No one is perfect and this certainly applies to the man in charge of the club. What I feel he has done is over emphasise on improving the depth of the squad. What has happened is we had a relatively small, yet very powerful squad here at Liverpool. For our 10 game winning streak, our first XI barely changed: Mignolet, Flanagan, Agger, Skrtel, Johnson, Gerrard, Henderson, Coutinho, Sterling, Sturridge, Suarez. Out of these XI, how many featured against West Ham? Five did.
What is key in this game is continuity. This is something we are currently lacking as Rodgers, as I mentioned above, has over emphasised on squad depth. He feels he now needs to rotate given we are in the Champions League. This, IMO, is a factor in our current downfall. What Rodgers should have done (IMO, of course) is accept that he cannot challenge for two pieces of major silverware. Given our squad last season, that was never going to happen. It's all about developing and building the squad in a controlled manner, and this summer I feel we haven't done that. I feel that we brought in too many new faces, and too many of them lacking key experience. We should have been prepared to sacrifice the CL this season, so that we could consolidate top four and continue to improve the strength of the squad.
This is now a transition phase we have entered. I do not agree that we had to enter such a phase, but inadvertently that is what BR's or FSG's vision of the club has resulted in. Hopefully next summer we purchase THREE top class players and no more. We buy a goal keeper, a central midfielder, and a forward.
So given we've entered this transition phase, I think it's fair to say neither the CL or PL will be up for grabs this season. If we had been more patient, bought better quality and held onto Luis Suarez, I'd be confident of us giving it a good go and consolidating top four for the next season. I truly hope BR can turn this around.
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