Brendan Rodgers

[ARM1968]

Rather have Harry Potter. He’s a wizard you know. 

[Guest SO1]

2 hours ago, StriderHiryu said:

Sorry but that’s big time rose tinted spectacles. Coaches like Guardiola and Klopp and to a lesser extent Rodgers and Poch have transformed the league. Pretty much every team in the league presses the game now, yesterday the team in 19th who just sold their best player in the summer played a high press against a team that finished 5th and won the FA Cup. It’s more helter skelter than ever before. Leeds play a man marking system across the pitch quite literally turning the game into 10 1v1 duels and 2 goalkeepers!

 

These things did not happen 10 years ago. 

"Rose Tinted Spectacles" Had to look it up. You have this old man down to a tee. Have to start watching more football.

[StriderHiryu]

8 minutes ago, SO1 said:

"Rose Tinted Spectacles" Had to look it up. You have this old man down to a tee. Have to start watching more football.

To be fair, you don't have to be a fan of the way modern football is played, so don't feel like you have to! But personally I think the German influence on football of making games more intense is great for a spectator.

 

We've definitely lost some of the artistry of the game. Players like Zidane, Totti, Rivaldo would have to heavily adapt their game in today's era as the traditional number 10 role has pretty much evaporated. Something our Maddison is having to adapt to himself. But in previous era we had hoofball, which was like watching Tennis and then over reliance on Tiki-Taka, which was like watching paint dry sometimes.

 

Perhaps the downside is that the game could be getting too physical? Many people suggest that almost every role on the pitch is becoming the same thing; a box-to-box midfielder that can play with the ball. Look at our own Ricardo as an example, for our first goal despite being a right back, he charged down and pressed their left-back to become our furthest forward player, who then crossed in for us to score. But for me I am a fan.

 

I think a bigger issue for fans is moire the gulf between the haves and have not's. @Guesthas made some superb posts in this thread which I agree with; Leicester are in that weird position where we've done so well, but realistically it's hard to see us doing any better than we have, especially when teams above us are dropping King's Ransoms for proven world class superstars.

[Sharpe's Fox]

I couldn't anticipate a situation where I would want Brendan Rodgers gone but I have to say he does some proper dumb stuff every now and again that seemingly everyone except him could see wouldn't work.

[Clt1900]

Rodgers does have his favorites. They can do no wrong.

[Guest Col city fan]

1 hour ago, Clt1900 said:

Rodgers does have his favorites. They can do no wrong.

All managers are the same. Rodgers is no different in this

[CosbehFox]

9 hours ago, dayday said:

I was thinking this yesterday, after the 4-0 defeat against Liverpool on Boxing Day 2019, was the beginning of the end for the high press.

 

I don’t know what we’re doing these days we don’t have any real system in place other than build from the back.

 

ordinary sides have sussed us out 

 

I really hope it is injuries that’s is holding Rodgers back from being so negative.

 

When he first came he was breath of fresh air talking about the high press and attacking football.

 

 

It still happens the press but it’s not the same gung ho. Rodgers is all about ‘control’, he wants to avoid games being in transition or as he calls it basketball. It creates stodgy games as it’s all about reducing risk. Our first goal yesterday was an example of press in certain areas of the pitch (where a player has their back to the goal they are attacking - cos they can only go backwards) 

[CosbehFox]

Also can’t help but think I bet Brendan and the squad wished they had some of this fortune at the end of last season. If we spunk a win like we did yesterday against say Saints, we’d have been top four 

[ARM1968]

I mean what was Brendan suggesting to Top by picking 2 GK subs yesterday?  Clearly it was meant as a message. Not the actions of an entirely happy manager I’d suggest. 

[moore_94]

1 minute ago, ARM1968 said:

I mean what was Brendan suggesting to Top by picking 2 GK subs yesterday?  Clearly it was meant as a message. Not the actions of an entirely happy manager I’d suggest. 

It might not be quite that

 

Could be that Bertrand not featuring due to illness was a decision made late in the day and as we travel with 3 keepers anyway it was easy to throw Jakupovic on the bench

 

Also as all the youngsters had played in the 24 hours prior they couldn't travel and be on the bench

 

Also wouldn't be surprised if Benkovic was injured again anyway, leaving Jakupovic as the only other option to go on the bench

[honeybradger]

5 hours ago, StriderHiryu said:

To be fair, you don't have to be a fan of the way modern football is played, so don't feel like you have to! But personally I think the German influence on football of making games more intense is great for a spectator.

