Brendan Rodgers

[Aus Fox]

So over the time Brendan has been with the club, which teams have done better overall than us? Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea… these three are on another planet, but, other than those 3 I don’t think there is a club in England who I would swap the last 3 years with.

[Mickyblueeyes]

I’m all for going for the Conference. We need trophies in our cabinet and rightly so, any competition we are in, we should take it seriously. 
 

However, we’ve been poor for the majority of this season and that was long before we took on Rennes, Psv or Roma. 
 

The manager has failed to prepare and/or adapt his side to compete this season. We are not organised. We can’t defend leads nor can we defend a corner. With injuries,we’ve simply not adapted. We’ve expected a number of players to shoehorn into a system they’re clearly not prepared for. With so many injuries, I would expect some innovation. The team is weak. There is no composure. Take three of the last minute goals away this season and we are challenging for the top 6. He’s let us down and then goes on the telly to tell us a disappointing league season is his best ever because little old Leicester are kick it in another semi. 
 

I like many aspects of Brendan’s coaching. His ability to improve players is very good. We’ve played some quality stuff under him. However, we need a change. A new set of ideas and if the club can’t keep evolving we’ll sit at mid-table for a while before fading away. We need freshening up and there is nothing wrong with that. We are not dependant on one man, player or back room member to develop this club. We’ve lost many over just the last few years. Whether it be Walsh and his scouting. Mahrez and Kante, Macia, Pearson or Ranieri. Things change and clubs, if ran well develop. However, believing this is the best we can get. That shortcomings this season are acceptable based on past successes or injuries is a far more dangerous game. We need to freshening up in the summer and it starts with Brendan and that’s whether we win the conference or not. 

[Dahnsouff]

Top is Rodgers in, guess Top has no ambition or maybe Rodgers has blackmail material? (Insert your own crackpot theories here)

[The Year Of The Fox]

41 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

Top is Rodgers in, guess Top has no ambition or maybe Rodgers has blackmail material? (Insert your own crackpot theories here)

I think you’d be daft to believe Top hasn’t contemplated getting rid on at least one occasion this season 

[Deeg67]

2 minutes ago, The Year Of The Fox said:

I think you’d be daft to believe Top hasn’t contemplated getting rid on at least one occasion this season 

Yeah, I’m sure he’s “Rodgers in” and the fact that he’s out eight figures if he fires him has nothing to do with his thinking.

[foxfanazer]

Poch on the verge of being sacked from PSG....

 

 

Ooops wrong thread of course! My apologies 

[Deeg67]

2 minutes ago, foxfanazer said:

Poch on the verge of being sacked from PSG....

 

 

Ooops wrong thread of course! My apologies 

Would have him in a second.  He’d never come here in a lifetime.

[foxfanazer]

1 minute ago, Deeg67 said:

Would have him in a second.  He’d never come here in a lifetime.

Nah I know. Rumours of Conte to PSG so Levy would do all he could to get him back imo. He'd be ideal for us 

[Deeg67]

15 minutes ago, foxfanazer said:

Nah I know. Rumours of Conte to PSG so Levy would do all he could to get him back imo. He'd be ideal for us 

I don’t think it would surprise anybody if that happened. 

Edited 25 April 2022 by Deeg67

[Ric Flair]

Those sticking up for the recent pragmatic football, I could understand but given we cannot defend a lead it makes such football a complete waste of time does it not? In previous years when it's been done, if results are gained then the argument becomes more complex but whilst we are an absolute disgrace at holding on to leads and often our best football is played when chasing a game, it makes what he's been doing for large parts of this season baffling.

 

I hope he takes the handbrake off, certainly in the league when there's very little left to play for except pride and our fans mental health and sanity.

[An Sionnach]

3 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

Those sticking up for the recent pragmatic football, I could understand but given we cannot defend a lead it makes such football a complete waste of time does it not? In previous years when it's been done, if results are gained then the argument becomes more complex but whilst we are an absolute disgrace at holding on to leads and often our best football is played when chasing a game, it makes what he's been doing for large parts of this season baffling.

 

I hope he takes the handbrake off, certainly in the league when there's very little left to play for except pride and our fans mental health and sanity.

Thing is we go gung-ho and lose 3-2 in an entertaining match and many on here slate Rodgers for our rubbish defending. If we had shithoused a 1-0 against Villa , very few would be complaining. On here they just cannot take defeat even if we play OK.

