YOU can approach this a number of ways.
You can point out Liverpool did alright and were unfortunate, especially with the equaliser occurring while the solid Allen was off the pitch. You can observe the misses from Lambo along with the goal. Two chances, one excellent, one alright. You can see that the side had played well until they pushed on with the changes. You can see that. Like Newcastle. Only when it gets shifted up a gear do Liverpool have a problem.
But you can also see a side that can’t create enough chances, that can’t do the business in key moments, where Lovren turns a decent performance into a disaster. Where Skrtel confirms every move against him. Where you wonder what Gerrard can offer at the base in a defensive sense. Liverpool leave you in the balance at best. At best. At worst, in the gutter.
They did most of the basics right. They were even turning the screw before they found themselves two one down. It shows the value of the screw when you don’t have the blade. Basically zero. For a man who used to worry about solidity and the pressure more than anything else, it’s a hard wake up call. I used to obsess over the screw. How wrong I was. How wrong we were.
Liverpool’s crisis – because they’ve made it a crisis – isn’t at the back. It’s in attack. The talk – and they’ve, we’ve, you’ve – been distracted by the talk, is that they need more clean sheets. They don’t. They need more goals. They need to fill the box with bodies. They need it under control. They need to have phased, sensible attacking, not endless starting and stopping. They need to be lightning. They aren’t even thunder.
Lallana played well until he didn’t. Sterling couldn’t get in it. Lambert had three chances and took one but couldn’t keep forcing it. Liverpool the better side on sixty but don’t look like scoring. That is the problem. The essential problem. Everything else is fuss and nonsense.
Fuss and nonsense: For the first and second Mignolet isn’t great. He isn’t full on Mingolet, but he isn’t impeccable. Lovren and Johnson can’t do much more on the first, Skrtel could be livelier. The second Lovren is all over the show, Gerrard isn’t enough of a shield all game and isn’t there in this moment, the goalkeeper could keep it out. Perhaps. The kick that proceeds it makes you ask – if you don’t keep the improbable out then why put up with the question marks elsewhere. Perhaps unfair. Perhaps.
Beyond the fuss and nonsense is Coutinho bright or does he look so by default? Lallana a cameo, Sterling a shadow. Lambert scores early but doesn’t offer enough afterward, Borini comes on and the football match is a surprise.
Palace aren’t good. They are a distance from good. But they have pace, they have speed and speed kills. All game, speed kills. At the very least it panics. Liverpool’s entire season is a depiction of the value of speed. Liverpool have no speed. Liverpool can’t kill. They can’t maim.
And they show the damage speed can do. I am not one to argue the value of defensive solidity anymore, but until he has a runner, Gerrard deepest has to stop. He is an archer without a target. Drop Lucas in and build from there. Work the bits and pieces better. This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco, this ain’t no fooling around.
Liverpool are now a team smothered by pressure. You want a solution? Look elsewhere. They have enough good players, still. Enough great players? None as it stands. None. What to do? John Gibbons would say build around character. Do that. Perhaps. I think find movement. Will they? Can they? A season is at stake.
We need more goals for sure but the defence is a disaster.Scoring more can cover up that mess but it’s best if we start with better defending which with this manager and his” philosophy” is impossible. We have seen this for his whole tenure here.
I can’t fathom how Liverpool are WORSE defensively than they were last season, with supposedly better players!
The opposition have far more of the ball because there’s nothing coming from the forwards or midfield to peg them back. Rodgers has lost the plot, and has no bottle to do the obvious. He’ll be gone as soon as he fails to progress in the CL. He’s gone from 20:1 down to 7:1. The question is: Who will want the job and is capable of stamping their authority over certain personalities/players at the club? I doubt any top manager would want to touch the club.
I don’t know what the answer is. That’s no surprise. But what worries me is that BR is no better off than I am.
The team is a mess. It’s not that we can’t find a best 11, we can’t find a best defense, a best mid field, or the best forwards.
No combination of combinations has worked. Time is running out. No help is coming. I’m worried.
Pathetic summer transfer business.
We need a world class striker to score goals; we bought Balotelli and Lambert.