 

We've definitely lost some of the artistry of the game. Players like Zidane, Totti, Rivaldo would have to heavily adapt their game in today's era as the traditional number 10 role has pretty much evaporated. Something our Maddison is having to adapt to himself. But in previous era we had hoofball, which was like watching Tennis and then over reliance on Tiki-Taka, which was like watching paint dry sometimes.

 

Perhaps the downside is that the game could be getting too physical? Many people suggest that almost every role on the pitch is becoming the same thing; a box-to-box midfielder that can play with the ball. Look at our own Ricardo as an example, for our first goal despite being a right back, he charged down and pressed their left-back to become our furthest forward player, who then crossed in for us to score. But for me I am a fan.

 

I think a bigger issue for fans is moire the gulf between the haves and have not's. @Guesthas made some superb posts in this thread which I agree with; Leicester are in that weird position where we've done so well, but realistically it's hard to see us doing any better than we have, especially when teams above us are dropping King's Ransoms for proven world class superstars.

Honestly i think the modern day game has gone back to 'hoofball' but because of the draw and quality of the PL nowadays the long balls are deadly accurate and the people on the end of them could probably control the ball with their eyes closed so the game looks more sophisticated. Look at the Leeds Man united games, United thrived off of playing long balls from the deep midfielders and the centrebacks, look at liverpool, van dijk can hit one of the forwards at any time, same with TAA. The modern day game is about fast transistions and pinging long balls into forwards, imo we look a bit outdated tactically with this constant passing round the back and 2 man midfield, we have the quality to win games through attrition but we dont look good doing it anymore. Most of our fanbase seem to think that we're modernising ourselves tactically with this posession style football but honestly i think we were ahead of the curve in 15/16 with fuchs, albrighton and drinkwater sending long balls to mahrez and vardy, now we're one of the slower transistion sides in the league, even though we have better players.

[lcfc_forever]

Reassuring to see some more sensible, measured posts here. 

 

Yeah, we can all agree the performances haven't been great so far with our best the first halves against Man City and Wolves. 

 

But we're still picking up results. And that's with seven players injured, including our whole defence (I think we can now agree that Fofana would be preferred to Soyuncu if both were fully fit). Annoying that more pundits/commentators aren't mentioning this. 

 

Liverpool struggled without 2 of their defenders so worth having that context. The uncertainty can spread through the team, and means perhaps the players are being more cautious. 

 

Rodgers' style of play means we're rarely out of games and we tend to perform more strongly as the game wears on. I think it's a reflection of how well he manages the game. It's the opposite of the old style England team who'd start well and then run out of energy, allowing the opposition to take control. 

 

The international break has come at a good time, and hopefully Bertrand and Vestergaard can be back for the next match, and ideally Evans as well. 

 

I don't disagree with him playing Barnes as he needs to get match fit and offers something different to any of our other attacking players. However, Maddison is a different story, especially with Ihenacho ready to step in. 

Edited 29 August 2021 by lcfc_forever

[Phil Bowman]

2 hours ago, ARM1968 said:

I mean what was Brendan suggesting to Top by picking 2 GK subs yesterday?  Clearly it was meant as a message. Not the actions of an entirely happy manager I’d suggest. 

Who knows? Maybe there was a slight doubt about Schmeichel’s or Ward’s fitness.

Who needs more than seven outfield subs anyway?

I wouldn’t say it was ‘clearly’ meant as a message.

[Ric Flair]

2 hours ago, moore_94 said:

It might not be quite that

 

Could be that Bertrand not featuring due to illness was a decision made late in the day and as we travel with 3 keepers anyway it was easy to throw Jakupovic on the bench

 

Also as all the youngsters had played in the 24 hours prior they couldn't travel and be on the bench

 

Also wouldn't be surprised if Benkovic was injured again anyway, leaving Jakupovic as the only other option to go on the bench

Benkovic and Mendy were both in training all last week though. Only thing I can assume is that neither travelled to Norwich but Jakupovic did due to the small possibility one of the keepers gets ruled out. 

