The Brendan years...

I'm not one for starting new threads so bear with me here.

To celebrate the the closing of the transfer window and the boss' 100th game, I thought it would be interesting to see how far we've come since his very first Premier League game in charge.

I'm sure we all remember it, 18 August 2012. West Bromwich Albion 3 - 0 Liverpool. What a way to start the season and Brendan's first game in charge. Here was the team that Rodgers fielded that fateful day.



Subs: Jones, Carragher, Cole, Henderson, Adam, Shelvey, Carroll.

A few things to mention; Henderson had not performed very well under previous managers and, even during Rodgers first season, wasn't all that good; Cole, Adam, Carroll and Downing were a steaming pile of sh*t and Allen and Borini were both Rodgers additions and will therefore be counted in the calculations below.

Now, it's fair to say Rodgers has signed some stinkers in his time here. Borini, Assaidi and Alberto are yet to make any impact on the team, Allen has failed to justify his price tag (so far), some strange loan deals (Moses, Cissokho and Sahin) and don't even start me on Aspas. However, he has also managed to turn a Chelsea reject with an attitude in to one of the most prolific strikers in Europe and uncovered an absolute gem in Coutinho.

Anyway, after 2 years, 4 transfer windows and -£94.7m*, this is what Rodgers has built.



Subs: Jones, Flanagan, Skrtel, Markovic, Can, Coutinho, Lambert

Now, it's a matter of preference and opinion in terms of what formation or players will be used when all are fit and available but I'm sure you get the idea.

Again, a few things to note; Gerrard has been reinvented in this "deep-lying playmaker" role; Henderson is absolute night and day compared to when Rodgers arrived and Sterling is fast becoming one of the brightest talents in World football.  I didn't include Allen, Lucas, Johnson or Borini but some might pick them for the match day squad. Also, we have some extremely promising players out on loan (Origi, Ibe and Suso).

I understand that there is some unknown quantity in the side but the signs have been very promising from PL newcomers Markovic, Moreno, Manquillo and Can. Lallana, Lovren, Lambert and Balotelli have already proven themselves in the prem and should thrive in this side.

The way we play is the most exciting i've seen since I started following LFC (about 15 years ago) and we will only improve as this young side starts to reach it's peak.

When you consider the money he has spent, the changes the boss has made to this side in the past 2 years is astounding. Fair enough, we have lost one of the best players in the world but you also have to consider that, when Rodgers came in, Suarez was not a quarter of the player he is now. He was a major part in that player's development, like he has been with so many of the others.

So, my thread may not necessarily provoke discussion or debate but I felt you folk might find it interesting to gander at and appreciate how far we've come since this genius took the realms.

*Figures were taken from http://liverpoolfc.wikia.com/wiki/Brendan_Rodgers/Transfers and, after some extremely complicated adding and subtracting, I arrived at the figure of £94.7m. This is the net figure, however does not include loan fees as I couldn't find them.

Appreciate the effort you put into that.  I think what you are highlighting is how much of his own stamp he has put on in those two seasons and 5 transfer windows.

Like you say it is early days for a number of our new signings but I would imagine most Liverpool fans have a better initial feeling about the likes of Markovic, Can, Lallana, Lambert etc than they did about Downing, Cole, Adam when they first arrived.

That £94M figure (if correct and I'll trust you) has obviously been skewed by the Suarez sale - but it is still fairly impressive for such a squad turnaround.

Let us not forget either that Comolli, in hindsight, now deserves some credit.  Suarez purchase netted us about £50M not to even calculate the money, kudos, sponsorship gained from a return to the Champions League - and Jordan Henderson, now touted as a potential captain, was also an astute buy.

Appreciate the effort you put into that.  I think what you are highlighting is how much of his own stamp he has put on in those two seasons and 5 transfer windows.

Like you say it is early days for a number of our new signings but I would imagine most Liverpool fans have a better initial feeling about the likes of Markovic, Can, Lallana, Lambert etc than they did about Downing, Cole, Adam when they first arrived.

That £94M figure (if correct and I'll trust you) has obviously been skewed by the Suarez sale - but it is still fairly impressive for such a squad turnaround.

Let us not forget either that Comolli, in hindsight, now deserves some credit.  Suarez purchase netted us about £50M not to even calculate the money, kudos, sponsorship gained from a return to the Champions League - and Jordan Henderson, now touted as a potential captain, was also an astute buy.

Incredible to think how hit and miss Commoli was. Polar opposites in some signings - of course, a lot of us thought Henderson was a massive miss, but now he's an incredible hit (that said many did abstain from criticism considering he was young, and still is young).

Suarez went from an 8/10 player to a 10/10 player.

Hendo imo has gone from a 5/10 to 8/10

Gerrard has arguably improved since Brendan took over from KD

Sturridge and Coutinho have improved as players since joining

Raheem is a work of art for such a young player

One person to thank - Brendan Rodgers

Incredible to think how hit and miss Commoli was.

Isn't that true for everyone involved in buying players though?

