Brendan Rodgers

[coolhandfox]

56 minutes ago, Blue and white said:

I like to think it's down to that too, but one thing that hasn't been mentioned is how many penalties we got the last few seasons through direct running, committing defenders by turning them the other way. Other than the Charity Shield, we haven't had a single penalty this season or even any real shouts that I can remember. We are a different team to the one which was hovering around the top 4 even though we've not sold anyone.

As solid defence give the whole team confidence, forward players are less concerned about helping out and can get on with their job.

 

 

 

Edited 3 October 2021 by coolhandfox

[Dusty]

2 hours ago, Gazza M said:

No, I am saying it was an unnecessary disruption. Just let them carry on as they were. He was playing well and may well have grabbed us a third if the chance came. Just like Choudhury going off, it messed us about. Rather Rodgers sat on his subs a bit longer this time. 

Any substitution could have meant they scored a minute later? Neither of those subs lead to the goal, really really strange  interpretation of what happened.

[Babylon]

2 hours ago, Col city fan said:

It’s a good job Rodgers has a lot of credit in the bank with LCFC

If he’d joined the club at the start of this season as a relative unknown, given the signings he made in the summer and how we are playing, I think most of us, being honest, would be showing him the door. 

After 7 league games? 

[Babylon]

3 hours ago, deep blue said:

Apart from the top 4, which other teams had a better squad? If Rodgers was provided with the 5th strongest squad in the league, which he arguably was, then finishing 5th was par for the course.

Think you might be overrating our squad a bit, or at the very least forgetting the injuries we’ve had to deal with and the players he’s been without whilst still achieving those positions. 
 

 

[erlee]

meanwhile.. someone is on Claud 9. maybe should have interviewed him for backup

 

Edited 4 October 2021 by erlee

[Tom12345]

 

Despite recent poor showings and complaints regarding conservatism and tactics, including from me, at the least I am happy to see Rodgers making changes and finally played Nacho upfront with Vardy. He also started Lookman and benched Maddison. He is testing and at least in a more attacking direction. I would be more frustrated if the recent changes are not happening. Some way to go unfortunately but with the changes, which is what many fans wanted, let’s get behind the team and Rodgers meanwhile. Defensively, we are a mess at the moment and it stems partly from the conservatism instilled in our mentality for a while by Rodgers and partly from an unfortunate series of injuries. It will take time. Unfortunately for us, the hopes we have for this season in terms of challenging the Top 4 may be gone and we will be left disappointed as it looks like. We have a great team of players and a much deeper squad this season, but we are where we are and let’s now get behind the team.

 

My more immediate wish is that we can have Evans back asap or even give Benkovic a chance (he can’t be that much worst than Vestergaard?).

 

I also think we should start with Ricardo. We need to fit him in somehow as he is worldclass and is wasted on the bench. It may mean reducing the effectiveness of Castagne by moving him to the left, but right now we have nothing attacking wise from our FBs.

 

In the middle, we miss Ndidi. But we can do better than Hamza. Pity Praet is not here as his partnership with Tielemans early last season was good. I hope Soumare can get up to speed soon as while he has shown potential and has added physicality, he is still a bit sloppy with his passing and a bit conservative.

 

I hope we will be back on form within 5 games.

 

 

 

 

[blue blood]

We just need to re-double our efforts on the training ground. 

[Guest Col city fan]

4 hours ago, Babylon said:

After 7 league games? 

Fook sake Babs, I was talking metaphorically… as in, would be saying who the fook have we signed here?

😄

[Metal Lover]

He's pretty hamstrung with the injuries, but we still have the players to give most teams a game. He'll figure it out. It's a tough league.

 

Honestly I'll be happy top 10 this year and I think we'll get it together.

 

We aren't top 6 automatic or even close, join the queue of teams that want that.

 

 

Remember where we were an enjoy the ride.

 

Comon you blue boys!

 

[Claudio Fannieri]

Strangely it isn’t the results that is concerning me, it’s the manner of the performances, even when we we win it seems flat, a couple of seasons ago at 2-0 up at half time, we would have come out second half been ruthless and scored 3 or 4 however for the last 12 months or so we seem to now take the lead in the first half and then sit back and be so negative. We have been pegged back from 2 goal leads twice in a matter of a few games something has changed in the way we set up and i don’t put it down to injuries, it is a shift in mindset and it is coming from Brendan, it is a very continental style of play and I don’t think it suits us or the squad we have. When Brendan first came in and for the first 12-18 months we were so exciting to watch, now we are dull as dishwater. 
 

every team goes through rough times and results but it’s the manner of performances that for me give an indication of whether you can pull through, at the moment we aren’t producing anything that makes me think this is anything other than piss poor tactics and a group of players frustrated by the constraints of the system and style they are working in. 
 

