Brendan Rodgers

[jim5000]

2 hours ago, StanSP said:

What about the first 30-35 mins of the game? He seemed pretty comfortable and played alright up to then. 

A first team starter for a club with ambitions of disrupting the top 4 and making the Champions League should be able to be pretty comfortable for more than 35 minutes every 10 games.

[lcfc_forever]

17 minutes ago, jim5000 said:

Rodgers certainly is starting to generate some questions he needs to answer. Yes, we've had some bad injuries to key players, but Maddison and Perez simply are not performing and he keeps selecting them when available.

 

Worse than that however, is how predicatable our play has become. We are so slow to pass it out of defence and pretty much any Premier League team (and everyone we've played this season) know that if they press us or simply dont allow passes into midfield, Soyucu and whoever is partnering him will simply pass it back and forth for 5 mins at a time. We have no cutting edge at all: pass around the back then hope to find Ricardo down the right and hope he can do some magic and get it in the box. Tielemans is at least trying, and Ndidi is ultimately a ball winner. We are so predicatable pretty much everyone in the ground can spot where the next pass is going when Soyucu, Schmichael, or Vestergaard has it. We should not be using these three as playmakers.

 

Our defence does not seem solid right now either. We've let in 10 goals in the first 5 matches of the season (including the Europa).

Defence is the biggest issue at the moment, as the solidity and confidence you get from well-organised backline means you can take more risks to attack. 

 

He's rotated the centre-halves more often that he would have wanted, which is what I meant earlier by not knowing his best XI currently (in addition to the RW issue although Lookman's performance may have sorted that). 

 

Problem is our best centre-half pairing is Evans and Fofana, and they're both injured. When Liverpool lost Van Dijk and Joe Gomez, commentators went on and on about it. But our situation isn't all that different, and helps to explain our indifferent start to the season.

 

We just have to hope until Fofana returns that Vestergaard and Soy grow in confidence and understanding, and Evans can play one game a week which is the most we can expect given his injury issues.

 

 

Edited 19 September 2021 by lcfc_forever

[sacreblueits442]

7 hours ago, Kopfkino said:

Why are the journalists around the club so bad? For example, why doesn’t someone ask him directly what Maddison has done in the last half a season to justify starting games, let alone being shoehorned into positions he shouldn’t be playing. All the questions are too passive, too much just asking for information, too many questions that are easy to bat away with the standard guff, too soft, too passive rather than asking the question that actually needs the answer.

.....you will not get the opportunity to interview a manager if you go after him after a game!!!

They are already not happy about having to do countless interviews and someone asking pertinent questions and in your face will be avoided at all costs. You will have to take shared copies of interviews with 5 Live until he vacates the managers post.

[sacreblueits442]

4 hours ago, lcfc_forever said:

Having read about Potter's style and methods at his previous club to Brighton, he'd be a really good fit for us if Rodgers left.

 

That said, hopefully Brendan is around for a long time yet and wins us many more trophies! 

 

He clearly hasn't got an XI that he's fixed on yet, hence all the changes. The central defence issues have been a big problem and he's unsure about the right side in particular but Lookman's performances may have made up his mind combined with Maddison's continuing poor performances. The alternative is the diamond with Ihenancho behind Vardy and Barnes. 

 

He showed his flexibility last season, and sure he evolve our play further. 

...I was thinking of the same thing today, he very much mirrors Rodgers style of play!!!

My problem with Potter stemmed from the fact that he chose to sit back and concede possession and brought a big defender on to help close out the game. A very Rodgers like action that showed a tactical limitation as it became detrimental to his team as opposed to continuing to play the way they were playing and having more openings as we were forced to start to take chances.

  For that reason I think he is not the right man we should be looking to but I would suspect the club would be going for a bigger name. Rodgers has games coming up fast and regular and a chance to get us playing a coherent game, we could finish 7th and win a trophy and the owners would still be happy.

