Brendan Rodgers (Liverpool -> Celtic -> Leicester)

I'm sorry to keep harking on about it, but it still remains our biggest problem and has been since Brendan came here. Our abysmal defence. Fourth Season in and we are nowhere near sorted in this department. We have to build from the back.

We had a chance to go for Cech and we didn't. Mignolet is a F***ing disaster and i can't see Bogdan pushing him for a first team spot. The longer he persists with Lovren the shorter his time as manager will become. I don't know what his problem his with Sakho but he needs to sort it out and get him back in that centre back pairing. Haven't got a problem with Clyne or Gomez, they are part of a defence with no organiser in the middle, nobody is bossing that defence and Brendan needs to nail this and fast.

We couldn't hold the ball for more than four passes yesterday and that is terrible, death by football? I'm afraid not. Firmino played out of position, Ings played out of position. No fluidity and no rhythm.

We are an absolute mess right now. We have a beast in Benteke but he can't or won't adapt the formation to suit him. We are so slow to attack from midfield that it is becoming painful to watch.

It's all about the defence for me, if he doesn't let Lovren go and put Sakho back in then i'm afraid he's a goner. Goals have masked our defensive deficiencies in the past, without those goals we now look like a second rate pub side.

Can was the only one to come out of that game with any credit for me yesterday. Maybe it's Can he needs to build that midfield around, unless of course he wants to give him a go at centre back.

We are lacking drive and determination, whether his hands are tied or not, this team should be performing at a much higher level than this. That game was embarrassing to watch yesterday.

Not even his most fervent backers can put up a defence for this shambles at the moment, he needs to fix this fast or it won't just be Santa getting the sack at Xmas.

Give him time for Sturridge to come back.......why?  He had Ings yesterday playing as a winger........what position do you reckon he will have Stuuridge playing?

Rodgers has been living on borrowed time since he took charge.

If he didn't have Suarez for his first two seasons he would have been sacked long ago.

He came in sprouting sh*t about passing philosophy, tika taka, fluid style... yet here he is four seasons later making the team play without any identity, zero passion, no style, F***ing hoof ball tactics... its a F***ing disgrace!!!!

I was livid the owners didn't replace Rodgers with Klopp over the summer and nothing has changed.

I've read on twitter that FSG are calling an emergency meeting tomorrow, is any truth in that ?

Let's hope they F**k off as a matter of emergency and sell up to somebody who can F***ing spell football correctly.

Give him time for Sturridge to come back.......why?  He had Ings yesterday playing as a winger........what position do you reckon he will have Stuuridge playing?

It's a joke mate. Why the F**k should we wait for Stu to come back. He might trip over a blade of grass first game back and not be seen again for the season.

Basically Rodgers relied completely on Suarez and Sturridge two seasons ago and was fortunate to have them fit. Without them he has no answers and can't find a solution to make us play well. So he has to go.

We have been awful since Suarez left us.

A player Rodgers inherited.

This ^^
suarez with Sturridge and sterling( when his head was still with LFC)   dragged the whole squad to a great season
suarez left, Sturridge injuries, and sterling looking to jump ship,, and bad signings, we had an awful season , early knocked out in CL, bad results and shameful performances  and finshing 6th/7th in the league became   a regularity
to think many players we bought were loaned out or resold the season after  ,give a real view how our transfer policy looks like
 YNWA

I'm sorry to keep harking on about it, but it still remains our biggest problem and has been since Brendan came here. Our abysmal defence. Fourth Season in and we are nowhere near sorted in this department. We have to build from the back.

We had a chance to go for Cech and we didn't. Mignolet is a f**king disaster and i can't see Bogdan pushing him for a first team spot. The longer he persists with Lovren the shorter his time as manager will become. I don't know what his problem his with Sakho but he needs to sort it out and get him back in that centre back pairing. Haven't got a problem with Clyne or Gomez, they are part of a defence with no organiser in the middle, nobody is bossing that defence and Brendan needs to nail this and fast.

We couldn't hold the ball for more than four passes yesterday and that is terrible, death by football? I'm afraid not. Firmino played out of position, Ings played out of position. No fluidity and no rhythm.

