Brendan Rodgers

[Ricey]

It's times like this when I look back at this moment...



...and wonder what might have been.

Sliding doors. There was a door there wide open with a big Welcome sign flashing above it and we somehow managed to walk into the wall. How different life could have been if we had hung on. Would Fofana be so eager to leave? Would Youri want to go? Would we have signed Gosens like the rumours suggested? Would it have turned the perception of the Big 6 into the Big 7?

 

Absolutely no point in looking back in anger now, but I can't help it. Ever since that Spurs match I think I've thought about it and winced at least once a week during the football season.

[The Year Of The Fox]

13 minutes ago, Unabomber said:

I wonder what the overall percentage is from fans now on him being in or out. 

Need a poll don’t we

 

Get it sorted 

[Dahnsouff]

2 minutes ago, The Year Of The Fox said:

Need a poll don’t we

 

Get it sorted 

Vocal minority always sway these polls though...  

 

 

 

[inckley fox]

34 minutes ago, coolhandfox said:

Still think he has done enough to be given more time, combined league table since his first game. 

 

Manchester City				293
Liverpool				289
Chelsea				226
Manchester United				209
Tottenham Hotspur				206
Arsenal FC Total				203
Leicester City Total				198
West Ham United				176
Wolverhampton Wanderers				172

The problem with this is, if we get relegated this season the combined league table since his first game will probably still have us in mid-table. We're not really looking for what was wonderful a couple of years ago. If that were the approach, we'd certainly never have sacked Ranieri at a time when we looked in serious trouble.

[inckley fox]

1 hour ago, Fox92 said:

He also oversaw a 6-1 defeat at home to Spurs. I have no doubt Shakespeare would have taken us down the following season. Luckily Puel stabled us.

I'm not sure about that. A single thrashing at the end of the season, with little to play for, is worrying but it's hardly critical. If you look at the fixtures he began the next season with, you'd have expected us to improve quickly thereafter, and it's no surprise that both the caretaker and Puel enjoyed immediate upturns with the same set of players and less terrifying opposition (West Brom excepted!). My issue with Shakespeare was that he didn't appear comfortable with the managerial role. There wasn't a sense of someone with a long-term project, and a real grip on the issues at hand. We just needed new ideas at that point. But I doubt he'd have gone down with us, and I certainly wasn't calling for blood.

[CrazyKopCorner]

I'm not a Brendan hater by any means but I'm not sure if he over or under thinks both his tactics, team selection, formation and substitutes - He seems to miss the bleeding obvious on many occasions - Unfortunately Saturday was vintage Brendan,. 

 

Making his own point about lack of transfer activity when we have ready made replacements on the bench who would have seen us through that game i.e Dennis, Mendy, possibly bring Albrighton who would be injected energy and know how  

[turlo]

 

 

Yesterday we had 100 mil worth of unused players earning over 500k a week. No wonder the board won't let him spend this summer until we move players on

[inckley fox]

2 hours ago, BigMicky said:

It really wasn't, it was two defensive mistakes that cost us. 

By that measure, it was only a stunning header and a brilliant long-range strike that meant we were ahead. Would Rodgers not have deserved any credit if we'd won a game based on individual brilliance? Equally, you have to look at him when individual errors cost us, especially if there were question marks over the decisions leading up to them.

 

Most goals involve some sort of error anyway, but if it comes (twice) from a player who is in an unaccustomed role, playing a system that you'd only been preparing for six days, and within the game you've found yourself on the back-foot with tired legs against fresh legs, AND the only minimal adjustment you do make is obviously not going to alleviate the pressure you're under... then I'd say it was fair to question the manager.

 

If it isn't fair to do that  in those circumstances, then I'd need clarification on exactly where the 'at this point the manager can/can't influence the outcome' line needs to be drawn. I find it very hard to understand this distinction people draw between 'player responsibility' and 'managerial responsibility', as if the overlap only exists when there's something nice to say about performances. Or, alternatively, when they want to lambast the boss.