“We won’t make the mistakes Spurs did,” said Rodgers. “We’ve bought these players specifically to suit our system.”
Hot air, Brendan. Too much hot hair.
More goals would help of course, but with a different back 4 we win that match 2-0. Three of them aren’t good enough – I’m giving Lovren time to come good with a proper partner not a pussy cat who always comes up with an error under pressure.
As it is, at 1-1 this is a game crying out for someone to come on with 20 left and make that difference in the final third. In fact 2 players, Gerrard and Cout.
Brendan’s body language is a concern. Once again he looks isolated. It might be a bit late now but he really needs someone alongside him to challenge him and ask him a couple of hard questions about why he can’t see things that everyone else can.
We are doing worse than a Spurs.
My word, your word, our word. Gods word ! The word of hod, the head of bod Brendan’s got a problem and its not like any other problem that requires reasoning logic and an insightful mind and experience to resolve. No this problem starts and begins with the tyres on Brendan’s club owned car. Pirelli or Firestone? It’s only a matter of time until the mot is due and then the cheese really will be in the envelope.
No crisis in defence? Did you watch the game? The crisis is all over the pitch, at worst through the spine from Mignolet, Lovren, Gerrard and whatever striker we play. We were actually doing well in the second half until Rodgers took out two of our better performers in Lallana an Allen. Rodgers makes the easier decision to leave Gerrard and Sterling on the pitch when they’re offering nothing.
If he doesn’t man up and make the tough decisions he’ll die by his cowardice. Johnson, Lovren and Gerrard all rubbish again but play the 90 mins. Allen and Lallana linking well with Coutinho in midfield but taken off. Coutinho hardly had a kick after that too.
The longer he persists in playing by name instead of form or merit the more fans will be convinced he’s all talk.
I’m prepared to give him the chance to find the answers but I have to say the signs aren’t promising.
Yep, he needs to grow a pair. He’s losing our respect. Imagine how he’ll feel in 10 years time if he loses his job because he wasn’t brave enough do drop the skipper!
You gotta give him a chance because the alternatives do not bear thinking about…I am speechless after that utterly speechless we are awful going forward and dreadful at the back the perfect nightmare
Carragher said it best on Sky: Liverpool are mentally weak, they have no leadership. 1-0 after 90 seconds? that should have been enough to lift the team’s collective heads and get a little belief going. But no, once there’s any measure of pressure, their confidence drops and there’s no one on the pitch willing to lead, willing to pick anyone up. They have no confidence in themselves, they have no confidence in each other, and seemingly no confidence in the manager.
We probably should have seen this coming, truthfully, after the latest Sturridge setback. That was probably enough to convince these players that they weren’t going to win against Palace.
And think what it takes for Carra to make a statement like that about a team led by his mate Stevie.
Maybe he needs to have a word in his mate Stevie’s ear.
Today was the day.
The day we were looking forward to. The day we needed desperately. The day we got things back on track. The day we put in some sort of a performance. The day we went on some sort of run. The day we started to be ourselves again. The day we started to claw things back against the 19th best side in the league.
None of that happened. I’ll tell you what though.
Today was the day.
I am now of the opinion Brendan Rodgers is not the manager we need him to be now or in the future. I have criticised him all season but even after the underwhelming transfers, abysmal team selections and vile, disgusting tactics which didn’t change regardless of evidence, I refrained from saying it.
I knew we weren’t going to win 6 in a row. From this run of games I thought 3 wins and 3 draws is what we were looking at, with one of those draws coming today. I realised that being a Liverpool fan, looking at the names of the next 6 opponents and not expecting better than 3 wins and 3 draws, something was badly wrong. And that something was the manager. But I refrained from saying it.
Not any longer.
We need a new manager.
There. It’s done. It’s been said and it cannot be unsaid. We wait til seasons end and sack him. We give him no money in January. We go after Simeone, Klopp or Rafa. Managers who know what it takes to overcome odds, regularly qualify for the Champions League, know what to do when they get there, and win some trophies.