Back to the OP and a good thread which by only looking at the two line ups you can really see the difference Brendan has made on our team in such a short period of time.

But for me the highlight of the Brendan Rodgers years so far is simply how much I enjoy watching us play football these days.

Appreciate the effort you put into that.  I think what you are highlighting is how much of his own stamp he has put on in those two seasons and 5 transfer windows.

Like you say it is early days for a number of our new signings but I would imagine most Liverpool fans have a better initial feeling about the likes of Markovic, Can, Lallana, Lambert etc than they did about Downing, Cole, Adam when they first arrived.

That £94M figure (if correct and I'll trust you) has obviously been skewed by the Suarez sale - but it is still fairly impressive for such a squad turnaround.

Let us not forget either that Comolli, in hindsight, now deserves some credit.  Suarez purchase netted us about £50M not to even calculate the money, kudos, sponsorship gained from a return to the Champions League - and Jordan Henderson, now touted as a potential captain, was also an astute buy.

Thanks mate. Yeah pretty much, he realized that most of the players were not Liverpool quality and was brutal when he had to be. Actually what was interesting, and  I don't know the figures, was that the wage bill looked considerably healthier after his first year in charge. So it shows that he hasn't just  threw money at our problems.

As you say the Suarez transfer had an impact on the figures but I always say, his price reflected his contribution to the team, so it was a fair reflection of his value imo. Therefore the figure is about right.

Suarez went from an 8/10 player to a 10/10 player.

Hendo imo has gone from a 5/10 to 8/10

Gerrard has arguably improved since Brendan took over from KD

Sturridge and Coutinho have improved as players since joining

Raheem is a work of art for such a young player

One person to thank - Brendan Rodgers

That's it mate, some of our better players were here already but it's no coincidence that they have improved massively since Brendan arrived. Sterling, fair enough, was only 17 but I don't think many managers could have helped his development as much as Rodgers, most would have kept him as a winger. Putting him in the no.10 role was genius, it really was.

Back to the OP and a good thread which by only looking at the two line ups you can really see the difference Brendan has made on our team in such a short period of time.

But for me the highlight of the Brendan Rodgers years so far is simply how much I enjoy watching us play football these days.

Thanks bud. That was the point yeah, just to see the stark contrast in the lineups now and then. Obviously it doesn't do Brendan justice as it doesn't show the way we play on the pitch; the pace, the excitement and, most of all, how much of a team we are, in every sense of the word.

Good thread, based on many assumptions that time will prove if you're right or not, for instance including Lallana as a starter without even playing a game for us is likely but by no means certain.

Personally I think our side will shape up more like this:

                    Mignolet
  Manquillo Skrtel    Lovren Moreno
                    Gerrard
            Henderson Lallana
                   Sterling
             Balotelli   Sturridge

Subs: Valdes, Johnson, Sakho, Allen, Markovic, Coutinho, Lambert

It is, without doubt, the greatest squad of well distributed talent we've had in an enormous amount of time.

Another thing I disagree with in your post is the development you gave Suarez under Brendan, go back and watch his year previous and count the number of posts/missed penalities (which would count as assists) and near misses he had. He was never far away, that season with us was the anomaly, in previous years he'd scored around what he does now so I can't give Brendan the credit for that one. I give Kenny the credit for buying him and Suarez himself the credit for being the undoubted genius that he is, I don't think there was too much coaching involved as the lad has the desire and attitude to make it wherever he went, we were just lucky we happened to be one of his ports to his destination.

Team Spirit is the highest I've witnessed though, now whether you credit this to the winning we're currently doing or Brendan I think they go hand in hand so Brendan deserves the lion's share there, the lads look together there's not a tiny bit of thought that people don't get along now and the players coming into that group (Lambert/Lallana/Moreno) look to only enhance that.

He's certainly spent plenty and had his share of duds, up until this window I wasn't wholly convinced by our transfer policy either. If you removed the Coutinho/Sturridge window from the equation it became a very grim and worrying picture. Thankfully I think the renewed contract Brendan got and clearly more control over the transfers has gone a long way to dispelling any of my fears regarding that, with the likes of Markovic and Balotelli coming in I'm very happy. I'm also tremendously happy that we appear focussed on the areas that needed most attention, most of us could have drawn up the list that we needed, not many windows would you have all those items ticked off though and this window we have.

The proof will of course be in the pudding and so far after 3 games it's tasting very nice indeed. Like all teams we got off to a slowish start, nice win but unconvincing performance then better performance but loss against City. The Spurs game did a lot for confidence in all parts though, we were right back to our best, I would have liked a couple more to win a bucket load again but in truth I could have been a loser there had we banged 6 or 7 in as looked quite possible for long periods. This was a Spurs team that had the pundits purring, a young manager with a great amount of skill about him given a lesson and rightfully accepting his medicine in the post match interview.

I'd have to say I'm the happiest and most content with our players/manager/owners combination that I've been in decades and the future really is one to look forward to, of course made all the more bright by watching the mancs sink like a rock!

