Muzzy_Larsson

Not really, many a player has returned from a cruciate ligament injury and never been the same player. Hopefully that's not the case here though and his form picks up again.

Felt the same in his third season at Celtic, even the transfer window shambles aside there was something that just didn't feel right, couldn't put my finger on exactly what but just that some sort of rot had set in somewhere.

I've said a couple of times in the past week about the three year thing that seems to have parallels at Rodgers last three clubs. I'm with you on this one, I highly doubt Rodgers has changed the message or how he wants the team to play, I think his principles are the same as they were on day one. Do you think there's therefore an element of Rodgers message resonating less with his teams after a couple of years or perhaps other teams become better at countering it and there's no real plan B in terms of giving teams something else to think about so his players naturally revert to this insipid, safe, almost pedestrian football at times? Wouldn't hang my hat on this being the case just want to know what people think as it's too coincidental what seems to happen in year 3 with his sides. Even in what everyone calls a farmers league up here it was the same, despite our budget being 50x that of most teams we really laboured to victories over some quite frankly terrible teams, sides that in his first 18 months we absolutely blew away.

Not a chance imo. These clubs were artificially propped up by a level of spending and wage expenditure that was unsustainable relative to the size of the clubs in terms of support, income, etc. Leicester are a different animal, have grown the right way, incrementally in a self-sustaining way..

Good point, was he not quite vocal, early in the summer anyway about how pleased he was at the business the club had done?

Eerily similar to his attitude and body language in his third season at Celtic. What is different though is we utterly shafted him in the transfer market that summer, missed all his big targets, in particular McGinn for the sake of 500k and sold our best player a day before the transfer window closed.. Conversely he's been backed to the hilt this summer by the Leicester hierarchy.

Some great points there and I fully agree, I think a team or manager stagnates after a few years nowadays and a change has to happen in one sense. I think Klopp and Guardiola have both been pretty vocal about this in the past. In my own opinion I hope it's the former and Rodgers goes about (over the course of a few windows) freshening the team up and building his 2.0 version of Leicester if that makes sense. I really think it's something he needs to be pro-active about also as guys like Evans, Vardy, Tielemans are going to need replaced and it's better doing that ahead of time if possible and not waiting and reacting when these guys are no longer fit for purpose. I'm aware a guy like Vardy can't be replaced per say but more a plan for life after him.

There are quite a few in all honesty. His third season at Celtic our football regressed from the high intensity, high pressing, enthralling football we became used to in his first season particularly to pedestrian, sideways stuff. Pretty sure the same happened in his third season at Liverpool too, I'll need to check that one out so don't quote me. Due to the events of the prior summer transfer window and our domestic dominance it felt by this point Rodgers had hit his ceiling with us and he knew this and it was widely accepted that this would have been his last season at the club, no one expected him to leave just over half way into the season of course. Not saying that will happen with him here but I get the feeling he may have hit his ceiling with Leicester for now. The three year thing is interesting as that's his last 3 clubs in the third season things have tailed off a bit. I know it's early days still this season but just going on what's gone on so far. I guess the shelf life of a manager these days at most clubs is around that length so maybe that's not surprising all that much. Obviously it's very early to judge the players brought in, in the summer there so I could be jumping the gun on this one but there are parallels with his transfer business latterly at Celtic. Like I said I think he hit a ceiling with Celtic and most of the players brought in in the last couple of windows didn't work out and never improved the first IX. I wouldn't blame Rodgers solely for that though, there were a number of reasons for that, one the idiot (Congerton) and two at that point our next progression was to be a last 16 champions league side and to get players to get us there and who were already better than what we had the club had to go to the next level in terms of transfer fees and we never done that. I feel there are parallels with Leicester now in that sense, the level of player to improve the existing squad or to even stand still and stay a top 6 side in the EPL is now a level above the players typically brought in and typically will cost even more money and maybe that's why with guys like Soumare, Daka, etc are maybe not an improvement of the first IX, yet anyway. Like I said previously I caveat this with the fact these guys are just in the door and it's unfair to judge them so early.

Tbf that's very unfair and verging on completely untrue in terms of being a stick to beat Rodgers with as it totally ignores the context in how Balotelli ended up being signed in the first place. Rodgers was backed into a corner with Balotelli and it was either sign him as the window closed or no striker at all. Pretty sure Gerrard spoke about it in his book, Rodgers said to him his only option was to take a gamble on Balotelli. He was badly let down by the transfer committee at Liverpool at the time who dragged their feet the whole summer, chasing Alexis Sanchez and when he knocked them back they left it too late and had no plan B and basically strong armed Rodgers into signing Balotelli. Pretty sure Rodgers was on record as saying he provided two or three better options than Balotelli earlier in that window while they were still waiting on Sanchez's decision and he was basically ignored. He also stressed that Balotelli didn't fit the profile of the type of striker required as he basically couldn't press from the front. I'm not defending Rodgers above all btw as his transfer record over the piece at Liverpool was bad and at Celtic it was very poor post his first window. Comments from Rodgers here on goals on Sunday which reflect the above. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jan/18/brendan-rodgers-liverpool-mario-balotelli-alexis-sanchez

Don't get the Iheancho thing at all. I understand he has to change the shape to accommodate Iheanacho to get the best out of him and he also has to do the same with Maddison and the two are mutually exclusive. I could see his logic if Maddison was on fire but he's stinking the place out this season and Iheanacho on the other hand is just fresh off the back of the most productive 6 months of his career. If you were to set up in a way to accommodate either of those players surely it's Iheanacho, at the moment anyway. Not basing this on anything but I get the feeling he's not totally sold on Iheancho regardless of how he performs, just doesn't fancy him.