 

Edited 4 October 2021 by Claudio Fannieri
Spelling mistake

[chapero82]

9 hours ago, coolhandfox said:

Get Evan, Fofana and Justin fit we are a different side. 

 

 

This is how I feel, we’ve lost our defence and it really shows!

next season we will come back stronger 

[volpeazzurro]

10 hours ago, Corky said:

"Doing wonders" in a league that the current manager, who isn't good enough for us, won comfortably three times in three years.

During the time he was winning it, his main competitor had been dropped from the league and there was little or no other viable opposition. By the time Rangers and Gerrard returned he jumped ship quickly because it was starting to go tits up very quickly, the writing was on the wall.

 

He hopped straight on-board another ship whose problems had been sorted out for him and who now had a decent squad of players. Another low risk job. We'll see now whether he manages to turn it round commensurate with his so called 'elite' reputation or whether he's sacked like at Liverpool or jumps ship when the going gets tough.

[coolhandfox]

Sometimes you have to look at the players.

 

BR has tried 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3, 3-5-2, 4-4-2.

 

He's tried different players, it not like his not give most of the squad chances.

 

Our summer recruitment on the surface looks pretty poor, maybe long term Soumare and Daka will come good.

 

Vesterguard, Bertrand and Lookman from 2 poor teams isn't looking inspired ethier.

 

Can't help but think we need a quality RW to come in and give the whole squad a lift.

 

Out squad doesn't look very balanced to me.

[moore_94]

1 minute ago, coolhandfox said:

Sometimes you have to look at the players.

 

BR has tried 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3, 3-5-2, 4-4-2.

 

He's tried different players, it not like his not give most of the squad chances.

 

Our summer recruitment on the surface looks pretty poor, maybe long term Soumare and Daka will come good.

 

Vesterguard, Bertrand and Lookman from 2 poor teams isn't looking inspired ethier.

 

Can't help but think we need a quality RW to come in and give the whole squad a lift.

 

Out squad doesn't look very balanced to me.

Very harsh on Lookman, personally think he has looked great for us so far, really good signing

[drumbeat]

Palace wasn't a good watch but I think we saw a willingness to change both tactically and in shape. Seems BR isn't quite as stubborn after all.

 

Tbh, I was surprised to see the change. I didn't think they'd have enough time on the training ground to work on it (after Warsaw) So it's understandable that it was perhaps work in progress.

 

Give it (and BR) time. We're not in a good place and we haven't a lot of options, plus a couple of players out of form. That's a lot to manage.

 

 

[Fox92]

11 hours ago, Finnegan said:

 

I'm sorry but this narrative that Hamza was doing well is starting to get a bit irritating. 

 

He was running around a lot. I know that's Foxestalk's biggest love but it was really unhelpful today in a two man midfield. He left Tielemans alone and isolated for large parts of the game, just chasing the ball around, often getting nowhere near it. 

 

He worked his socks off, he gave it his all and he can't really be held accountable too much beyond that because trying your best is all we can really demand. But he wasn't good enough today and was a part of why Palace were in so much control. 

 

He's just never where he should be. You can get away with it either in a 3 where the other two are holding shape or in a super low block where the rest of the team are always structured but in a game that's already stretched vertically he's a liability. 

 

Both of the first two substitutions Rodgers made today were probably the right calls on paper. He took a forward off for a midfielder to turn it in to a 3 man midfield and he took Hamza off for a player with more match fitness and, quite frankly, more quality to come in and play a proper holding role. 

 

Both of those things were the right thing to do it's just unfortunately the team was in the process of panicking and collapsing at the time, in large part because of some spectacularly poor work by the back four. 

 

Hamza wouldn't have stopped either goal, the full backs and wingers needed to do better shutting down the cross and the back four needed to do much better dealing with. Bertrand was largely responsible for both goals, he was as all over the fvcking place. If you want to blame Rodgers for anything it's that selection but beyond that he got today pretty much bang on on paper. 

 

It's the system he should have played and his subs were fine. There's times that, ultimately, no matter what a manager does his players just aren't up to scratch and that was us today. The performance was just largely poor from most of the team. Yes, Nacho was good in the first half and probably our Motm but he'd totally disappeared form the game in the second half and may as well have come off. 

Believe me, I'm not one for this run around/hard working type of player (see my posts on Albrighton about that!) but I thought Hamza did the job better than Somoure who came on in his place who was basically labouring about (like Bertrand was, who I blame more as him and Barnes on the left side were so weak).

 

I don't think he'd have stopped either goal, I just thought both subs didn't make sense especially at that time.