[Guest Chocolate Teapot]

2 hours ago, The Year Of The Fox said:

I think you’d be daft to believe Top hasn’t contemplated getting rid on at least one occasion this season 

Given he knows how much it would cost I'd imagine he knows far better than any of us which decision would be 'daft'. Hes still got three years on his contract - I just don't see him doing it unless he absolutely had to.

[Stadt]

43 minutes ago, An Sionnach said:

Thing is we go gung-ho and lose 3-2 in an entertaining match and many on here slate Rodgers for our rubbish defending. If we had shithoused a 1-0 against Villa , very few would be complaining. On here they just cannot take defeat even if we play OK

 

Besides PSV away (which could have gone either way), when is the last time we even played particularly well (never mind lost and played well)?

 

We gatecrashed the top 6 because we held ourselves to high standards and as a result, pushed on. Now there seems to be complacency creeping into the manager’s actions and words. 
 

We had the 6th highest net spend in the summer and we’ve got the 7th highest wage bill - actually looking like a team that’s been on the verge of being a contender for a European place isn’t too much to ask for.

 

When ‘we get our players back’ (which never actually happens) we’re supposed to have bounced back and then fight for 7th. We’re missing Ndidi & Soumare at the moment and we’ve been just as lacklustre.

 

There’s always excuses made for Rodgers, we’re currently behind a Newcastle side that didn’t win for 14 games.

Edited 25 April 2022 by Stadt

[oxtonfox]

Rodgers team set up and sheer inflexibility recently has been very worrying. What has been worse are his after game comments e.g. Match of the Day or Radio Leicester. They are just plain wrong and completely deluded even if he is trying to talk the players up. What planet has he been watching the game from?

Listen to his comments post Newcastle, Everton and even Villa recently just in the last week. You would have thought we'd won all the games and played them off the park.

 

In all these games we showed well for about 20 minutes at Newcastle, 15 at Everton and maybe 4 minutes against Villa. He is putting our best recent player Maddison on the right, away from his ideal No.10 link to the lone striker. His substitutions are like for like and make no difference. He's running KDH and Youri into the ground. I'm beginning to believe he has lost it, and this is the beginning of the end for him.

 

If we lose out to Roma, and I think we will, I would be happy to see him leave in the summer. If by some miracle we beat them over two legs then he possibly clings on for the start of next season, whether we lose the final or not.  

[The Year Of The Fox]

4 minutes ago, Chocolate Teapot said:

Given he knows how much it would cost I'd imagine he knows far better than any of us which decision would be 'daft'. Hes still got three years on his contract - I just don't see him doing it unless he absolutely had to.

I wasn’t saying either decision is/was daft

 

I’m saying I think that anyone thinking Top hasn’t thought about pulling the trigger this season must be daft. 

[Guest Chocolate Teapot]

2 minutes ago, The Year Of The Fox said:

I wasn’t saying either decision is/was daft

 

I’m saying I think that anyone thinking Top hasn’t thought about pulling the trigger this season must be daft. 

Theyve only sacked managers previously after losing 5 on the spin and being in free fall, being in the relegation zone or having your son involved in a sex tape. We've been nowhere near any of those things this season - in fact Rodgers has never lost more than 2 on the bounce in his time here and that's with a huge amount of credit in the bank.

 

The informed sources (percy, etc...) all say there's never been any threat to his job and I know personally how much they value Rodgers at the Club so I don't think it's as daft as you make out.

[Alf Bentley]

13 hours ago, st albans fox said:

The inter city fairs cup ended in 1971 and was replaced by the uefa cup (which became the Europa league in 2008)

 

I dont recall which trophy (cup winners cup/uefa cup) was the most prestigious. Perhaps they were considered pretty equal ….certainly when the European cup was only one club per country, the uefa cup was pretty tough to win with huge clubs competing …..

 

 

 

Yes, I don't remember there being an established "2nd most prestigious" European trophy in the 70s, 80s & 90s, between Cup Winners' Cup and UEFA Cup.

 

Based on the calibre of the teams in each tournament, the UEFA Cup really should have been more prestigious as it usually included several of the top 5 from England, Germany, Italy, Spain etc. Whereas there'd only be 1 from each nation in the Cup Winners' Cup - and sometimes a smaller club that had managed to win or get to the final of the domestic cup. But I suppose domestic cups like the FA Cup had greater prestige then.

[Stadt]

Just now, Chocolate Teapot said:

Theyve only sacked managers previously after losing 5 on the spin and being in free fall, being in the relegation zone or having your son involved in a sex tape. We've been nowhere near any of those things this season - in fact Rodgers has never lost more than 2 on the bounce in his time here and that's with a huge amount of credit in the bank.