That doesn't matter. they'd still have to buy out Rodgers' contract at Leicester. Even if they paid him nothing they'd still have to fork out 20-30m just to speak to him. Same way Leicester had to buy out his contract at Celtic for £9m.

I'm not so sure, they are struggling to afford the 12m to sack Koeman so I don't see how they manage to find the money to sack Koeman and buy out Rodgers' contract which it would cost in the 20-30m range to do so.

Conte won't take a job where he's not going to be backed properly in the transfer market, it's why he walked away from the Spurs job and why he left Inter. Barca are a complete basket case financially, they can't even afford the 12m it's going to cost to sack Koeman, no way would Conte walk into that sort of environment.

Various "outlets' reporting this morning he is on Barcelona's shortlist to replace Koeman when the inevitable happens. Would be surprised if the next manager there isn't Xavi though.

There is a stark difference though isn't there. Puel never qualified for Europe two seasons on the bounce. Puel never threatened the top 4. Puel never won a trophy. I can see the frustrations being the same had the club still languished around mid-table mediocrity but that's not the case. The real difference now is that expectations have changed and with that people naturally get carried away and ignore the fact there may be a natural ceiling, for a period of time anyway. I joined this forum as Rodgers was announced and the general consensus was very much that if he can turn Leicester into a perennial top 6 club then that would be brilliant. In little over two seasons he's done just that and then some so it's important to temper expectations now in line with where the club was a mere couple of years ago.

Agree with this. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but I think it's verging on ludicrous people suggesting he should be replaced. Since he's came in, he's worked with largely the same squad as his predecessors and has taken a middling side to the upper reaches of the league, consistently, not just a one season wonder. On top of that he's done it with in EPL terms anyway a pretty meagre net spend. I get the feeling a lot of modern day football fans love to ride the crest of the wave at the peaks but absolutely implode and act like spoiled teenagers at the troughs. There has been an unbroken upward curve season on season since Rodgers has been the manager and a trough will ultimately come. Rodgers, like any manager is not without his shortcomings and like any other manager or indeed player merits criticism when it's due. I think a lot of people need to be careful what they wish for though.

Nonsense

Was going to say similar, looks like he’s been ran into the ground. Such a volume of matches was always going to catch up with him at some point.

Part of Madrid’s issue has been being overly reliant on an ageing Modric and Kroos. Apart from Valverde they have literally no depth in those midfield positions. Modric may not even be there next summer as he only signed a one year extension. Looking at it in that sense there’d be plenty of opportunity for Youri to play. He may not be as great defensively as both of the City players you mention but overall he is a better player imo and would add more to the Man City midfield than both players you mention. Given how dominant city are in possession anyway there is no need for more than one strong defensively minded midfield player, in the majority of games anyway. The notion of an “undisputed starter” is perhaps an antiquated one when you look at these squads the very top teams assemble and how many games they play in quick succession. Man City are the best example of this where guys like Rodri that we mentioned are rotated fairly frequently. I’d imagine Tielemans would be no different. It’s all down to opinions but for me he goes to pretty much any club in Europe and holds his own, he’s already doing this on an international level in one of the best nations in the world.

Get yourself up to Celtic Park for some Angeball @Pliskin

It's all about opinions of course but I think he walks into most top sides in Europe. Real Madrid he'd definitely play, Man City he's a far better player than Rodri and an ageing Fernandinho, Bayern he may have more of a task on his hands with Kimmich and Goeretzka but he'd still have a fair chance.

Don't agree with that at all. Champions league or not signing a new contract in these economic times would simply have made it even harder for him to get the move to one of Europe's top clubs that he obviously seems to fancy. No disrespect but even qualifying for the champions league wouldn't have made a huge difference if the likes of Real Madrid or Bayern come calling, as was pointed out Kante is the prime example of that. Tielemans plan was probably always to only stay at Leicester a few years and then move on, as much as he has clearly loved his time here. There's nothing wrong with that, it's a short career and the best players are ambitious.

Absolutely great post, couldn't agree more.

Genuine question to those that are talking about the atmosphere, is it not as great because of the EPL tourist trap thing? I can't speak for Leicester (hence why I'm asking this question) but do a lot of football tourists flock to the King Power? If so surely this has an effect. I've been to Old Trafford and White Hart Lane in the past and was pretty shocked at the lack of atmosphere and the amount of football tourists. I was expecting Old Trafford in particular to be great but it wasn't a patch on the atmosphere at Celtic park, even on a bog standard home league match.

I'm not sure this works. You look at Iheanacho's strengths, he comes alive in and around the box, he's an instinctive finisher who can capitalise on even half chances. You put him on the left and he's about 20 yards further from goal. He then needs to become reliant on going past people and making runs from deep so he can get to where he's most dangerous and I don't see him being particularly great at either.