 

I can appreciate that if a side really are in full control of a game, and vulnerabilities aren't apparent, that if a player who is usually dependable makes an unaccustomed error then you can say 'alright, there's not much we can do about that' (which would be a gross simplification of what happened yesterday). And I appreciate that hindsight is a fine thing, and we can condemn errors too easily. I also believe that patience, especially at the start of a season, is important. But regardless of whether you believe Rodgers will do a good job with this squad or not, there's no need for fans to absolve someone who doesn't (like most managers of course) wish to take a share of the responsibility.

[Guest itude]

Thomas Frank made Rodgers look like a novice. This is becoming a regular theme. Add to that all his other "mistakes" and I have to wonder why he is not at least on a "warning" from the owners , who knows, maybe he is ?

[Leicester_Loyal]

3 hours ago, 5waller5 said:

This is Brentford at 2-0 down, away, making a tactical switch. Not Man City at the Etihad at 1-1.
 

We didn’t “have to respond” with a formation change. 
 

We should have recognised that half a team with fresh legs in 30degree heat would cause a problem and made some like-for-like fresh leg changes though. 

It's absolutely crazy that you've got to spell this out to people

 

People are talking about Brentford at home like they're prime Barca, and even then I'd have say we scored 2 goals, we hit the post twice and we were in control, don't change the ****ing formation.

 

Feels like the end of Puels reign atm, the football is just getting in the way of a good day out, I know I'll end up angry, disappointed and £150 down

[Leicester_Loyal]

1 hour ago, coolhandfox said:

Still think he has done enough to be given more time, combined league table since his first game. 

 

Manchester City				293
Liverpool				289
Chelsea				226
Manchester United				209
Tottenham Hotspur				206
Arsenal FC Total				203
Leicester City Total				198
West Ham United				176
Wolverhampton Wanderers				172

Whilst that table looks good, I fear in 18 months time it'll look totally different. We're in for a huge summer in 2023, if we get it wrong we're probably going down.

[SafewayFox]

5 hours ago, Lako42 said:

I can't remember a less fit squad under any manager here and this bloke has the best facilities in the world at his disposal. 

 

 

Compare Fulham in the final stages of their game against Liverpool. 

Sousa.

 

Didn’t the players do training with a ball from day of pre-season?

 

Swear we looked like amateurs in the fitness department when he was here??

[StanSP]

For all the shite that occurred yesterday, and understandable frustrations, I'd love if he masterminded a win against Arsenal

 

 

[coolhandfox]

46 minutes ago, inckley fox said:

The problem with this is, if we get relegated this season the combined league table since his first game will probably still have us in mid-table. We're not really looking for what was wonderful a couple of years ago. If that were the approach, we'd certainly never have sacked Ranieri at a time when we looked in serious trouble.

We will not get relegated.

 

If look in remote trouble, he will get sacked. 

 

Ranieri had lost 5 in a row and had won 1 in 10.

 

BR has never lost more then 2 league game in a row

Edited 8 August 2022 by coolhandfox

[Guppys Love Child]

4 hours ago, fuchsntf said:

Have your critic,Bit this was a Good show,Not a poor Performance or shitshow..you Dont like Rodgers....but you lose any creditiability...like many others

too determined to get your Rocks Off on Rodgers.....The team( who we support), played a Damn Good game und even towards the end could of brought home

3pts.....AND isnt that the main point of the story, high side performance,created top chances,game did Swing both ways,even when could consider

what ever Good or Bad choices....the players on the Pitch Performed & still had Top chances to turn it...!!!w

 

Für whole game Rhetoric is being Destroyed by many poor fans attack on Rodgers....instead of looking at the "Game"....

We have the worse fans ,who at present have an agenda....I want to discuss the game,the positive movement of players,Not this Zombie Style of fans mentality,

 

Sorry, hold on. 

But correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the topic of this thread 'Brendan Rodgers'? My comments were made with that subject in mind. 