At this stage last season, the incredibly maligned (by us, rightly) David Moyes was 7 points better off. He was qualifying from his Champions League group. And he was in the semi final of the League Cup. Think on that if you believe the above knee jerk. This mess we find ourselves in is now, in my opinion, irreversible. Rodgers has had time to reassess. The international break seen to that. He could clear his head. He could see what the rest of us have seen.
That Gerrard is finished. That he offers incredibly little to this team from the start. That his name being on the team sheet negatively affects our whole shape. That his playing means others have to worry about him as well as themselves. That his selection means other midfielders don’t want to go beyond the ball but at the same time we are still ludicrously open to the counter attack. That he is as bad a captain and leader you could never hope to see. That he is so bad in the defensive midfield role he almost becomes a 12th man for the opposition, for sure as fuck we don’t have 11 on the pitch when he plays.
That Lovren has turned into the worst centre back in the entire league. That his form doesn’t merit him a game for the Renford Rejects, let along Liverpool Football Club. That his head is scrambled. That he needs babysitting as bad as Gerrard does. That he constantly gives up chances to the opposition when the opposition doesnt do anything special. That his presence at our club is a mistake, plain and simple.
That Skrtel is a common denominator. That he always wants to drop deeper. That he is a defender for a defensive team. That he is currently better suited to being a judoka than a footballer, and that officials are rightly targeting him. That he constantly gives away free kicks in dangerous positions.
That Glen Johnson is Glen fucking Johnson and has been for 18 fucking months. That he doesn’t have the skill or athletic ability to play for any side hoping to finish top 4. That worst of all, he doesn’t even have the desire to play for any side hoping to finish top 4.
That Sterling isn’t a striker. That he isn’t a winger. That he is a number 10. That he is now at an age where he must play in the same position most weeks so he can learn and develop to become what his talent and will determines he should be come.
That 4-2-3-1 doesn’t fucking work. That we need two strikers on the pitch. That he is the only one to blame for having Borini and Lambert at the club.
Rodgers would take a fortnight and work all this out, right? No? Most of it out? Some of it out? I mean, he can definitely see some of it, right? The Gerrard thing? He can see that. He’ll have known that we know up til now he has been a yellow belly, but are now giving him our permission to drop Steven. That’s what he’s been waiting for, isn’t it? No? He has seen where his constant selection of Lovren has got us, hasn’t he? He’ll now realise the season is on the line and swallow his pride, won’t he? He’ll bring in Toure or Sakho for sure, no?
No.
Just like against Chelsea, I knew the team sheet would tell all. Just like against Chelsea, I was repulsed. Just like against Chelsea we took an early lead. Just like against Chelsea we lost having played appallingly.
Mignolet
Manquillo Toure Sakho Moreno
Can Lucas Henderson
Sterling Lallana
Balotelli
That’s the team I wanted today. Fair enough Sakho and Balotelli were injured. So replace with Skrtel and Borini. But to play Lovren in place of Toure, Johnson in place of Moreno, Lambert in place of Borini and worst of all, not to play Can, is unforgivable. Worse was to come though. The performance of Gerrard today went beyond sad. It genuinely is heart breaking to see any club legend reduced to showings like he’s put in this season, let alone our club legend. But when Rodgers took off Allen and left his land lord on, that was it for me. “It” in this instance being “apoplectic.” (By the way, any manager having any of their players as land lord is a ridiculous conflict of interest made all the more farcical given the money and choice Rodgers had. It seems Rodgers decisions off the field are just as questionable as the ones on it.) We had something of a diamond with Sterling up top with Lambert. But when Rodgers changed things and went back to his 4-2-3-1 and soon after we went from 1-1 to 3-1 down, assisted of course by mistakes by Lovren and then Skrtel, then that was really it for me. “It” in this instance being “feeling physically ill.”
After the match (long after the match) Rodgers says he takes full responsibility. It’s not something he has said before but let’s be real: he is only saying it because anything else would be more shameful than his efforts this season. He claimed the free kick for Palace’s third goal wasn’t a free kick. As blind as Wenger without even half his ability. He also claimed he always “felt comfortable in the game” except maybe from counter attacks – see Steven Gerrard. Feeling comfortable against a bad team should mean 3-0 up after an hour in normal circumstances, not 1-1 in a game against a bad team in which you are second best but neither you nor your opponents look like getting a winner.
