Brendan Rodgers (Liverpool -> Celtic -> Leicester)

I love Brendan Rodgers as much as the next man. Think he's done something special during his time here, he got Liverpool playing some of the best football the world has ever seen and got almost every single Liverpool fan believing again. That is remarkable.

But, there's always a but, there is still one nagging problem and that is of his record in the transfer market.

If we look at the summer of 2014 we could put two teams together. 11 of those who were at the club before Brendan, 11 of Brendan's own.

GK - Reina or Mignolet

RB - Johnson or Manquillo
CB - Skrtel or Lovren
CB - Agger or Sakho
LB - Flanagan or Moreno

RM - Sterling or Markovic
CM - Gerrard or Allen
CM - Henderson or Coutinho
CM - Lucas or Can
LM - Enrique or Lallana

CF - Suarez or Sturridge.

It's hard to make an argument for too many of Brendan's signings to say they've improved the team.

This is the point I'd like to see addressed above any other. Brendan's transfer success rate has to improve drastically.

There are two types of coaches, the team coach and the goalkeeping coach, there is no such thing as a defensive or attacking coach, they all do both.  Some will be more attack minded as in Brendan, some will be defense minded as in Mourinho, it all depends on their style of play but there aren't seperate badges when you're qualifying.

Of course we all want our defense to be better, we need them to be better if we want to achieve anything but expecting Brendan to change how he plays is never going to happen.  He will always spend 80-90% of training time on the attacking side of the game and as he only has a couple of days between matches to work with the players we will continue to struggle unless the players themselves start to take more responsibility on the pitch. 

Individually they aren't bad players, our 3 main CB's are all internationals, the problem for me is that Lovren and Sakho are front foot players who like to attack the ball high up the pitch, whereas Skrtel naturally drops deep and our keeper stays glued to his line. 

What Brendan needs to do is decide which way he wants to play, high line or sit deep and get the players who fit.  Personally I think he wants to play a high line hence buying Sakho and Lovren and now also Moreno, we've got Ilori and Wisdom for the RCB position when they're ready and Flanno and Manquillo when Glen leaves so we just need a different keeper.

There are two types of coaches, the team coach and the goalkeeping coach, there is no such thing as a defensive or attacking coach, they all do both.  Some will be more attack minded as in Brendan, some will be defense minded as in Mourinho, it all depends on their style of play but there aren't seperate badges when you're qualifying.

Of course we all want our defense to be better, we need them to be better if we want to achieve anything but expecting Brendan to change how he plays is never going to happen.  He will always spend 80-90% of training time on the attacking side of the game and as he only has a couple of days between matches to work with the players we will continue to struggle unless the players themselves start to take more responsibility on the pitch. 

Individually they aren't bad players, our 3 main CB's are all internationals, the problem for me is that Lovren and Sakho are front foot players who like to attack the ball high up the pitch, whereas Skrtel naturally drops deep and our keeper stays glued to his line. 

What Brendan needs to do is decide which way he wants to play, high line or sit deep and get the players who fit.  Personally I think he wants to play a high line hence buying Sakho and Lovren and now also Moreno, we've got Ilori and Wisdom for the RCB position when they're ready and Flanno and Manquillo when Glen leaves so we just need a different keeper.

If he wants to play a high line not sure why Skrtel was shoehorned straight in after coming back from injury and bringing Glen back in. It's a recipe for disaster with Lovren running one way and the other two retreating back into goal.

If he wants to play a high line not sure why Skrtel was shoehorned straight in after coming back from injury and bringing Glen back in. It's a recipe for disaster with Lovren running one way and the other two retreating back into goal.

Perhaps because when Sakho plays on the left, Lovren keeps moving into his "zone".
Maybe BR thinks the balance is better with Skrtel in there.
My opinion is that he would be better off getting Lovren to stay on his own side, and playing Sakho, rather than trying to balance the 2 CB's.

If he wants to play a high line not sure why Skrtel was shoehorned straight in after coming back from injury and bringing Glen back in. It's a recipe for disaster with Lovren running one way and the other two retreating back into goal.