Your comment /reply to me above states you want to discuse the game, and you also refrenced aspects of it. Feel free to make your point on that subject  but wouldn't the post match thead dedicated to that topic be the better choice to do that in, and not one for discussing our manager. Which was exactly what i was going.

However I will retract my Shi* show commitment, as you're correct we were untill 60 odd mins far from a total disaster. But I was quite annoyed at the time and possibly used the phrase to add a bit of 'punch' so to speak. 

[Bourbon Fox]

45 minutes ago, CrazyKopCorner said:

 

Making his own point about lack of transfer activity when we have ready made replacements on the bench who would have seen us through that game i.e Dennis, Mendy, possibly bring Albrighton who would be injected energy and know how  

If he'd brought on any 2 of those 3 I think we'd have seen out the game.

 

Even all 3 for a comfortable 4-5-1

Edited 8 August 2022 by Bourbon Fox

[coolhandfox]

28 minutes ago, itude said:

Thomas Frank made Rodgers look like a novice. This is becoming a regular theme. Add to that all his other "mistakes" and I have to wonder why he is not at least on a "warning" from the owners , who knows, maybe he is ?

Rodgers record against Frank.

 

Player 5, won 4, draw 1, lost 0

[lcfc_forever]

Ferguson is arguably the greatest British manager of all time. 
 

By his own admission, he wasn’t as tactically aware as some managers but consistently had a very good coach as deputy who complimented him. 
 

Where his strengths were motivational and psychological. And he did the simple things well - bring on a forward or two when oppositions got deeper, playing 4-5-1 in Europe etc. 
 

Rodgers had so many simple choices ahead of him - bring on Mendy as he’s done previously to close a game out, and bring on Perez who has been more than useful from the bench and effective at pressing the opposition, yet he goes for the outlandish. And Praet has been very good in preseason and links up well with Tielemans and Castagne.
 

The best managers would not have made the decision to bring on an extra striker, and just puts more pressure on him. 
 

Hopefully he’s learned from it and will stick to what’s worked well for him.

Edited 8 August 2022 by lcfc_forever

[SafewayFox]

There have been an insane amount of posts and can’t keep up BUT for those people madly defending the KDH substitution are smoking something.

 

1) Stop excusing Rodgers for pissing the bed and panicking about Brentford - if you truly want to “give Brentford something to think about defensively” how about bringing on Kelechi who likes playing with his back to the goal (Daka doesn’t) and has a proven track record of working with Vardy (again Daka doesn’t)

 

2) As so many others said, making 1 sub compared to their 5 in such conditions when the players still weren’t fully match fit is criminal.

 

Here is how it should have panned out (in my simple head) -

 

Keep KDH on, unless he’s got a genuine knock - BR didn’t mention anything of the sort

Ndidi off for Mendy (at Rodgers renowned 60 min mark) 

Vardy off for Daka (with Mendy)

Madders off for Perez (15 mins left)

Youri off for Praet (same time as Madders)

If you wanted to disrupt the flow anymore then easily could have considered -

 

Justin off for Thomas/Albrighton

Yesterday may be one of the most uninspiring and outright silly display of management that I’ve seen since Holloway through in playing the inexperienced Worley against Stoke.

[foxinsocks]

Rodgers needs to go now.. he is trashing what reputation he has left.

[Incognito]

15 hours ago, inckley fox said:

On balance he's definitely been up there with our best managers. The best? He's got our highest average finish, apart from maybe Willie Orr in the 1920s, and he's won a fairly major trophy too. You can't complain too much. Personally, from my lifetime, I'd look at O'Neill taking a side up, securing four top half finishes with very little net spend, and picking up two League Cups, as an even greater achievement. Or Pearson taking a side up two divisions, keeping it up, and assembling a side that'd become the most unexpected title winners in the history of the modern game. Ranieri, of course, for winning that title.