I posted the following last month:
“This is what Reading’s chairman stated after he sacked Rodgers 5 years ago:
“I understand he didn’t have much time but we got on a slippery slope and it just got worse. Signings didn’t settle, Brendan was adamant his style of play would eventually work. Results kept getting worse, performances too. Results & performances did not match what the manager was consistently telling me. The fans started to tell me a different story. Brendan refused to comprehend the notion of changing his ways so adamant was he that he would be successful. The only thing that was changing rapidly was our league position. Was it hasty sacking him? (No) Did we avoid relegation with McDermott? (Yes)””
I worried history was repeating itself. Im not worried now. Not after today. After today I am sure.
Today was the day.
Agree with your team, so long as Johnson Lovren and Allen are not even on the bench to tempt the clueless tosser. BR is like the old joke about the tenor who had 6 curtain calls and finally says ‘No more’, only for the audience to shout ‘You’ll keep doing it until you get it right!’
BR will never get it right. He hasn’t the wit or the experience. He is an imposter, an embarrassment. Better managers than he have been sacked for lesser crimes.
Do us a favour mate – print off 2 copies of that and send one off to Brendan and one to FSG.
Im yet to read anything that’s nailed it so well.
Thanks very much Wattsy.
Reckon for anything to happen we’ll have to wait for other fans to open their eyes. Some can’t see what’s happening as they’re too thick. Others don’t want to see what’s happening as they’re too bollockless, like the manager.
Sorry Neil, but I think you’re being very kind on the CB’s for the first goal in particular. Lovren is turning round and round and doesn’t have a clue what to do (to the extent that Johnson has to abandon his man and come inside to try and rescue him) and Skrtel had a 2 yard headstart on Gayle, but switched off and let him get to the rebound first. These aren’t “could” or “possibly” opportunities to get better, these are “should” moments, especially for any CB that wants his team to be challenging for top 4.
I wasn’t entirely sure Gerrard was on the pitch for most of the time – the exceptions being when he stepped up to waste decent FK opportunities. And Manquillo did a pretty decent job for a defender that palace were clearly targeting, but the yellow card was very soft of him and he looked like he was walking on eggshells from then on. I’d be incredibly tempted to play the same team that started in Real in midweek – and then if they do a decent job, don’t be afraid to reward them with another match next weekend.
Frightening isn’t it? That a 20 year old with very little experience is our best defender.
No surprise really he’s just come from at madrid where he is coached good defending by Simeone.
By the end of the season he’ll have turned totally crap like the rest of our defence.
We may not actually be top 4 quality, but we are being made to look a lot worse than we are by having a 34 year old ex forward shuffling around in front of our defense.
Kenny Dalglish was sacked for finishing 7th, winning one cup and being robbed in another. Restored self-belief to LFC but paid too
Much for a great white hope, but he was replaced by a self-publicist armed with ‘The Dummies Guide to Football’ who is the antithesis of what Liverpool FC expects of a manager – characteristics shared by Dlaglish, Fagan, and distilled by Bob Paisley, If FSG care about their investment there’ll be an envelope handed to Brendan Rodgers today. As far as I am concerned his theme song will
be You’ll Never Work Again.
Kenny also took just 18 points from his last 19 league games – massive collapse in form in the league
Kenny had been out of management for a decade. What’s Rodgers excuse?
Odd piece.
There’s simply no way to look at that and say Liverpool played well.
Lallana played well until he didn’t? yes, those first 2 minutes were great.
Lovren couldn’t have done much more for the first? How about not running away from the ball??
” the talk, is that they need more clean sheets. They don’t ”
We scored early. A good defence and we win 1 nil. We don’t have the players to score 5 goals a game, so we shouldn’t play like we have. We have good defenders, we also have a decent defensive midfielder, but we don’t know how to use the defenders and refuse to give the defensive midfielder a run in the team.