[kiwiturk]

When I've asked this question 6 months ago, I've been crucified and have had to put up many unpleasant comments here.

But here we go and I'm doing it again 

The club, the owner and all of us need to decide who we are and what we need to achieve as an EPL club.

Are we the team for,

- Chasing the title and CL spot every season?

- Aiming EL?

- Middle tier team and happy to float between 7-12?

Let's solve our ID crisis and determine a target.

My lack of love and faith for the BR never been a secret and I back myself every single day for this.

I believe his average game management, his lack of self re-innovation/ re-invention won't get us any higher I'm afraid.

This is my opinion and this is a forum for the fans who cares and believing progress.

If you not agree with it, its absolutely fine but no need for rude or smartass comments please

 

[Deeg67]

7 hours ago, StanSP said:

what about on Thursday against Napoli?

You mean when he went with the lineup he refuses to use in the PL, and then switched to a more defensive formation after we took the lead?

[Aus Fox]

8 minutes ago, kiwiturk said:

When I've asked this question 6 months ago, I've been crucified and have had to put up many unpleasant comments here.

But here we go and I'm doing it again 

The club, the owner and all of us need to decide who we are and what we need to achieve as an EPL club.

Are we the team for,

- Chasing the title and CL spot every season?

- Aiming EL?

- Middle tier team and happy to float between 7-12?

Let's solve our ID crisis and determine a target.

My lack of love and faith for the BR never been a secret and I back myself every single day for this.

I believe his average game management, his lack of self re-innovation/ re-invention won't get us any higher I'm afraid.

This is my opinion and this is a forum for the fans who cares and believing progress.

If you not agree with it, its absolutely fine but no need for rude or smartass comments please

 

When the top 4 are spending ridiculous amounts of money on the very best players in the world, we have to be aiming for Europa League every season, anything else is reliant on one of Man City, Man Utd, Liverpool or Chelsea failing and to some extent Arsenal and Spurs too.

We simply cannot go out and buy a player for £50 million plus every transfer window.

And even if we could spend, even with champions league football we don’t have the appeal to attract a prime Lukaku, Ronaldo, Sancho etc.

If we can continue to get a position in the top 6 and win the odd cup here and there we are punching above our weight.

[Dan LCFC]

I don't want him out and won't call for it, but I do get the sense that it may come to an end for him here soon. I can see this being a pretty flat season which is finished with him moving to Arsenal. There's a degree of feeling that he's achieved all he's likely to here. Could be wrong.

[Bptiger]

Rodgers , his time maybe up , his go slow tactics at the start of every game , pas the ball side ways backwards is killing us , when we do play with a faster tempo we luck great . Vestagard big plus is his long ball out from the back we have seen any of this has Rodgers barred him . Getting really sick of the way we play it so so negative for much of the game . 

[Koke]

He's got credit in the bank for winning the FÅ Cup and getting us to Europe twice. However, if we are languishing mid table by November the club will definitely consider their options. Too much money has been spent on players and staff for us not to be in or around the top 6. 

[Aus Fox]

13 hours ago, volpeazzurro said:

Has he improved us every season or is it just as much about the quality of players he's had to work with compared to Ranieri, Shakespeare and Puel? Would he have been capable of winning the Premiership with the players Ranieri had? Really?

 

Two seasons on the trot now its been a debacle each time after Christmas, largely due to certain management decisions re formations and player selections. Are we calling this a poor start to a season conveniently or in reality, is it merely a  continuation of the slide since last Christmas?

 

The FA Cup was great but we were very fortunate imo. He doesn't appear to learn from his mistakes ie West Ham, three times, no lessons learned? Should a squad injected with some exciting new talent in the summer not be putting up a better and more attacking fight? Does the loss of a couple of centre halves merit this? Most of that time that new talent has been sat on the bench together with last years top goalscorer. Is that a good thing?