[Paninistickers]

38 minutes ago, honeybradger said:

Honestly i think the modern day game has gone back to 'hoofball' but because of the draw and quality of the PL nowadays the long balls are deadly accurate and the people on the end of them could probably control the ball with their eyes closed so the game looks more sophisticated. Look at the Leeds Man united games, United thrived off of playing long balls from the deep midfielders and the centrebacks, look at liverpool, van dijk can hit one of the forwards at any time, same with TAA. The modern day game is about fast transistions and pinging long balls into forwards, imo we look a bit outdated tactically with this constant passing round the back and 2 man midfield, we have the quality to win games through attrition but we dont look good doing it anymore. Most of our fanbase seem to think that we're modernising ourselves tactically with this posession style football but honestly i think we were ahead of the curve in 15/16 with fuchs, albrighton and drinkwater sending long balls to mahrez and vardy, now we're one of the slower transistion sides in the league, even though we have better players.

Interesting take. Thing.is with the long ball / quick transition is that it is easier to defend against, albeit riskier to attack. 

 

Case in point was Everton last season. They were a total handful for all the best teams, Inc us..But they could not beat the shit teams to save their lives. Basically as the shit set themselves up to negate the long diagonal ball. 

 

Our style, when in full flow, is total, suffocating control. With and without the ball. That tactic, imo, is far more sustainable 

[StriderHiryu]

38 minutes ago, honeybradger said:

Honestly i think the modern day game has gone back to 'hoofball' but because of the draw and quality of the PL nowadays the long balls are deadly accurate and the people on the end of them could probably control the ball with their eyes closed so the game looks more sophisticated. Look at the Leeds Man united games, United thrived off of playing long balls from the deep midfielders and the centrebacks, look at liverpool, van dijk can hit one of the forwards at any time, same with TAA. The modern day game is about fast transistions and pinging long balls into forwards, imo we look a bit outdated tactically with this constant passing round the back and 2 man midfield, we have the quality to win games through attrition but we dont look good doing it anymore. Most of our fanbase seem to think that we're modernising ourselves tactically with this posession style football but honestly i think we were ahead of the curve in 15/16 with fuchs, albrighton and drinkwater sending long balls to mahrez and vardy, now we're one of the slower transistion sides in the league, even though we have better players.

That's a very fair comment! I would agree with it!

 

That said possession is still super important. Every match thread without fail fans will complain about centre backs knocking it between them, but there are reasons for doing this:

- Keep hold of the ball to give the team a breather after a series of pressing actions.

- Try to make the opposition come out to press our CBs so we can play it into Tielemans to initiate an attack with some members of the opposition out of position.

- Try to shift the opposition defensive block from one side to the other to create a 1v1 / overload on one side of the pitch for Ricardo or Barnes.

 

But it's totally true that if transition the ball slowly then none of the above will work. It's fine for their to be slower passages of play during a game because it's impossible to go hell for leather for 90 minutes. But too often we only play the slow way without turning up the speed of our transition in the same way that Liverpool, Man City and Chelsea do. But to be fair to Brendan, unlike Puel I don't think he wants us to play slowly, because he makes a point of it in many post match press conferences.

[moore_94]

6 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

Benkovic and Mendy were both in training all last week though. Only thing I can assume is that neither travelled to Norwich but Jakupovic did due to the small possibility one of the keepers gets ruled out. 

I don't think Mendy has played any actual football since June with Senegal has he though? And I think it says a lot for Benkovic that even during an injury crisis at centre back he can't even get on the bench

 

I get the feeling it was a late call and just easier to have Jakupovic on the bench as he travelled anyway

[Corky]

One thing he's done very well is add or harness the quality players we have to get us out of tough situations.

 

In a poor performance both goals, especially the second, were extremely well-worked.

[honeybradger]

5 minutes ago, StriderHiryu said:

That's a very fair comment! I would agree with it!

 

That said possession is still super important. Every match thread without fail fans will complain about centre backs knocking it between them, but there are reasons for doing this:

- Keep hold of the ball to give the team a breather after a series of pressing actions.

- Try to make the opposition come out to press our CBs so we can play it into Tielemans to initiate an attack with some members of the opposition out of position.

- Try to shift the opposition defensive block from one side to the other to create a 1v1 / overload on one side of the pitch for Ricardo or Barnes.

 

But it's totally true that if transition the ball slowly then none of the above will work. It's fine for their to be slower passages of play during a game because it's impossible to go hell for leather for 90 minutes. But too often we only play the slow way without turning up the speed of our transition in the same way that Liverpool, Man City and Chelsea do. But to be fair to Brendan, unlike Puel I don't think he wants us to play slowly, because he makes a point of it in many post match press conferences.