Find comfort in numbers. Pack the midfield, defend together and back each other up. That a player like Ledley can be allowed to feel comfortable and an equal on that pitch is ridiculous.
We can still counter. We can still use Coutinho from the bench or ask Markovic to use his pace but right now we need to stop shipping goals like they’re on sale at Christmas.
Mignolet was dodgy on first two & his free kick into touch led to the third. Jones can’t do any worse.
Skrtel used to play one good season then one bad, now bad two years in a row, sick of his wrestling & how many times did he go for the ball when Lovren was about to clear it & get in his way?
Johnson should go in January, he plays like he’s never seen a game of football before let alone played in one.
I thought Allen Lallana & Coutinho were ok, Sterling is struggling, & we need two up front.
Good job we didn’t let Brendan bring his mate in to run the academy.
I was at Wembley today with my two daughters watching England’s women get thumped. I picked up the score on my phone and immediately went to the stats and saw we had one shot on target all game – Lambert’s goal. People can slag off the defence all they like – I might do, too, once I’ve seen the highlights – but you don’t win too many games with just one shot on target in 90. And having played at the back all my shitty career, I can say it’s a lot easier to exhibit good, confident defending when you’ve got a decent lead to protect and the other team are chasing the game.
It strikes me the team is in the shitter generally, with a misfiring, impotent attack feeding the anxieties of a panicky defence lacking any self-belief…and vice-versa.
It’s perfectly possible you only need to fix one to vastly improve the other.
Essentially, BR has a jigsaw puzzle and no clue at the current moment, how to piece it together. As much as I want to see him succeed, it cannot happen without admitting the obvious issues and taking action to rectify them. The writing is on the wall in bold red letters but is BR taking notice? By the time he does perhaps it will be too late.
Oh, and the people calling for a sacking in November are an embarrassment to the club. There, I’ve said it.
Yeah mate – Leave til we’re really fucked at Eaaster hey?
Sacking managers before Christmas is what clubs rooted to the bottom of the EPL do, or clubs like Chelsea with 500mill blank cheques and owners who insist on instant gratification. Proper clubs don’t go for shit like that, because they tend to have a different footballing philosophy (see the Mancs at least giving Moyes a season). Rodgers has credit in the bank for last season and has earned the right to expect a decent level of backing as we work our way through an admittedly awful period. Even if you still believe we should get rid now, who are these currently out-of-work, world-class managers just waiting for the call from FSG? I can’t think of too many. And I can think of even fewer who would be desperate to join the sort of club that ditches managers barely three months into the season.
If Rodgers doesn’t get top 4 at the end of this season then he’s toast, but that’s the time to judge him.
Moyes didn’t get a full season, was fired earlier than that. As soon as they were out of Europe he was gone. Something to do with a cheaper payoff that way from memory.
So when will be a good time? I’ve been a supporter of this club since 1954 and I know an incompetent manager when I see it. Against Chelsea – when we lost the EPL title , Rodgersc said “Anyone can park a bus.” Well, he can’t, and has been driving round aimlessly for two seasons. Do you honestly believe FSG are supporting him and his management team, now? When will you decide he’s not up to it ? When it’s too late?
People are obviously jonesing for Pascoe as caretaker with his knees out in December… Idiots. Although Brendan’s not helping the ‘it was all Suarez last season’ mob get any quieter, mind.
Who is suggesting Pascoe steps in? Haven’t heard that anywhere?
We are four points above the relegation zone..,
Yeah, or 5 from top four. Leagues have a habit of being like that when it’s still November, which is why it’s generally a dumb time to be ditching your manager.
I missed the game as I needed to work, I read this piece and the comments, then watched the game.
In the cold light of knowing the result, we weren’t actually that bad until the final 20 mins.
That Bolasie’s foul on Allan was deliberate, I’ve watched it a few times, it’s an elbow into the top of the head, hard enough to break the skin, they then score when Allan is being treated.
Sterling has a stonewall penalty denied and we were called off side incorrectly at least twice and Gayle and Skrtel had each other’s shirts, but Skrtel was penalized.it’s like all our bad luck has arrived at once.