 

Your first question yes, the two seasons before he arrived we finished 9th (including the one where he arrived) and had a couple of cup 1/4 finals.

His first full season, we finished 5th, Fa Cup 1/4 final again and a league cup semi.

His next season, we finished 5th again, Europa League knock out phase, and won the FA Cup.

That’s progress every season - is that because he has better players? Maybe, but that’s because he has either signed them on developed them!

Would he have won the league? Who knows? That was a magical season where everything fell into place perfectly, I am not sure if any other manager or players could have done that.

We have largely slid back in the second half of the year because we don’t have the big squads of the top 6 clubs, we tire at the end of the season.

There is a reason teams struggle to make the top six, ask yourself why Everton, West Ham, Southampton and any other team outside the big six always falls away. It comes down to squad depth, the first season we fell away we were playing the likes of Ryan Bennett because we had no one else fit. 
We won the FA Cup nothing fortunate about it, the message that we were fortunate to win the FA Cup seems to be something to beat Rodgers with. At the end of the day the easiest game we played on route to the Final was Stoke away - not always an easy place to go to.

We then beat Brentford away, Brighton, Man Utd, Southampton and Chelsea and beat the lot - you don’t do that by luck!

Learning from mistakes - I notice you selectively chose 1 team out of 20 who have beat us, not how he learnt and beat Pep’s Man City, how we played and beat all of the big money six in the league last season - that is learning.

Finally, new talent takes time to bed in, I fully expect Lookman to get more of a run now. 
Daka is competing with the greatest player in our clubs history.

Sounare has started the last two Bertrand and Vestergaard have started when available every time.

 

Look, no one is happy with the start we’ve made, but we’re 5 games in, we have won 2, unlucky in 2 and smashed in 1.

Keep the faith, be patient, success takes time to build and there is always set backs along the way, but I firmly believe Rodgers is the best man for the job.

[dayday]

9 minutes ago, Aus Fox said:

Your first question yes, the two seasons before he arrived we finished 9th (including the one where he arrived) and had a couple of cup 1/4 finals.

His first full season, we finished 5th, Fa Cup 1/4 final again and a league cup semi.

His next season, we finished 5th again, Europa League knock out phase, and won the FA Cup.

That’s progress every season - is that because he has better players? Maybe, but that’s because he has either signed them on developed them!

Would he have won the league? Who knows? That was a magical season where everything fell into place perfectly, I am not sure if any other manager or players could have done that.

We have largely slid back in the second half of the year because we don’t have the big squads of the top 6 clubs, we tire at the end of the season.

There is a reason teams struggle to make the top six, ask yourself why Everton, West Ham, Southampton and any other team outside the big six always falls away. It comes down to squad depth, the first season we fell away we were playing the likes of Ryan Bennett because we had no one else fit. 
We won the FA Cup nothing fortunate about it, the message that we were fortunate to win the FA Cup seems to be something to beat Rodgers with. At the end of the day the easiest game we played on route to the Final was Stoke away - not always an easy place to go to.

We then beat Brentford away, Brighton, Man Utd, Southampton and Chelsea and beat the lot - you don’t do that by luck!

Learning from mistakes - I notice you selectively chose 1 team out of 20 who have beat us, not how he learnt and beat Pep’s Man City, how we played and beat all of the big money six in the league last season - that is learning.

Finally, new talent takes time to bed in, I fully expect Lookman to get more of a run now. 
Daka is competing with the greatest player in our clubs history.

Sounare has started the last two Bertrand and Vestergaard have started when available every time.

 

Look, no one is happy with the start we’ve made, but we’re 5 games in, we have won 2, unlucky in 2 and smashed in 1.

Keep the faith, be patient, success takes time to build and there is always set backs along the way, but I firmly believe Rodgers is the best man for the job.