Exactly mate, they just aren't compatable and it's no wonder why we're all at sixes and sevens.

Perhaps because when Sakho plays on the left, Lovren keeps moving into his "zone".
Maybe BR thinks the balance is better with Skrtel in there.
My opinion is that he would be better off getting Lovren to stay on his own side, and playing Sakho, rather than trying to balance the 2 CB's.

Agreed Swab but until he's back from injury we have no choice.

Agreed Swab but until he's back from injury we have no choice.

Unfortunately.
Skrtels preference for playing deep is something I've mentioned many times, and it doesn't fit the style BR wants to play, but as you say, at the moment we have no choice.

Last year I commented how Brendan had his corporate pals and minions all lined up as allies .

Clarke is needed but BR would feel undermined.
Remember who was rejected as Director of Football by Brendan?

LVG.

I get what the manager needs to do to improve, that he and his staff need to work on but posts like this leave me scratching my head, it simply smacks of an agenda

Steve Clarke was Kenny's assistant manager, not his defensive coach, Kenny had a way of playing more suited to be secure at the back.
Clarke resigned and has said many times he wants to be a manager, why are you suggesting it's Rodgers holding him from a return? And not the fact Clarke doesn't want to be a two? And keeps going for managers jobs?

And Van Gaal as DOF? I don't blame him for a second, that would have been a disaster, van Gaal wouldn't have lasted five minutes in that role.

Rodgers shagged his missus?

Last year I commented how Brendan had his corporate pals and minions all lined up as allies .

Clarke is needed but BR would feel undermined.
Remember who was rejected as Director of Football by Brendan?

LVG.

Could be right Skip.

Personally don't think LvG would have been a good DoF but rejecting the idea out of sight doesn't appear to have paid great dividends for us at the moment. It may well be something we should revisit as I am personally worried about the level of player we consistently sign.

Brendan is rightly under scrutiny at the moment because by his own assertion (Tottenham and Bale) having spent that amount of money you'd expect to move forward and we appear to have taken a leap backwards.

He can talk all the bollocks he wants about bulking up the squad, you spend £50m net (approx) £130m gross (approx) you expect a better first team walking out of that tunnel than we had last season. All this "you can't replace Luis" is a tired and over used excuse. It is not rocket science to know how to improve the squad you improve your weakest areas on the pitch and push those that were on the pitch down to the bench, it's bloody simple and so far it appears like we've largely failed (so far) to do that.

The weakest area we had was the hole Luis left behind and at the moment Lambert/Balotelli have been some kind of sick joke to filling our weakest area on the pitch. All this "for the future" crap somehow defining the level our signings are currently playing at is, again, an excuse. We have been incredibly lucky this season in terms of both points gained when judged against performance level and how poor our traditional rivals have been. Neither of those will last, whether it's Southampton continuing their fine form or Arsenal/Spurs sorting themselves out a points per game ratio of just over 1.5 (ours currently) will see us fall woefully short of 4th.

Could be right Skip.

Personally don't think LvG would have been a good DoF but rejecting the idea out of sight doesn't appear to have paid great dividends for us at the moment. It may well be something we should revisit as I am personally worried about the level of player we consistently sign.

Brendan is rightly under scrutiny at the moment because by his own assertion (Tottenham and Bale) having spent that amount of money you'd expect to move forward and we appear to have taken a leap backwards.

He can talk all the bollocks he wants about bulking up the squad, you spend £50m net (approx) £130m gross (approx) you expect a better first team walking out of that tunnel than we had last season. All this "you can't replace Luis" is a tired and over used excuse. It is not rocket science to know how to improve the squad you improve your weakest areas on the pitch and push those that were on the pitch down to the bench, it's bloody simple and so far it appears like we've largely failed (so far) to do that.

The weakest area we had was the hole Luis left behind and at the moment Lambert/Balotelli have been some kind of sick joke to filling our weakest area on the pitch. All this "for the future" crap somehow defining the level our signings are currently playing at is, again, an excuse. We have been incredibly lucky this season in terms of both points gained when judged against performance level and how poor our traditional rivals have been. Neither of those will last, whether it's Southampton continuing their fine form or Arsenal/Spurs sorting themselves out a points per game ratio of just over 1.5 (ours currently) will see us fall woefully short of 4th.