I think Rodgers is over thinking, planning for Weds, taking Crystal Palace for granted, he thought this was a banker – he’s a young manager, he’ll learn or fail
I think the last 4 games have all had patches in where we’ve looked ok. In reality, the opposition have let us try to play knowing we won’t create anything. As soon as the opposition turn the screw a bit they go in front.
Robin, even Brendan’s biggest supporters & I am one of them have to be getting worried now. We are just so ill equipped to play Battle football. The team being built was meant to out play, out wit, out pass and out score other teams but they are not designed to out scrap the opposition. We need to buy a win but its hard to see where that will come from at the moment. Five minutes into the game yesterday I knew we would loose. Brendan isn’t helping himself in any way, shape or form. I can’t help feeling that he has taken his eye off the ball somehow. Where is this DR Steve Peters when he is needed or has he left the club completely.
‘Can’t you see the progress we’re making,’ – your words! !
Great article, just a few thoughts.
Nah, bollocks. I support Liverpool and we should win the league. Now. Sack the manager. Yeah.
Ta
If we get another manager, he’s going to need the cojones to drop Gerrard. If he doesn’t, God only knows Steven Gerrard will become player-manager, then assistant manager, then manager. Imagine how long that will feel like.
A Great Man once said “Football is a very simple game”.But I doubt if he meant for that to be taken literally.I think it was more a case of him saying “You do the simple bits and I’ll sort out the complicated bits”.
In other words I think he was saying just play your own game and I’ll put other players in there who play their own game.And when I find somebody else who will fit in naturally and improve the rest by playing their own game….well…he’ll be in the team.
So we’re beginning to find out that coaching Skirtel to pass to Lovren then Lovren to pass to Johnson then Johnson to pass to Mignolet then Mignolet to pass to…..oh it doesn’t matter does it?We’ve seen this film 50 times or more.We know who passes to who next.
Problem is that everybody who has seen us once or twice knows the whole script too.
It’s a simple game (as a Great Man once said).But the simplicity is in allowing players to do what they are naturally good at because that’s why you signed them in the first place.
It’s really not about trying to enforce a misguided belief that football should be played in the style of Real Madrid of the 1950’s and then sending your Team out as though they are trying to follow a beginner’s guide to ball-room dancing.
Gareth used the word ‘concerned’ in the other article and I think that’s quite apt. More so than any other defeat so far this season that was the most concerning and not just because it’s the latest and it all feels as though it’s piling on. We’ve had three international breaks to work out how to win football matches without Sturridge and we aren’t looking any closer. We went up early and still got outfoxed by fucking Warnock and a few fast lads on the break.
Not to sound too much like a broken record but other than the fairly consistent high line, it’s a bit Kenny in 2012 where everyone’s well meaning and a bit too nice trying to play good, attacking footy but they seem torn on how to go about it and don’t really have the know-how to dig in. All the swagger and confidence from January-April has seeped away; mad how quick it can turn on you. I just don’t see what the plan is to win games. Coutinho and Sterling trying to force something out of nothing on the edge with little to no movement ahead of them interspersed with aimless balls up to Lambert for Dann, Hangeland and Speroni to have on toast. It’s just a bit of a formless mess going forward and we’re even worse at the back.
All the goals were avoidable as you addressed, Neil. Them breaking down the center when Allen (MoM even with a hole in his head) was off the pitch for I think a *second* time which is one for the medics. Just leather him with a tub of vaseline first time round. The other two are Mignolet and Skrtel doing self-parody with the infamous bad kicking and bizarre grabbing (to win a header against Dwight Gale no less).
We got out of jail big time against Ludogorets at Anfield and I think even Madrid just about won out there. Everton in the knockouts of the Europa could be nice atleast. In all seriousness, I think there’s a cup in this season for Brendan and hopefully he can get to grips with everything so the points tally looks vaguely respectable. Easier said than done though and it’s looking an inenviable task right now.