With a forward line of Barnes, Vardy and Lookman, we don’t need to play this tippy tappy rubbish, I think Rodgers gets a little obsessed with tactics and systems and that’s what is holding us back, I just wish he would take the shackles of and play on the front foot, this the best team and squad we have ever had, so there is no excuses from now on.

 

 

 

 

[Le Renard]

The team lacks confidence and we can all see it.  When we go a goal or two down, we then start playing, and the last 30 mins against Brighton we were very good.  My worry is that when managers get doubts in their my mind and are unsure about trusting certain players, then they start to make bizarre decisions, like playing Soumaré to far up the field, almost as a number 10, or keep picking Perez & Maddison who's confidence has gone.  Lets hope this is just a blip and he can get us back playing with intensity and on the front foot, if not I think he may not last the whole season!  We as fans should not want him sacked, this will mean the season will be a complete failure and the next manager will have his work cut out to follow in Rodger's footsteps.

[ScrumpyJack]

Rodgers mistake at the moment is relying on Vardy, he’s bagged a few goals but I don’t think his style is conducive to the overall style. Vardy at his best scores goals against the run of play, whereas Rodgers’ system tries to dictate the match. It’s screaming for Iheneacho to start and get on the end of build-up play.

 

Playing Iheanacho with Vardy over Maddison needs to come in soon.

[Oldblueyes]

32 minutes ago, dayday said:

With a forward line of Barnes, Vardy and Lookman, we don’t need to play this tippy tappy rubbish, I think Rodgers gets a little obsessed with tactics and systems and that’s what is holding us back, I just wish he would take the shackles of and play on the front foot, this the best team and squad we have ever had, so there is no excuses from now on.

 

 

 

 

His personnel change for subs is usually based on a time basis and not on a proactive decision to improve things.

He is a stubborn manager and will only do things his way.

[teblin]

1 hour ago, Koke said:

He's got credit in the bank for winning the FÅ Cup and getting us to Europe twice. However, if we are languishing mid table by November the club will definitely consider their options. Too much money has been spent on players and staff for us not to be in or around the top 6. 

That depends on how we are doing in the Europa, as that could be our ticket to the CL.

 

also I think we’d need to be near the bottom for him to be in any trouble 

[Aus Fox]

12 minutes ago, Oldblueyes said:

His personnel change for subs is usually based on a time basis and not on a proactive decision to improve things.

He is a stubborn manager and will only do things his way.

Who else’s way should he be doing things?

What did you make of subs at half time in the last two games?

[Ric Flair]

7 hours ago, kiwiturk said:

When I've asked this question 6 months ago, I've been crucified and have had to put up many unpleasant comments here.

But here we go and I'm doing it again 

The club, the owner and all of us need to decide who we are and what we need to achieve as an EPL club.

Are we the team for,

- Chasing the title and CL spot every season?

- Aiming EL?

- Middle tier team and happy to float between 7-12?

Let's solve our ID crisis and determine a target.

My lack of love and faith for the BR never been a secret and I back myself every single day for this.

I believe his average game management, his lack of self re-innovation/ re-invention won't get us any higher I'm afraid.

This is my opinion and this is a forum for the fans who cares and believing progress.

If you not agree with it, its absolutely fine but no need for rude or smartass comments please

 

If he has a lack of in game management how were we one of the best teams at overturning games when going behind last season (you were critical of him the entire of last season so you can't even claim that was the past and its about the now).

 

If he lacks the ability to reinvent himself then why did he swallow his pride and his principles vs the big 6 last season (which he said himself) who in 2019/20 we massively struggled against and went on to beat every single one of them at least once? We played counter attacking football and it worked ridiculously well.

 

Now this isn't blind backing of Rodgers, I've some concerns myself about his tenure now that I previously put to one side but the longer he is here, like with any manager at a club there is a bigger chance of your methods becoming less effective. I'd argue him changing his philosophy last season, whilst worked in the short term, also seemed to have a knock on effect in other fixtures where the pragmatism spilled over and it was difficult to stomach given just how good we were in 2018/19 and 2019/20 under him vs pretty much every team outside the big 6.