So Arsenal and Spurs are going to sort their issues but we aren't/can't.

Makes sense.

who gives a flying F**k what Spurs or Arsenal do the only concern is our club. As each game goes by the more last season appears to be as Luis himself said down to him. Not only did he score goals and make goals he also inspired others to perform to a higher level.
Brendan has a chance this season to show how good he is despite spending a disgusting amount of money on average players. Lets not have the usual howling of foul play for daring to question Brendan even the great man himself back in the day had his decisions questioned his signings dissected.
We need a tactical genius tonight to get something from this game Brendan can really make a name for himself by selecting a team that can diffuse the talent of Real and at the same time punish them.Bit of a tall order.

No agenda PD.

Moyes has been attacked this week by "arse covering" Ferguson in his " updated" autobiography,  for dismantling the existing people the Scum had.

Brendan did the same.

As far as the defence is concerned after two and a half years its a case of " If you need help ask for it.      If you dont .....prove it "

The defence is and remains a shambles.   

It was a title loser for us .

Luis covered up the deficiencies which are now exposed in spite of £100 million spent.

This could be one of the toughest games, for Brendan, since he became manager, not saying it will be a make or break game for him, but it will be a severe test of his management skills, after such a poor performance by the side on Sunday.

Rafa had similar problems once Alonso was sold, Rafa failed to fill the void Alonso left with another quality Midfielder, instead he opted for an Italian who had issues with his noodle,sound familiar?

So Arsenal and Spurs are going to sort their issues but we aren't/can't.

Makes sense.

No, if you look what I said FL I said either Southampton or one of our rivals. Basically if they or us don't someone will take advantage.

In simplest terms there are a certain number of points that get you into 4th and below 60 simply wont cut it and that's what we're on course for at the moment. So Arsenal/Spurs/West Ham/Southampton/Whoever you like will statistically finish with more points than that. It was in no way meant to suggest what you took from it and surprised you read it like that.

Jesus F***ing christ I hope to god we play well tonight, don't think I can take much more of this bickering.

WE'VE A F**k OFF BIG GAME ON TONIGHT yet you lot are more interested in pulling everything and everyone to pieces.  Put your differences to one side for a few hours please, I want to enjoy tonight.

There is a big problem with the coaching in general at Liverpool, if we don't have a specialised defensive coach then why not?? It would seem to make perfect sense to me. One goalkeeping coach, one defensive coach, one attacking coach and then a manager who is effectively a head coach and does the overall team coaching/strategy, why is there any need for an assistant manager in todays game, what does he actually do?
It's time to modernise and sweep out the dead wood and that starts with Colin Pascoe.

No, if you look what I said FL I said either Southampton or one of our rivals. Basically if they or us don't someone will take advantage.

In simplest terms there are a certain number of points that get you into 4th and below 60 simply wont cut it and that's what we're on course for at the moment. So Arsenal/Spurs/West Ham/Southampton/Whoever you like will statistically finish with more points than that. It was in no way meant to suggest what you took from it and surprised you read it like that.

My point is that we can finish well above the necessary points for fourth if we start playing better, odds being that we will. Soton and West Ham are occupying two spots in the top that they won't hang on to, that leaves us and likely Arsenal to round out top 4.

My point is that we can finish well above the necessary points for fourth if we start playing better, odds being that we will. Soton and West Ham are occupying two spots in the top that they won't hang on to, that leaves us and likely Arsenal to round out top 4.

but after last year that shouldn't have been our aim especially after a record spending summer.

but after last year that shouldn't have been our aim especially after a record spending summer.

Im sure our aim is top of the table. But that doesn't change the reality of where we are at this moment.

he has been talking up Balotelli today I do hope he is a good poker player and he will actually start on the bench.
The stats aren't there to prove he is a big game player.

Rodgers shagged his missus?

For a second I thought you were talking about Colin Pascoe Beer.

That would be weird.