 

The informed sources (percy, etc...) all say there's never been any threat to his job and I know personally how much they value Rodgers at the Club so I don't think it's as daft as you make out.

The conditions for a sacking are relative to club's position though tbf. Puel losing 5 on the spin isn't the same as Rodgers losing 5 on the spin - the expectations are greater now so there should be less leeway.

[oxtonfox]

4 minutes ago, Alf Bentley said:

 

Yes, I don't remember there being an established "2nd most prestigious" European trophy in the 70s, 80s & 90s, between Cup Winners' Cup and UEFA Cup.

 

Based on the calibre of the teams in each tournament, the UEFA Cup really should have been more prestigious as it usually included several of the top 5 from England, Germany, Italy, Spain etc. Whereas there'd only be 1 from each nation in the Cup Winners' Cup - and sometimes a smaller club that had managed to win or get to the final of the domestic cup. But I suppose domestic cups like the FA Cup had greater prestige then.

Yes, I agree. This season, according to the tournaments in the 70s, 80s and 90s Leicester would have been in the Cup Winners Cup, even though we would have qualified for the UEFA Cup. There was also no seeding so we could have been drawn against a big club, say Italian Cup winners in round one. If I recall Liverpool as previous European Cup winners were drawn against Nottingham Forest (who won the League in 1977?) in Round One of European Cup. Forest won the two legged game and Liverpool were out in October!

[Guest Chocolate Teapot]

Just now, Stadt said:

The conditions for a sacking are relative to club's position though tbf. Puel losing 5 on the spin isn't the same as Rodgers losing 5 on the spin - the expectations are greater now so there should be less leeway.

Thats what the fans think but I think the owners are far more rationale than that - they know how much money they've spent this year and are entirely aware of how we're performing vs the budget. We're currently 10th vs a 9th budget, and Newcastles budget is about to be massive so we'll go backwards. They're aware of how little money they've been able to stump up relative to the competition and know how difficult it is. 

[TMELcfc]

11 hours ago, Aus Fox said:

So over the time Brendan has been with the club, which teams have done better overall than us? Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea… these three are on another planet, but, other than those 3 I don’t think there is a club in England who I would swap the last 3 years with.

I understand everyone's argument about what we have achieved on paper, under Rodgers, we have had 2x 5th place finishes, won the FA Cup for the first time in our history. Those first 3-4 months of both seasons, we played some of the best football I have seen... I just wonder why that isn't happening anymore. 

 

Now I can only speak on behalf of myself, I don't know what everyone else's motives are for disliking Rodgers, it may be that they have their head in the clouds and think we are going to be challenging top 4 every season. My issue isn't with that, I know our level, and to be honest, where we are in the league right now, with the amount of injuries we have had to key players, I think 9th-10th is about right...

My issue with him and this style / philosophy, is the obsession with possession and thinking that more possession, means you are the better team / manager (which he clearly believes as you hear it nearly every week in the aftermath). 

 

To sum up what we have become, we just played a team at home, who had lost 4 on the bounce, are below us in the league, yet we finished the game with more possession (64%) and yet lower xG (think it was 0.26). Villa's was 0.8 something. From memory (although I soon erased most of it) our best chance, and most our xG probably came from 2 Maddison free kicks...  

Just utterly boring, non-penetrative football. This was the reason I wanted Puel out. Puel on paper, again, probably had us where most would expect us to be 8th-10th. But the football was dreadful.  

 

There is obviously a lot else that is wrong, the conceding free headers week in, week out, at set plays, the high amount of goals we concede within the last 10 minutes of games, the persistent injuries. But for me, above all that, it is the snooze fest of a game we have seen a lot in the domestic games because of the obsession with possession. Thinking we are going into next season with him doesn't get the 'juices flowing'... 

 

[midland_red]

15 minutes ago, The Year Of The Fox said:

I wasn’t saying either decision is/was daft

 

I’m saying I think that anyone thinking Top hasn’t thought about pulling the trigger this season must be daft. 

I doubt that. The owners have a record of being supportive with their appointees. The point which is unacceptable to the owners is if our PL status is in question. Brendan would go if that happenned, but not I think otherwise

[Stadt]

1 minute ago, Chocolate Teapot said:

Thats what the fans think but I think the owners are far more rationale than that - they know how much money they've spent this year and are entirely aware of how we're performing vs the budget. We're currently 10th vs a 9th budget, and Newcastles budget is about to be massive so we'll go backwards. They're aware of how little money they've been able to stump up relative to the competition and know how difficult it is. 