We are an absolute mess right now. We have a beast in Benteke but he can't or won't adapt the formation to suit him. We are so slow to attack from midfield that it is becoming painful to watch.

It's all about the defence for me, if he doesn't let Lovren go and put Sakho back in then i'm afraid he's a goner. Goals have masked our defensive deficiencies in the past, without those goals we now look like a second rate pub side.

Can was the only one to come out of that game with any credit for me yesterday. Maybe it's Can he needs to build that midfield around, unless of course he wants to give him a go at centre back.

We are lacking drive and determination, whether his hands are tied or not, this team should be performing at a much higher level than this. That game was embarrassing to watch yesterday.

Not even his most fervent backers can put up a defence for this shambles at the moment, he needs to fix this fast or it won't just be Santa getting the sack at Xmas.

I'm one of his most fervent backers and I'm not even trying to defend that. Once we knew Rooney wasn't playing, there was absolutely no excuse IMHO for not going 4-4-2 or even 3-5-2. You could even also successfully argue that even if Rooney was playing that's how we ought to play. The whole system and mind-set was ill conceived in the first place, then very badly executed. Given our personnel (and obvious lack of wide men), the one formation we shouldn't have contemplated playing yesterday was 4-3-3, a completely ridiculous move it was.

Well, the first part negates the other.

If they want the money to flood in, the way the team is managed should be very high on their list.

If our team continues to be managed in this style, the value of our club will decrease, splashing money on players just to send them on loan isn't very wise from a strictly material point of view, or playing them out of position, nullifying their value in this way.

The money won't come in if you play dull football and finish mid-table, big clubs won't be in line to buy any of our players, fans won't flood the stadium or stay in line to buy merchandise, what brings more money to a club is being successful, playing entertaining football, finishing in top 4 and so on.

They must be a special kind of idiots if they think this is the way to make money from a club, or they don't have any notion in terms of football and have in place some dumb advisers, see Ian Ayre or the gaffer for an example, who will run this club into the ground if they are being kept in their places.

They've already made their money George! The club is worth at least twice what they paid for it.
On the face of it spending money on players, only to send them out on loan might look like a stupid move, but when you consider its only the club's money being spent, and not their own, it makes no financial difference to them.
Our net spend was very small this summer, probably because the rest is being used for the stadium expansion. Does this mean FSG won't have to invest as much money themselves into the new standard, or maybe they've already started paying themselves back. Could be they're holding onto the money to give to Klopp in the January window.Who knows!

Two weeks ago Gary Monk deployed a 4-4-2 midfield diamond against United as Montero, his best winger, was injured and the Swans destroyed United.

Did Brendan not even bother to watch that game? I mean we all knew it had to be a midfield diamond yesterday with Ings and Benteke up top. Even the commentators were baffled when they saw we were playing 4-3-3 with Ings and Firmino out wide.

So what does that tell you?

It tells me someone good at f**king Championship Manger could do a better job than Rodgers can!!!

I'm one of his most fervent backers and I'm not even trying to defend that. Once we knew Rooney wasn't playing, there was absolutely no excuse IMHO for not going 4-4-2 or even 3-5-2. You could even also successfully argue that even if Rooney was playing that's how we ought to play. The whole system and mind-set was ill conceived in the first place, then very badly executed. Given our personnel (and obvious lack of wide men), the one formation we shouldn't have contemplated playing yesterday was 4-3-3, a completely ridiculous move it was.

What's annoying me most bigmick is that we have a plethora of strikers here and he refuses to play a strike pairing up top. We are so slow to support Benteke that opposition defences are laughing at us. At least if we had a foil to compliment Benteke it would occupy the defenders more and create more space for our midfielders to attack. I honestly can't believe he's waiting for Sturridge to come back before he tries the '2 up top' option. We have plenty of strikers who are more than capable of doing a job. Personally i think that Origi could form a devastating partnership with Benteke.  Power and pace.

Fair enough. But he had the chance to play two up top today with Ings S@int and should have done that.

