Hodgson?

Either way, Rodgers' chat isn't remotely similar to Brent.

[tanner]

Either way, Rodgers' chat isn't remotely similar to Brent.

"My biggest mentor is myself because I've had to study and that's been my biggest influence."

"I always say a squad is like a good meal. I'm not a great cook, but a good meal takes a wee bit of time. But also, to offer a good meal, you need good ingredients."

"I will leave no stone unturned in my quest – and that quest will be relentless."

"I use a quote with the players,'Per aspera ad astra', which is Latin for ‘through adversity to the stars’."

"I started coaching for one reason and that was to make a difference for people, not just as footballers but as human beings."

"I’ve always said that you can live without water for many days, but you can’t live for a second without hope."

[Kenneth]

Take the quiz

http://www.theguardian.com/football/quiz/2013/apr/02/brendan-rodgers-david-brent-quotes-quiz

I got 8 out of 10, so I guess they aren't all that similar.

[Darkon]

I find the David Brent comparisons a bit classless.

Clearly, some of the stuff he comes out with comes back to bite him on the bum, but he's saying it with positive intentions and to show passion for our club. Jeez, remember the down playing of expectation from Hodgson?

Either way, Rodgers' chat isn't remotely similar to Brent.

I find A LOT of what is said these days about him to be classless and not really befitting for someone who gave us a fantastic run and feeling just 12 months ago, and have done nothing to purposly hurt the club. It's quite sad how some feel the need to express themselves on the matter - even if we've had a poor season by all standards.

[Muddled]

"My biggest mentor is myself because I've had to study and that's been my biggest influence."

"I always say a squad is like a good meal. I'm not a great cook, but a good meal takes a wee bit of time. But also, to offer a good meal, you need good ingredients."

"I will leave no stone unturned in my quest – and that quest will be relentless."

"I use a quote with the players,'Per aspera ad astra', which is Latin for ‘through adversity to the stars’."

"I started coaching for one reason and that was to make a difference for people, not just as footballers but as human beings."

"I’ve always said that you can live without water for many days, but you can’t live for a second without hope."

And how is that similar to:

“If you can keep your head when all around you have lost theirs, then you probably haven't understood the seriousness of the situation.”

“Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue.”

“A problem shared is a problem halved, so is your problem really yours or just half of someone else’s?”

It's just a lazy link.

[G]

Spot on this.

Brendan Rodgers is hamstrung by Liverpool acting like mid-table club

It is as if time itself is enjoying a joke at Liverpool’s expense. As the debris was being cleared on the club’s worst defeat in 52 years, the tenth anniversary of the club’s Champions League ‘miracle’ in Istanbul was celebrated.
Brendan Rodgers may be inclined to nick an image from that night as he assesses his own situation. At full-time on Sunday, he must have felt like he was 3-0 down at half time to a side including Pirlo, Kaka, Maldini and Shevchenko.
Just like that momentous evening in the Ataturk, Rodgers must also believe a comeback is possible.


It was another day of introspection at Anfield – they seem to average one a week in modern times – but Liverpool remain adamant the upcoming internal review into the events of this season will not focus on Rodgers’ position.
“Not on the agenda,” is the official line on it.
Something may be about to change at the club – it really has to – but according to the club, not the manager, not the recruitment staff and not with the introduction of a director of football. One wonders what exactly the review will entail. The seating arrangements and ticket prices for next year’s club end-of-season awards, perhaps?

Steven Gerrard and Rafa Benitez lift the European Cup in 2005
There will be a degree of incredulity at the suggestion the status quo remains intact from those who witnessed the first-half humiliation in the Britannia Stadium. The cynical view is this is pure story management – an attempt to steer the focus away from any pre-determined desire to dismiss Rodgers.
He may be safe going into his assessment of the season, but will the sirens go off during the course of the conversation and the ground shift as he leaves the room?

That said, given Rodgers has already had a preliminary chat and his working relationship with Fenway Sports Group President Michael Gordon is strong, his “150 per cent” sureness can be understood.

If his conviction proves justified, attention will turn swiftly to Fenway Sports Group and Gordon himself. Without the hint of any inaugural address, he slipped into the FSG presidency at the start of the season. We must stop seeing John W Henry as the all-consuming influence on Anfield affairs. So long as Rodgers has the trust of Gordon, he is safe.

Brendan Rodgers faces a crunch meeting with FSG's representative
There is one caveat, however. Rodgers must still be aligned to the club’s ‘model’.

Herein lies the crux of the issue. It is all about ‘the model’ at Anfield, with the employees signing up to it. It is referred to so often one often wonders if Anfield has been ambushed by an offspring of the church of scientology, or if staff gather to worship before it like the black monolith in “2001: A Space Odyssey”.

There are numerous elements to ‘the model’, but the main one is about "being smart". "Smartness" defines everything, particularly in recruitment. Upon buying Liverpool five years ago it was suggested to John Henry that rather than spending £40 million on well-established, proven world-class international footballers, it might be wiser to find these players before they become world-class. That is when they are cheaper.

It is not known whether anyone shouted "Eureka!" when this idea was proposed. Certainly no one seems to have piped up that everyone else had been trying to do the same thing, with varying degrees of success, since the first transfer fee was dispatched by carrier pigeon. Nor has anyone pointed out that, in all probability, all the best young players are already owned by Chelsea and have been turfed out on loan across Europe.
More worryingly, it does not seem to have occurred to anyone that if you have £115 million to spend and opt to target younger, cheaper players instead of expensive world-class ones, you are electing to operate in the same transfer zone as mid-table rather than elite clubs. The risk of becoming a mid-table team is just as likely as that of plucking the bargain gems that escaped the attention of the established Champions League clubs. Liverpool’s performance at Stoke suggested that this team is heading only one way unless they sign five top-class players.

It rather feels like Liverpool have become a multi-million pound laboratory experiment, big on theory but light on success. Liverpool fans want ready-made winners. FSG want to create them.
That is why those casually dropping the names of Jürgen Klopp and Carlo Ancelotti into chatroom and social-media conversations are demanding FSG abandon everything they have been doing for the last five years.

The last three Liverpool managerial appointments came from Fulham (before FSG took over), the legends’ lounge and Swansea City.
If Rodgers does not mount the greatest Liverpool comeback since Turkey in 2005, the repercussions for his career will be grave. But regardless of what happens to him, it is Liverpool and their owners who must prove their way will revive the status of the club, or ensure that only the reminders of former glories are left for supporters to cling on to.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/liverpool/11629050/Brendan-Rodgers-is-hamstrung-by-Liverpool-acting-like-mid-table-club.html