It’s time to sit Stevie down–play him as a sub on 60-65 min up where he can run his socks off in a free role. His 90 minute exercises in dosing effort simple will not suffice. He has become a liability in a starting role without the attacking talent to take the focus off of him. And he simply does nor have the legs for any starting role…not without sacrificing in some other area. And we simply can’t afford that at this point. There are others who should see the bench, but I think Stevie really is the key in terms of what BR can fix right now. The cluster**** that is our striker situation is beyond salvage for now.
We need a cohesive side and I honestly believe we have the players to do it. But not with the selections and formations in which BR is puzzlingly mired.
From what I gathered from the internet, Lucas is going to Napoli where is wanted and he is appreciated pretty soon, and Johnson is getting a new contract. Hurrah! Roll on the good times.
That rumour comes up every week when rags are looking to fill space. We get the same LFC Rafa signing moving to Rafa’s current club all the time. Rafa isn’t trusted with funds and Italian sides can’t afford PL players.
Wouldn’t it make more sense for all the parties involved if Rafa just came to LFC instead?
Wait a minute… he’s the bookies’ odds-on favourite as next Liverpool manager. Something’s afoot!
WOW….I avoided all things LFC internet related after that woeful performance yesterday to avoid having to slice my wrists and thought I was strong enough this morning to read through this and…..where’s that Stanley knife?
Two things stand out to me…
1. The defence needs sorting out. Yes, we need more goals but let’s be honest that isn’t really fixable at the moment. The defence is and Brendan needs to do it now.
2. Stevie ain’t no good at DM. I actually think his head is still in that Chelsea game from last season. Agree with a previous poster that he has to be an impact sub now. If he doesn’t like it then tough.
I am concerned for Brendan as I think he has got something about him. However he has to do something quick about this or he’ll be off.
Ludogorets game could be the finish of him?
Nice Talking Heads reference, Neil.
…road to no where.
Brendan Rodgers’ team selections are akin to a man having slept with his bosses daughter, then at the next staff meeting, taking out his wang and repeatedly slapping his boss in the face with it. Everyone else looks on dumbfounded, knowing this isn’t going to end well, but he continues to do it. Why? Nobody really knows. But his wang is out and his boss can only take so much d*ck in the face. It’s almost like he wants to get fired, or he’s just thick. Either way it’s pretty damning.
Genuinely very funny. Great analogy.
Quality, cheered me up a bit that
Shows the arrogance of all that manager speak. Shows the arrogance of getting rid of Pepe.
Refusal to get in a specialist defensive coach? Because it May be sign of mgt weakness? Defence couldn’t perform much weaker.
It might come good, it might be another Reading, trudging on hoping it will improve.
Benjamin just put me a smile on my face. Last season it would have made me laugh. Someone should text BR that comment before the next game, maybe then we can see him smiling in the dug out.
Some of the comments in here about Rodgers are totally ridiculous, and shameful at worst. As for that nonsense about why he got sacked at Reading…that was years ago. He will obviously have learned a lot since then. Ludicrous analogy.
He’s been dealt a shitty hand this season, firstly by the transfer committee, who landed Balotelli in his lap when he clearly had no interest in the lad. Then with Danny’s injury, which has cost us big time.
He could easily have offered us that little bit extra that this league of fine margins demands. Way to early to be damning him on the season so far.
Totally agree with Neil about goals being our big problem. The rest is all stuff and nonsense. We’re wired to score goals, so when they’re not coming it’s obviously gonna hurt us more than most teams. It needs sorting in Jan with a player who can put the ball in the net. No more mickey mouse signings like Mario. The transfer committee need to put their hands up and admit they got it wrong, then give Rodgers the funds to fix it. There’s a lot of football to be played yet and we’re still only 3 points behind Arsenal and 5 behind Utd, and have still to play them both twice. We can turn this round. Have a little faith you shithouses.
I agree some of the comments are ridiculous but Rodgers is part of the transfer committee too. All 4 strikers at the club have been brought in by the current regime. Have all the strikers been bought without his consent??
We scored yesterday, we took the lead but we went on to let in 3 goals. If you don’t concede the worst youre gonna come away with is a draw.