From the little I've seen of Ings, I actually like the look of him - Bellamy-esque and has a great attitude, in that he always looks up for it. We don't have many enthusiasts in his mold BUT Rodgers dropped a bollock playing him out of position like that, he should have been next to Benteke causing their shitty defence more trouble.

Re moving Rodgers on, if FSG are the tight arses we're lead to believe would they get rid of Rodgers, and possibly his coaching staff after only just hiring them? If a new manager were to come in, you'd think he'd like to bring his own staff in. I just cannot see FSG doing this since they've only just overhauled the coaching staff.

Brendan's on very very thin ice with the fans now and fair enough IMO, I honestly can't see a way back for him, not unless Sturridge bails him out. We look absolutely sh*t up front and the signing of Benteke looks ominously like it's going to be his undoing.

There will always be a tipping point , no matter how much it costs to get rid of him and his set up.
I actually believe that his position will become untenable within a month. Lets not forget , that teams playing us now will smell blood. And with a total lack of leadership at our club now, can ANYONE see us dragging ourself out of it?
I still can't believe people are saying " let's wait till Sturridge is fit" That in itself is an indictment of just how poor the manager is. Hoping an injury prone striker can turn our season about. Laughable if it did not grate so much.

Rodgers has been living on borrowed time since he took charge.

If he didn't have Suarez for his first two seasons he would have been sacked long ago.

He came in sprouting sh*t about passing philosophy, tika taka, fluid style... yet here he is four seasons later making the team play without any identity, zero passion, no style, F***ing hoof ball tactics... its a F***ing disgrace!!!!

I was livid the owners didn't replace Rodgers with Klopp over the summer and nothing has changed.

I was somewhat annoyed the Suarez money wasn't used to buy like for like footballing genius instead of a handful of potential.
Ditto the Sterling fee to a lesser extent.

It would be unimaginable the manager could take pre-emptive action with both game-savers giving plenty of notice they wanted out, the lack of dependable back up while they were here makes the issue profoundly significant.
It is significant in the light of forward thinking and anticipation would have required the eventual fee for Suarez and Sterling be used in advance of their leaving, whoever it concerns does not even possess the faith in the club to do this. 

Of course a stated ''long term plan'' would negate the need for the hand going anywhere near the pocket, more so when a statement has been made about not using any of one's own spondoolies on LFC.

It's a joke mate. Why the f**k should we wait for Stu to come back. He might trip over a blade of grass first game back and not be seen again for the season.

Basically Rodgers relied completely on Suarez and Sturridge two seasons ago and was fortunate to have them fit. Without them he has no answers and can't find a solution to make us play well. So he has to go.

Your right complete joke.

Whats even more disturbing is that Rodgers had Suarez, Sturridge and Raheem and we were tearing up the league, ok its not his fault Suarez wanted to leave but the blueprint was there and what does he do. Yup the complete opposite which suggests to me it was Suarez who was the making of Rodgers and not vice versa.

This is the  perspective of a Reading Fan on Rodgers in his Final season at them.

@DanceSturridge


Stand by what I said a few months ago, he should have gone after the Stoke game, our form has been appalling for weeks before, and continues to be atrocious.

0-3 at home to Alan Pardew's WHU, for fucks sake, if that was not the writing on the wall I do not know what is.

Poor owl Bren. Times up....

Excuses are still there from some people, that I really don't understand. It isn't a case of needing Sturridge back he has the players to beat teams like WHU, Stoke, Palace, Villa etc, etc. This was one of the worst United sides I've ever seen us play against and we approached the game like we were playing against the best team in the world, we collectively bottled it.

Ings on one wing and Firmino on the other, their most telling contributions being the tracking back both of them did. How some interpret that as frightened football is beyond me, it's bullshit tactics whether you're frightened or confident. If that's what you resort to when you're frightened then it's enough evidence to show you aren't made of the stuff we need.

Watch us at a set-piece now, we're all there holding hands looking like the school kids on their first training sessions. We've gone back to basics that's clear yet we still can't defend properly when we have 10 men behind the ball. It's simple to coach apparently, yet we're letting 3 in against a team with Sideshow Bob up top. Our plan to Benteke has been found out (it was obvious it would be), the poor lad was so isolated I'm surprised he didn't grab the corner flags and try a bit of semaphore because he must have thought his shouts for support were out of hearing range.

