Rodgers -Time To Go

I've been pro Rodgers, incredibly so, when he first signed a I thought he as a good appointment, through his first season I wanted to give him time, I was to put up with some of the embarrassing comments, if I'm honest I quite liked them, it kept us in the news and in general he was positive. Through the Suarez era I gave Rodgers credit for developing the team, after all finishing second in the league couldn't be down to just one exceptional player.  That summer I remember some of the papers just starting to hint that Rodgers himself may have got the attention of some of The biggest clubs in Europe and I didn't want him to leave, I was gutted at just the thought.  I like the majority of his signings, still do, I also liked the players who we didn't get, at least we tried or were linked to some of the better players around.  Even last season despite starting to get frustrated I was still prepared to give him a chance, the question is now, has he used that chance up.

In my opinion that chance had gone at the end of last season, we threw away a cup semi against Villa and then gave up on the season, culminating in an embarrassing run of results that itself culminated in that humiliating afternoon in Stoke, a day no Liverpool supporter can forget no matter how much we try.  I wanted him to go over the summer but he didn't and then this season started and ŵe found ourselves making the same old mistakes, no improvement, no change apart from our club appears to have declined even further as we face yet another season in transition.

The biggest crime in my eyes is Rodgers refusal to change, learn or adapt, we are playing formations that simply don't work for us, I don't know why they don't work, I suspect it's a combination between the players don't suite the particular formation and the manager doesn't really understand them, but whatever the reason they work on occasion for other clubs but not for us, not at the moment, not with these players, we need two strikers it seems obvious but Rodgers will hardly ever change.  Every time we play two up we seem to be more exciting, more fluent, more creative, score more goals and get better results but then despite this we almost always switch back to one up and create less (usually nothing) play less creatively, quickly lose confidence, start to panic at the back and quickly start to concede goals, stop scoring and inevitably start to lose games.  Everybody would then revert to the more positive approach, there is nothing wrong with trying something, it didn't work so go back to then method that works, not Rodgers we play the same formation that doesn't work, or a variation of it for over a year, dropping points and loosing confidence as we go.  Through the summer we buy players, more players who suite a formation with to up, we are all excited up to the point the games start and we are unbelievably still trying the same flawed formation and tactics.

Rodgers again show stubbornness over individual players, Lovren as bought by Rodgers and at the time I didn't think he was a bad signing, but since he has been playing he has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is not good enough for Liverpool with weekly performances that are at time laughable and individual errors that have cost us points almost on a weekly basis yet all the time we have Sakho sitting on the bench, definitely the best defender at the club and one of the best in the country, but week after week Lovren is preferred.  He should have been moved on not entrusted as our starting centre half, yes we paid a lot of money, just admit we got it wrong and move on.

Rodgers third mistake is to continuously play players out of position normally in an attempt to force everybody into his flawed formation but he has destroyed the confidence of some excellent young players Moreno, Markovic, Can, Sterling, Ibe, Milner and Henderson are all first team players who have regularly been played out of position so much that it has effected their confidence, badly, again costing the team points.

I don't know what goes on behind closed doors but almost everybody who does mentions how badly Rodgers handles some players, again in my opinion destroying confidence and costing the team.

It has now got to the point where, in my opinion, it has gone to far, even if he can turn things around we will always be waiting for the next change of formation the players will never getback that confidence whilst playing under him the damage has been done and it s nobodies fault but Rodgers, he has failed to learn, adapt or change and it has cost us, big time, we have m to dropped to become a mid table club and Rodgers appears happy with this, it's time for a change, we need somebody who will allow our squad to play or even help them to perform rather than appearing to hinder them.

@lfclumo

 

   

Rodgers Man Management !

Is Brendan Rodgers correct with the way he is handling certain players.  Many people have expressed an opinion that he has thrown players under the bus, almost for no reason, but possibly to cover for his and the teams own shortcomings, I disagree and I'm going to look at four players who have at various times suffered under Rodgers, Balotelli, Borini, Enrique and Mignolet.

Firstly Mignolet who is different to the others he is currently in favour but  he was dropped from the team and told he would be playing no part for a considerable time, looking for all the world like a scapegoat for the terrible results that the team had shown up to that point.  Brad Jones was his replacement who despite being a lovely bloke just isn't a capable goalkeeper he showed us this in that first game at Manchester comically diving out of the way of shots, but still Rodgers kept his word Jones was in, Mignolet out.  Was this bad man management, I don't think so, thinking back Mignolet was seriously out of form, there were huge in takes of breath from the whole of Anfield any time the ball went anywhere near him, constantly criticised by fans, commentators and media he looked a broken man, many were shouting for him to be replaced in the January.  A few weeks out the team and if the press are to be believed after a talking to from the wife he returned to the team with a string of good performances a far better and more confident keeper than ever before.  So good, in fact, that some were telling us that he was our player of the year by the end of the season.  With hindsight granted, but this has been proven as good man management a player who looked broken has been taken away from the limelight and come back stronger and better, but this is partly at least down to Mignolet himself a bad attitude or a petulant strop and I'm sure he wouldn't have made it back in to the first team.