Here's to Brendan and that first title, not sure it will be this year but it is not far away of that I'm sure.

Good thread, based on many assumptions that time will prove if you're right or not, for instance including Lallana as a starter without even playing a game for us is likely but by no means certain.

Personally I think our side will shape up more like this:

                    Mignolet
  Manquillo Skrtel    Lovren Moreno
                    Gerrard
            Henderson Lallana
                   Sterling
             Balotelli   Sturridge

Subs: Valdes, Johnson, Sakho, Allen, Markovic, Coutinho, Lambert

It is, without doubt, the greatest squad of well distributed talent we've had in an enormous amount of time.

So, just to be clear, do you agree or disagree that Lallana should be in the first XI when fit? You seem to have included him. Yeah that formation looks better, in all fairness.

Another thing I disagree with in your post is the development you gave Suarez under Brendan, go back and watch his year previous and count the number of posts/missed penalities (which would count as assists) and near misses he had. He was never far away, that season with us was the anomaly, in previous years he'd scored around what he does now so I can't give Brendan the credit for that one. I give Kenny the credit for buying him and Suarez himself the credit for being the undoubted genius that he is, I don't think there was too much coaching involved as the lad has the desire and attitude to make it wherever he went, we were just lucky we happened to be one of his ports to his destination.

...and what do you get for near misses? Look, I understand that Suarez had all the raw abilities to be a world class striker anyway but I just feel that Rodgers got a little bit more out of him. He is now in the peak years of his career so we will se how he gets on at Barca.

Team Spirit is the highest I've witnessed though, now whether you credit this to the winning we're currently doing or Brendan I think they go hand in hand so Brendan deserves the lion's share there, the lads look together there's not a tiny bit of thought that people don't get along now and the players coming into that group (Lambert/Lallana/Moreno) look to only enhance that.

He's certainly spent plenty and had his share of duds, up until this window I wasn't wholly convinced by our transfer policy either. If you removed the Coutinho/Sturridge window from the equation it became a very grim and worrying picture. Thankfully I think the renewed contract Brendan got and clearly more control over the transfers has gone a long way to dispelling any of my fears regarding that, with the likes of Markovic and Balotelli coming in I'm very happy. I'm also tremendously happy that we appear focussed on the areas that needed most attention, most of us could have drawn up the list that we needed, not many windows would you have all those items ticked off though and this window we have.

The proof will of course be in the pudding and so far after 3 games it's tasting very nice indeed. Like all teams we got off to a slowish start, nice win but unconvincing performance then better performance but loss against City. The Spurs game did a lot for confidence in all parts though, we were right back to our best, I would have liked a couple more to win a bucket load again but in truth I could have been a loser there had we banged 6 or 7 in as looked quite possible for long periods. This was a Spurs team that had the pundits purring, a young manager with a great amount of skill about him given a lesson and rightfully accepting his medicine in the post match interview.

I'd have to say I'm the happiest and most content with our players/manager/owners combination that I've been in decades and the future really is one to look forward to, of course made all the more bright by watching the mancs sink like a rock!

Here's to Brendan and that first title, not sure it will be this year but it is not far away of that I'm sure.

Agree with the rest of this mate, we are in good hands here and I would not have anyone else in charge of this club. FSG, as much stick as they get, need to be applauded, it certainly won't have been an easy decision to replace a club legend with such a young inexperienced manager but it has paid off big time.

So, just to be clear, do you agree or disagree that Lallana should be in the first XI when fit? You seem to have included him. Yeah that formation looks better, in all fairness.

Agree with the rest of this mate, we are in good hands here and I would not have anyone else in charge of this club. FSG, as much stick as they get, need to be applauded, it certainly won't have been an easy decision to replace a club legend with such a young inexperienced manager but it has paid off big time.

Yeah I totally agree that Lallana will in all probability be a starter and a success, but without seeing him play for us that is based, from both me and you, on nothing more than assumption.

Hope that clears it up

Yeah I totally agree that Lallana will in all probability be a starter and a success, but without seeing him play for us that is based, from both me and you, on nothing more than assumption.

Hope that clears it up

Gotcha mate. 

I messed up that first reply, so it didn't make much sense at first, all fixed now.

And he got this window right thats for sure. Congrats BR and FSG for that.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2182270-power-ranking-the-premier-league-teams-on-their-summer-transfer-window-activity/page/22

I see this thread has morphed into the 25man squad one

One thing you can safely say is that the team now is Brendan's.

From the 3-0 win over Spurs, 8 of the 11 players that started were bought by Rodgers. (as were 2 of the 3 subs). And of all the players, only two (Gerrard and Henderson) have played over 100 games for the club.

I think that alone shows the turnaround in the squad in just two and a bit years.

If we were to revisit this thread at the start of the start of the 2016/17 season, I'd be surprised if 7 or 8 of the players haven't played over 100 games for the club. I'd also be surprised if the majority of the team that beat Spurs on Sunday weren't in the team that open that 16/17 season as well.