 

I back him to sort us out, I think he's earnt the right to do so even if we have a turbulent season whilst he tries. However, he's not bullet proof and I'm concerned just how much the club are bowled over by him in what they've allowed him to do with the recruitment structure and medical side of things. If it does go wrong then we've quite an upheaval but I'm confident it won't come to that in a negative sense. Rodgers will move on from here in a few years having continued to have us fighting for the top 6 and cup triumphs and that's good enough for me.

[Pliskin]

5 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

If he has a lack of in game management how were we one of the best teams at overturning games when going behind last season (you were critical of him the entire of last season so you can't even claim that was the past and its about the now).

 

If he lacks the ability to reinvent himself then why did he swallow his pride and his principles vs the big 6 last season (which he said himself) who in 2019/20 we massively struggled against and went on to beat every single one of them at least once? We played counter attacking football and it worked ridiculously well.

 

Now this isn't blind backing of Rodgers, I've some concerns myself about his tenure now that I previously put to one side but the longer he is here, like with any manager at a club there is a bigger chance of your methods becoming less effective. I'd argue him changing his philosophy last season, whilst worked in the short term, also seemed to have a knock on effect in other fixtures where the pragmatism spilled over and it was difficult to stomach given just how good we were in 2018/19 and 2019/20 under him vs pretty much every team outside the big 6.

 

I back him to sort us out, I think he's earnt the right to do so even if we have a turbulent season whilst he tries. However, he's not bullet proof and I'm concerned just how much the club are bowled over by him in what they've allowed him to do with the recruitment structure and medical side of things. If it does go wrong then we've quite an upheaval but I'm confident it won't come to that in a negative sense. Rodgers will move on from here in a few years having continued to have us fighting for the top 6 and cup triumphs and that's good enough for me.

I’m wondering if Rodgers is better when he has limited options. When we seem to have wholesale injury problems we seem to be more resolute (not so much adventurous) but still carry a threat…..

 

 I mean what achieved last season with the injury problems we had was pretty impressive, but when we tend to have multiple options available he seems to get things wrong more often. It’s something Liverpool fans used to criticise him for….. 

 

One criticism I do have of Rodgers is he tries to be too clever with his tactics and sometimes they backfire horribly, something Wenger used to do in his later years at Arsenal. I mean, we all go to the games, Maddison is either not fit, not interested or not confident, so why is he being picked?

 

I trust Brendan to get it right, but he’s going to have to think about his tactics and team selections. Rather than get too clever with tactical formations, think of how you can get the best out of the players you have available……..

[Fox92]

57 minutes ago, Aus Fox said:

Who else’s way should he be doing things?

What did you make of subs at half time in the last two games?

He never changes from his posession based game. Even when we're losing and chasing games we're still knocking it around the back. It's too slow.

I think he is stubborn in that regard.

 

Also, playing two up front worked for us and we had a genuine good partneship in iheanacho and Vardy. But now Barnes is back from injury we've got to play him, and Maddison in, regardless of form. Both done nothing so far. A 34 year old up top on his own. Top scorer from last season starting on the bench.

[HighPeakFox]

I apologise for saying this for the 3rd time, but for once I see things quite simply. His job right now is to try and build rhythm again, the injuries over a sustained period of time (whatever the reasons for those, that's another debate) having repetitively altered tempo and structrue, and with it confidence. The players aren't suddenly poorer, or the tactics suddenly more timid, it's about a collective relaxed confidence that has been lost.

 

Do I think BR is perfect or beyond criticism? Absolutely not.

[foxinsocks]

47 minutes ago, HighPeakFox said:

I apologise for saying this for the 3rd time, but for once I see things quite simply. His job right now is to try and build rhythm again, the injuries over a sustained period of time (whatever the reasons for those, that's another debate) having repetitively altered tempo and structrue, and with it confidence. The players aren't suddenly poorer, or the tactics suddenly more timid, it's about a collective relaxed confidence that has been lost.