"I've never seen a bag of money score a goal" - Johan Cruyff.

 

That's over-rational, if the league was decided by budgets then they'd be very little point in competing. Finishing position is determined by the quality of player and the management (and some other factors like injuries, luck etc). Budgets have an important influence of those two things but it's not 100% fatalistic. The most recent set of accounts peg us as the 7th biggest spenders on wages (add in Vestergaard, Bertrand, Soumare & Daka) and we had the 6th largest net spend last summer too. Not to mention one of the highest paid managers and a squad most objective observers would say is somewhere between 6th-8th.

 

Newcastle might spend £200m in the summer but will they have a better squad? Highly unlikely. The narrative forming is that we had a few good years in the sun rather than we've failed to capitalise on our successful club-building efforts over the last decade. Our fans have enjoyed disrupting the big 6 over the last 3 or 4 years but now we've let our standards slip; a few fans seem to be resigned to giving up the ghost on progression.

[oxtonfox]

9 minutes ago, lcfceaves said:

I understand everyone's argument about what we have achieved on paper, under Rodgers, we have had 2x 5th place finishes, won the FA Cup for the first time in our history. Those first 3-4 months of both seasons, we played some of the best football I have seen... I just wonder why that isn't happening anymore. 

 

Now I can only speak on behalf of myself, I don't know what everyone else's motives are for disliking Rodgers, it may be that they have their head in the clouds and think we are going to be challenging top 4 every season. My issue isn't with that, I know our level, and to be honest, where we are in the league right now, with the amount of injuries we have had to key players, I think 9th-10th is about right...

My issue with him and this style / philosophy, is the obsession with possession and thinking that more possession, means you are the better team / manager (which he clearly believes as you hear it nearly every week in the aftermath). 

 

To sum up what we have become, we just played a team at home, who had lost 4 on the bounce, are below us in the league, yet we finished the game with more possession (64%) and yet lower xG (think it was 0.26). Villa's was 0.8 something. From memory (although I soon erased most of it) our best chance, and most our xG probably came from 2 Maddison free kicks...  

Just utterly boring, non-penetrative football. This was the reason I wanted Puel out. Puel on paper, again, probably had us where most would expect us to be 8th-10th. But the football was dreadful.  

 

There is obviously a lot else that is wrong, the conceding free headers week in, week out, at set plays, the high amount of goals we concede within the last 10 minutes of games, the persistent injuries. But for me, above all that, it is the snooze fest of a game we have seen a lot in the domestic games because of the obsession with possession. Thinking we are going into next season with him doesn't get the 'juices flowing'... 

 

I remember back in around 2010/11 when Nigel had got us promoted back to the Championship and we were challenging the play off positions. We played Swansea at the KP (then Walkers). Swansea were managed by Brendan and at the time Swansea under Brendan  played the same way as us now. They kept the ball for about two and half minutes playing across the back, forwards back sideways and they never got to our back line. Nigel turned round faced the fans and shook his head smiling at this neat but not penetrative way of playing. Then I think Richie Wellens stuck a foot in, we won the ball back and scored on a breakaway :-).

Brendan's Swansea team were then were tidy but it was the same, high possession and probably low xG. They did get promoted though under Brendan but it didn't last as all clubs found them out. 

[Alf Bentley]

14 minutes ago, oxtonfox said:

Yes, I agree. This season, according to the tournaments in the 70s, 80s and 90s Leicester would have been in the Cup Winners Cup, even though we would have qualified for the UEFA Cup. There was also no seeding so we could have been drawn against a big club, say Italian Cup winners in round one. If I recall Liverpool as previous European Cup winners were drawn against Nottingham Forest (who won the League in 1977?) in Round One of European Cup. Forest won the two legged game and Liverpool were out in October!

 

I just checked and Forest had actually knocked Liverpool out of the European Cup by the end of September that year (78-79). 

 

Further historical research reveals:

- To win the 82-83 Cup Winners' Cup, Fergie's Aberdeen beat Sion (Switz), Dinamo Tirana, Lech Poznan, Bayern Munich, Waterschei (Bel) & Real Madrid

- To reach the final of the 86-87 UEFA Cup, Dundee Utd beat Lens, Craiova (Rom), Hajduk Split (Yug), Barcelona & Borussia Moenchengladbach, losing the final to Gothenberg

 

Whereas, after Liverpool, to win the 78-79 European Cup Forest only beat AEK Athens, Grasshoppers, Cologne & Malmo.....so their inferior achievement deserves no respect whatsoever and should be expunged from the record.