Borini is different again he really wants to make it at Liverpool, he works hard displays a good attitude, says all the right things, the top and bottom of it is he is just not good enough.  I think he will be a perfectly decent forward for somebody just in my opinion not a team with top four ambitions, I believe that the manager has told him this. Last year we were offered around £14 million pounds by Sunderland and he basically refused to go, this has cost us as we will not get that sort of offer again, I know he has a contract but as the manager of the club what options does Rodgers have he is not going to make the bench we have numerous forwards higher than him in the pecking order, the club need him off the wage bill and anything we can get for him in the bank, Rodgers needs to get rid, hopefully in an amicable manner but if not, we still need to get rid.

Enrique is almost the opposite of Borini poor attitude, doesn't appear to have the intelligence to say anything right and appears to spend all his time on social media making inane comments and as far as I can see has no interest in playing football, why would we want to keep him.  He also is refusing to leave appearing to wanting to see out his contract claiming his huge wages for doing very little.  Again what options does the manager have. For me he has made the correct decision.

Balotelli, what can I say, so many seem to think he should be given another chance and I just can't see it, yes he is a Liverpool player and when he is on the pitch I will support him but in my opinion he shouldn't get anywhere near a Liverpool shirt again.  Firstly despite him being a risk worth taking it has turned out that he simply isn't good enough his record not only at Livrpool but at is other clubs and in the international arena show that, he can take a penalty and score an occasional spectacular goal but for me that's it.  Reports from Melwood tell us that he is poor in training, worse is a bad influence on others, talking over coaches, refusing to listen or take instructions, bringing friends who also disrupt sessions, continuously missing sessions due to "colds" all unacceptable.  Again I can't see that Rodgers has any other option than to keep him away from the first team players and try to get him out of the club.

Many people feel that Rodgers should treat the above players differently but I just can't see how, if Rodgers had been replaced in the summer and many peoples favourite Klopp was now the manager I can't imagine for one second that he would reward this type of behaviour and give Balotelli a place in the first team, especially with his goal scoring record at the club, or that Enrique would be rewarded for his time on social media with a place on the bench or that he would pick players who are just not good enough because they say the right things, what he would possibly do is reward players who having been dropped go away, improve and come back stronger and better, in fact you could say he would do just what Rodgers has done.

@lfclumo

Rotation, Rotation, Rotation

Whilst like almost everybody else I think rotation, used correctly, is vital, sometimes I think it  is getting out of hand and dare I say ridiculous again with our supporters appearing to jump on a bandwagon and start shouting their mouths off before engaging the brain and thinking about what they are saying or asking for.

Firstly let me say that i agree with most it is absolutely imperative that we rest players so that we don't ruin careers like we have done in the past with the likes of Owen through over playing but also so that out team doesn't suffer in the hear and now suffering with unnecessary injuries or loss of form through tiredness both of which could cost us points.

Having said that I have listened to one recent podcast that during the course of their show called for all ten of our outfield players to be rested or rotated for an important league fixture and this is silly, taking things to extremes again.  Obviously all ten can't be replaced while we still field a strong enough team and whilst I agree that tired players need to be given a week off occasionally we have to look at it from the perspective of the whole team and who we can afford to drop and who we need for that particular fixture as well as who is available to come in and replace those we are resting, if we don't have replacements fit and available then players can't be rested they are just going to have to tough it out.

Form is an important consideration, if a player is in top form banging in the goals every week, for me it is not the time to rest him, let him play, let the team get the benefits and rest him when there is the inevitable dip.  By the nature of it his form will drop off when he tires and that is surely the time to drop or rest somebody not when they are in the middle of a hot streak.  At Liverpool we always seem to want to protect players for the later, that never seems to come.  When is the big game that we are resting or wanting to rest all these players for?  We have calls to rest players in the League Cup semi finals, in the FA Cup, in the UEFA cup in the Champions League and in big six point League fixtures exactly what are we saving them for, there is nothing left, they will all be nice and fresh for their summer holidays.

The opposite is also true a player struggling with form should be the one who is dropped or rested and given a chance to recover, poor form will inevitably be a symptom of tiredness so this would be the ideal time to take somebody out of the team but hen our manager does this we seem to criticise claiming he has chucked players under the bus and we should be supporting them.  Rodgers does take players out of the team when they appear to be suffering and when he brings them back it appears to work Sterling last season was dropped, Mignolet this season was dropped or rested and now looks like a star, Lovren, Balotelli, Sakho, Can, Lucas, Markovic, Lallana, Moreno, Sterling all possiby first eleven have had time out of the team and when they have come back have looked stronger with possibly only Sterling not showing terrible form before he was rested, when you add to this list the players who have been injured Sturridge, Gerrard, Johnson, Allan and those such as Lambert, Enrique and Manquillo who were possibly always just cover we are changing or rotating our team a lot.

 For me Rodgers is taking people out of the team and when they come back their form has been good so we are resting players and now at the end of the season when the fixture list is becoming more of a problem and every game seems to be a six pointer we should be seeing the benefits, we should be able to play our strongest team more often then rest players over the summer it's what Rodgers does look at our record in his previous seasons we finish strong look at the evidence players have been taking out of the team and have come back stronger and better.  So please trust our manager in this at least he appears to know what he is doing.

 @lfclumo