 

Do I think BR is perfect or beyond criticism? Absolutely not.

Settled back 4 read. If it is csgs and vesti Then fine... get behind them

 

Madfison has become a distraction. He cannot help us.  Game time for nacho soumare and lookman. 

 

Need to mix it up... pop a ball over for vardy early doors.  That will keep their defenders worrying.

[lcfcell]

I was very surprised when we bounced back last season from throwing away top 4 in 19/20 but it was always going to be hard to do that again imo, would’ve been very deflating. We might kick on as the season progresses but I think we’ll be around 9th/10th this year

[kiwiturk]

1 hour ago, Ric Flair said:

If he has a lack of in game management how were we one of the best teams at overturning games when going behind last season (you were critical of him the entire of last season so you can't even claim that was the past and its about the now).

 

If he lacks the ability to reinvent himself then why did he swallow his pride and his principles vs the big 6 last season (which he said himself) who in 2019/20 we massively struggled against and went on to beat every single one of them at least once? We played counter attacking football and it worked ridiculously well.

 

Now this isn't blind backing of Rodgers, I've some concerns myself about his tenure now that I previously put to one side but the longer he is here, like with any manager at a club there is a bigger chance of your methods becoming less effective. I'd argue him changing his philosophy last season, whilst worked in the short term, also seemed to have a knock on effect in other fixtures where the pragmatism spilled over and it was difficult to stomach given just how good we were in 2018/19 and 2019/20 under him vs pretty much every team outside the big 6.

 

I back him to sort us out, I think he's earnt the right to do so even if we have a turbulent season whilst he tries. However, he's not bullet proof and I'm concerned just how much the club are bowled over by him in what they've allowed him to do with the recruitment structure and medical side of things. If it does go wrong then we've quite an upheaval but I'm confident it won't come to that in a negative sense. Rodgers will move on from here in a few years having continued to have us fighting for the top 6 and cup triumphs and that's good enough for me.

So you are saying that we should be grateful what we have done so far.

Not looking for more achievements or progression at all.

Last season was the golden opportunity since 2015 for us to breaking into top 4 due to dismal performances of so called big 6 and we couldn't capitalise on that.

Do not get me wrong. I'm super grateful that we won the FA cup at the hands super saves of Kasper and wonder shot by Youri but everybody who understands the game of football must admit that we were super lucky to win FA cup  and the Football Gods were on our side that day.

I'm was at least solid and  consistent about my thoughts/comments regarding to BR's coaching style.

I can't say the same things about some LCFC fans here. They were declared him a genius yesterday and calling him incompetent today.

Edited 20 September 2021 by kiwiturk

[SkidsFox]

10 hours ago, lcfc_forever said:

Defence is the biggest issue at the moment, as the solidity and confidence you get from well-organised backline means you can take more risks to attack. 

 

He's rotated the centre-halves more often that he would have wanted, which is what I meant earlier by not knowing his best XI currently (in addition to the RW issue although Lookman's performance may have sorted that). 

 

Problem is our best centre-half pairing is Evans and Fofana, and they're both injured. When Liverpool lost Van Dijk and Joe Gomez, commentators went on and on about it. But our situation isn't all that different, and helps to explain our indifferent start to the season.

 

We just have to hope until Fofana returns that Vestergaard and Soy grow in confidence and understanding, and Evans can play one game a week which is the most we can expect given his injury issues.

 

 

It is frustrating, but we do have to accept we've had quite a run of defensive injuries to cope. When Justin and Fofana are back fit, maybe we'll revert to having a solid defence. It's worrying though that Evans may be on his last legs.

What is concerning is that we have so many players - KDH, Lookman, Dakar etc, who could come in and revitalise our side. Yet they rarely get a look in.