I would also add i dont think we're a very good pressing side to be honest, teams play through our two man midfield quite easily and apart from ndidi, albrighton (when he plays) and vardy (when he's involved) we dont have many good tackling midfielders/forwards to press from the front, perez makes a lot of pressures but i feel like he doesnt get stuck in and actually win the ball back like the aforementioned. Barnes and maddison arent the best for pressing either. Rodger's can complain we play too slowly all he wants but when he's employing a two man midfield that includes ndidi who isnt the best passer, and he wants us to avoid playing long balls, that is inevitably going to lead to us struggling to find an opening. I think adding soumare to make it a midfield 3 would give allow us to transition quicker and press better but rodgers seems set on playing a 10.

[ARM1968]

26 minutes ago, Phil Bowman said:

Who knows? Maybe there was a slight doubt about Schmeichel’s or Ward’s fitness.

Who needs more than seven outfield subs anyway?

I wouldn’t say it was ‘clearly’ meant as a message.

That’s because you’re not a devious, slippery barsteward. Although to be fair explanations are fair and could be any of them. I can’t accept that graciously - ya Willy pullers. 

[StriderHiryu]

6 minutes ago, honeybradger said:

I would also add i dont think we're a very good pressing side to be honest, teams play through our two man midfield quite easily and apart from ndidi, albrighton (when he plays) and vardy (when he's involved) we dont have many good tackling midfielders/forwards to press from the front, perez makes a lot of pressures but i feel like he doesnt get stuck in and actually win the ball back like the aforementioned. Barnes and maddison arent the best for pressing either. Rodger's can complain we play too slowly all he wants but when he's employing a two man midfield that includes ndidi who isnt the best passer, and he wants us to avoid playing long balls, that is inevitably going to lead to us struggling to find an opening. I think adding soumare to make it a midfield 3 would give allow us to transition quicker and press better but rodgers seems set on playing a 10.

433 with either KDH or Soumare in the team instead of Maddison on paper could be a lot more effective. Though I'm not sure our wide forwards are as good as they would need to be to truly make that system work like we would want it to.

 

Rodgers to be fair to him is massively hamstrung by what he has to work with compared to the teams above us and in some cases even around us. It might be a long time ago now, but that Liverpool team he coached scored tons of goals and moved the ball very quickly. But they had Coutinho, Sterling, Sturrdige and Suarez in attack with Steven Gerrard in the Tielemans role. So IMO Rodgers is doing very well with what he's got available. Last season had either Barnes or Maddison not got injured when they did, I think we'd have made Champions League. It was a bit unlucky, especially as performances like Newcastle at home were more down to the players collectively being shit than the coach making them bad.

[biggs]

On 24/08/2021 at 14:47, coolhandfox said:

Yet we only 135 goals in the league over the last two seasons

 

Which puts us in the top 4 or 5 teams for goals scored in that time  

Fair play on the goals but the majority of games I find stale entertainment. It is what it is and I watch every game but catch myself very often shaking my head at our style. To each their own.

[coolhandfox]

35 minutes ago, biggs said:

Fair play on the goals but the majority of games I find stale entertainment. It is what it is and I watch every game but catch myself very often shaking my head at our style. To each their own.

Watch 38 games of any team and they will have some stinkers 

[UpTheLeagueFox]

On 29/08/2021 at 21:21, Ric Flair said:

Benkovic and Mendy were both in training all last week though. Only thing I can assume is that neither travelled to Norwich but Jakupovic did due to the small possibility one of the keepers gets ruled out. 

Pretty sure they have 3 keepers around the squad on matchdays because if one pulls out (gets ill or injured etc) they'll need someone as cover on the bench.

Suspect they travelled with 19 to Norwich (inc 3 GK) and Bertrand's unavailability meant it was six subs or 2 GKs on the bench.

The 2 GKs thing has happened at other clubs before when I've been covering games. Not that usual but often nothing suspicious in it.

[fuchsntf]

On 29/08/2021 at 08:53, Dahnsouff said:

Why does Maddison get so many excuses made for him? He does not deserve the special treatment Vardy, Kasper, Marc and other immortals rightly get. He needs to stop being so poor or get out the way for KDH, Praet, etc. If he is that injured, he should not be picked.

Life & Football is Not so black n white. I would say they are looking to Nurse him back...