If it were a boxing match the ref would have stopped this long ago, we're on the ropes taking a battering from all angles and we've got nothing left to fight back with, it's time for the towel to be thrown and let Brendan get back to a club that's more his level because it's clear for anyone watching that he hasn't got the ability to get the best out of the group he's assembled.

Snake Oil Saleman as a friend once said is a very good description, we've been sold the vision of death by football, we'll it's true something is dying alright but it's most certainly not our opposition.

This is the  perspective of a Reading Fan on Rodgers in his Final season at them.

@DanceSturridge


Stand by what I said a few months ago, he should have gone after the Stoke game, our form has been appalling for weeks before, and continues to be atrocious.

0-3 at home to Alan Pardew's WHU, for fucks sake, if that was not the writing on the wall I do not know what is.

Frightening

I'm utterly depressed by the state we're in....again.

The fact we're not creating anything as well as the sheer abhorrent joke that is the defence and those two utter clowns continually starting in central defence is beyond bemusing now. Throughout the club we have no strategy. Our transfer strategy is a disgrace - wasteful, muddling, incoherent and founded on a transfer committee whose knowledge base is utterly insipid. On the field we are consistently abandoning one style for another to the point where we now look regressive in our play that is without any ideology or pragmatism.

Feels like I've travelled the globe looking for paradise only to find ourselves back to square one, up Hodgson creek - the point of no return.

It's all so very, very F***ing depressing.

Excuses are still there from some people, that I really don't understand. It isn't a case of needing Sturridge back he has the players to beat teams like WHU, Stoke, Palace, Villa etc, etc. This was one of the worst United sides I've ever seen us play against and we approached the game like we were playing against the best team in the world, we collectively bottled it.

Ings on one wing and Firmino on the other, their most telling contributions being the tracking back both of them did. How some interpret that as frightened football is beyond me, it's bullshit tactics whether you're frightened or confident. If that's what you resort to when you're frightened then it's enough evidence to show you aren't made of the stuff we need.

Watch us at a set-piece now, we're all there holding hands looking like the school kids on their first training sessions. We've gone back to basics that's clear yet we still can't defend properly when we have 10 men behind the ball. It's simple to coach apparently, yet we're letting 3 in against a team with Sideshow Bob up top. Our plan to Benteke has been found out (it was obvious it would be), the poor lad was so isolated I'm surprised he didn't grab the corner flags and try a bit of semaphore because he must have thought his shouts for support were out of hearing range.

If it were a boxing match the ref would have stopped this long ago, we're on the ropes taking a battering from all angles and we've got nothing left to fight back with, it's time for the towel to be thrown and let Brendan get back to a club that's more his level because it's clear for anyone watching that he hasn't got the ability to get the best out of the group he's assembled.

Snake Oil Saleman as a friend once said is a very good description, we've been sold the vision of death by football, we'll it's true something is dying alright but it's most certainly not our opposition.

I agree with everything you (and most of the other posters ) are saying mate, I am not trying to defend Brendan in any way, just saying I prefer to wait a few weeks first.

I just don't trust FSG.

I agree with everything you (and most of the other posters ) are saying mate, I am not trying to defend Brendan in any way, just saying I prefer to wait a few weeks first.

I just don't trust FSG.

I do totally get your point about FSG mate, they're more culpable than Brendan in my opinion but as this is his thread I tend to try and forget about them a little in here. If we could get rid of both I'd be delighted.

Im just completely hacked off with football, I think I might just watch the rugby for the next month and hopefully FSG will have seen sense by then.

what can Brendan now do differently that he hasnt tried in the past 3 seasons. He hasn't got Stevie,Luis or Daniel or even Sterling so with a weaker squad how can he possibly get us back up competing for a top 4 spot.
seen a few people say they are depressed and that about sums it up. What's the point in discussing tactics or players or even Brendan when nothing is about to change this is our reality.