[Matt]

I’ve come to conclusion what would be the point in changing him anyway. The next manger that comes in will only play this insipid, turgid, tepid, tippy tappy, sideways, backwards, negative crap anyway.

 

Perhaps I should watch rugby, they like passing sideways and back. Or Chess - although I think you go forwards abit too much in the game to draw comparisons.

[Beechey]

He’s dead right when he says that the defence is the problem, because it clearly is. The issue is that we don’t seem to have a solution. We don’t have enough good CBs to change to a back 3, and we don’t have enough good defensive midfielders to cover and shield the dodgy defence. If I was him, I don’t know what I’d do.

Edited 4 October 2021 by Beechey

[Silver surfer 1]

3 minutes ago, Beechey said:

He’s dead right when he says that the defence is the problem, because it clearly is. The issue is that we don’t seem to have a solution. We don’t have enough good CBs to change to a back 3, and we don’t have enough good defensive midfielders to cover and shield the dodgy defence. If I was him, I don’t know what I’d do.

We have a problem in defence since BR bought in kolo toure , the guy is thick .  We couldn’t defend corners and always seemed venerable , only because we had a supreme talent in Foffana we could paper over Toures shortcomings .  Now that we really need him to sort out defence with what we have he’s gone missing the donkey .  

[Kilworthfox]

21 minutes ago, Beechey said:

He’s dead right when he says that the defence is the problem, because it clearly is. The issue is that we don’t seem to have a solution. We don’t have enough good CBs to change to a back 3, and we don’t have enough good defensive midfielders to cover and shield the dodgy defence. If I was him, I don’t know what I’d do.

I believe there are so many problems, he is just highlighting one with the defence, that is obvious.

 

BR has a lot of good will as he has 2 (historically very good) 5th place finishes and has won the F.A cup. Yet, I feel due to his lack of pragmatism he will fail & be sacked by January. 

 

[ian__marshall]

I can't see him digging himself out of this hole. The player's look disinterested which wouldn't be the case if they were bought into the vision that the manager has. There appears to be too many issues currently and I don't think he has the ability to rectify them.

 

For the record I'm not necessarily in favour of a change of manager and hope for the good of the club he can turn it around but at what point do you draw the line to maintain self preservation. I'm worried that as his influence on things around the club has increased this seems to have correlated with many of the issues we are experiencing. The only way I can see this working for the club in order to mitigate further risk is to take back ownership of the framework within which he works but I can't see him being happy with that.

 

I really hope results turn around quickly otherwise all of the hard work that has gone towards establishing an organic growth model could end up being setback significantly. 

[Pliskin]

20 minutes ago, ian__marshall said:

I can't see him digging himself out of this hole. The player's look disinterested which wouldn't be the case if they were bought into the vision that the manager has. There appears to be too many issues currently and I don't think he has the ability to rectify them.

 

For the record I'm not necessarily in favour of a change of manager and hope for the good of the club he can turn it around but at what point do you draw the line to maintain self preservation. I'm worried that as his influence on things around the club has increased this seems to have correlated with many of the issues we are experiencing. The only way I can see this working for the club in order to mitigate further risk is to take back ownership of the framework within which he works but I can't see him being happy with that.

 

I really hope results turn around quickly otherwise all of the hard work that has gone towards establishing an organic growth model could end up being setback significantly. 

I’m kind of in this mind set…

 

Analysing the performances, we seem to be regressing as each game goes buy, the confidence is draining out of the side, and it’s clear the defensive issues are causing wholesale issues through the team.

 

The key is Evans, if he can return and it allows the defence to settle, and then the confidence can start to return, and performances improve. 
 

That will be the deciding factor ultimately, if Evans comes back and the issues still aren’t being resolved, it could be an interesting season.

 

Either way I think Rodgers will get the season, unless something dreadful happens and we fall into the bottom 6 clubs and can’t escape. 
 

I am starting to worry though, not quite at the point of being overly worried, but a few more defeats and bad performances and I probably will. 

Edited 4 October 2021 by Pliskin

[Max Power]

As much as he clearly doesn’t rate him, he must find a way to get Iheanacho in the team without having as exposed a midfield as yesterday. 
 

 

[mozartfox]

Football is so fickle.  With JJ, Fofana, Evans and Ndidi all fit, our results would be vastly different.  This will be turned around once our defenders come back.  We are creating and scoring which is one positive at least.  Keep the faith,  I did after losing to Harlow.

[Marshall Cockney Fox]

I've said it before in other threads. But I worry about Brendan's ability to dig a team out of a hole. Be it through motivation or great tactical acumen. The plan b, c or d if you will. He has a vision and often we can steamroller lesser teams. But when things aren't working, he doesn't convince me he has levels/ideas to tap into. What I've labelled as a 'flat track bully'.