 

It's hard to compare Rodgers to past managers, because he's taken over the club in a much healthier position, on paper at least, than any previous manager: 12th at the time, champions a few years prior, one of the youngest squads in the division and an 80 million sale on the horizon. Add to that the well-publicised suggestion that there was an impasse between players and the manager at the time, and he'd obviously have fancied his chances of doing better in the actual league table than in the wages league table. You could argue that three other managers in our history - Orr, McLintock, Taylor - also inherited sides which were established over time in mid-table, and which contained respected pedigree - but those were much older squads with far less resources, and far less success under their belt.

 

I'm very appreciative of what Rodgers has done. He's been, by and large, a very good manager. The questions for me, since the early months of this year, have been whether he'd be the best person to oversee a rebuild (hardly a problem, it turns out) and address some of the obvious shortcomings of this squad. It's not a matter of whether he's a good boss or not - it's whether it's working at the moment, and whether he can generate that buzz of belief and cohesiveness in the team that you need to go forward as much as a new voice, with fresh ideas, might. And it's far too much of a cop-out to say 'Ah, but who'd be better than him?' - as if anyone can seriously make that sort of a projection! I mean, who really got excited when Little, Pearson and Ranieri turned up at the club? On the other hand we all wet ourselves over Pleat, Levein and Sven. Neither should we be paying too much attention to a press which seems unwilling to ask serious questions of Rodgers. It's painfully obvious that all is not well, and it's a matter of whether things would improve on the pitch if there were a change.

 

I'm not for a second saying that now is a great moment to fire Rodgers, nor that a man of his talent is incapable of turning this around. I just doubt very much that a tenure extended beyond this point is going to be much good for either party. Jock Stein said that if you stay at a club for more than a few years you need to reinvent yourself and the squad. You can't play the same way, use the same ideas, the same systems and ethos. I just wonder whether Rodgers has it within him to change his course - or, rather, want to change his course - and dismantle his preconceptions in that way.

An absolutely brilliant post and I think you've hit the nail on the head.

 

Sir Alex Ferguson is the perfect example of Jock Stein's theory - how many times did Sir Alex overhaul the squad at United, or alter things (whether formation or the daily schedule) slightly to get a reaction from his players? Admittedly Man Utd provided a very ample budget to allow him to do so.

 

I think ultimately we have to say thanks for what Rodgers has done for us, but it might well be time for him to either reinvent himself a bit, or move on.

[Foxdiamond]

How disruptive and expensive would it be to sack Rodgers. Who is the obvious candidate and would they be able to keep our best players and or cope with the budget restrictions currently in place. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water. Just as annoyed as anybody with chucking points away 

[foxinsocks]

1 minute ago, Foxdiamond said:

How disruptive and expensive would it be to sack Rodgers. Who is the obvious candidate and would they be able to keep our best players and or cope with the budget restrictions currently in place. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water. Just as annoyed as anybody with chucking points away 

Frankly, cutting him loosr would give a massive bounce.

There are a number of managers available... many would be better that the currrent rodgers perfornance. He knows he is failing... he is beleaguered... it is not a good vibe for the club 

[Sampson]

37 minutes ago, SafewayFox said:

Sousa.

 

Didn’t the players do training with a ball from day of pre-season?

 

Swear we looked like amateurs in the fitness department when he was here??

Yep I remember an interview with Bruno Berner saying Sousa effectively banned fitness training and strength training was optional and it essentially ended his career because his game was built around his engine.

 

Swansea also collapsed the previous season looking completely unfit and there were articles from Swansea players criticising his bizarre methods.

 

No wonder he didn’t last very long. I’m sure that style can work in other leagues but having such an unfit squad in the English game was just stupid. Especially off the back of Pearson’s workhorses in 09/10 who reached the playoffs with a side on paper that had no right to reach the playoffs through hard work and high fitness levels.

[Foxdiamond]

11 minutes ago, foxinsocks said:

Frankly, cutting him loosr would give a massive bounce.

There are a number of managers available... many would be better that the currrent rodgers perfornance. He knows he is failing... he is beleaguered... it is not a good vibe for the club 

The next dozen matches will tell us a lot either way