It’s so easy to play against us, just sit back and hit us on the break. We can’t score or defend!!
Michael, you are correct, sadly we have become the easiest team in the league to play against, Bascombe touches on it in his Telegraph article this morning;
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/liverpool/11249546/Calls-for-Liverpool-to-sack-Brendan-Rodgers-premature-but-culture-of-negligence-at-Anfield-could-be-his-undoing.html
I fear Rodgers is trying to impose his philosophy (abandoned second half of last season) at whatever cost, I think his death by football is killing fans and team alike rather than the opposition. I believe he deserves time to sort this mess out but for me, he has to ditch this one up top and slow, boring as fuck football. If he persists with these tactics the matchgoing fans (not the internet ones) will decide his fate, lose the fans and he is finished.
“He’s been dealt a shitty hand this season, firstly by the transfer committee, who landed Balotelli in his lap when he clearly had no interest in the lad. Then with Danny’s injury, which has cost us big time.”
You do realise Rodgers signed Lambert and Borini, yes? You do realise Rodgers knew we sold Suarez and than Danny is a very injury prone footballer, yes?
There is no shitty hand here, only terrible mismanagement.
As you don’t like quotes about Rodgers, here are some quotes from Rodgers himself. Defend them if you want, I could do with a laugh:
“I don’t think the pressure is on us. Look at Tottenham. If yo spend £100m yo expect to be challenging for the title”
“When you have the ball 65-70% of the time, that’s football death for the other team”
Liverpool 0-1 Aston Villa – 75% possession
Liverpool 0-0 Hull – 66% possession
Newcastle 1-0 Liverpool – 65% possession
Crystal Palace 3-1 Liverpool – 65% possession
“I have absolutely no sympathy with Southampton. Listen, they have a choice as a club. They don’t have to sell. They had that choice. Maybe Southampton’s objectives have changed. They were on course to be a Champions League club, I believe, but obviously, that has changed.
“You do realise Rodgers signed Lambert and Borini, yes? You do realise Rodgers knew we sold Suarez and than Danny is a very injury prone footballer, yes?”
Rodgers signed Borini in his first season, and in my opinion was a decent buy as a third or fourth choice striker. He also seemed happy to be letting him go to Sunderland before the season started, as we can only assume he expected there to be some real quality coming him. Except there wasn’t.
Rodgers also had concerns about Danny’s injury record before we bought him, and if I recall, wasn’t entirely convinced about signing him for those very reasons, but went along with it. We don’t know how much choice he had there either. It seems a bit churlish to be saying that now given that Danny has been excellent for us otherwise, but you can’t say Rodgers wasn’t aware of his injury problems.
Of course he knew Suarez was leaving. So did the people on the transfer committee and those holding the purse strings. But instead of going all out for the best we could find as a replacement, they made half-hearted attempts at signing Sanchez, and then said, “ah sod it, Mario will do. At least he’s a big name player and he’s not costing much”, despite Rodgers making it clear he didn’t fancy him not long before.
So I think using our transfer dealings as a stick to beat Rodgers with now, without mentioning the transfer committee, or knowing what kind of nonsense is obviously going on there, is pretty pathetic.
As is using quotes out of context in an attempt to make him look foolish. It sounds like those quotes are the kind of thing your bellend mates on facebook have been winding you up with, so you want to take it out on Rodgers rather than taking it on the chin and getting behind the manager.
I want to see evidence of everything these soothsayer fans knew back in May 2014 when the consensus seemed to be that we had one of the best young managers in the game. I’m sure Chris and his mates were telling us otherwise and quoting John Madejski at every opportunity. Yes, I’m sure those comments from back then will be posted here…any…minute…now…
There is no chance in hell Fsg are going to trust Rodgers with any more money. There’ll be no business done in January, forget it.
If they do sack him (please) then the new guy is going to want funding, and seeing how shockingly poor Rodgers is in the transfer market, I think Fsg will not want to lumber the new guy with more average players
20m on markovich, 20m!!!
Bloody hell, the Markovic has hardly kicked a ball yet. He’s obviously a decent player, give him a chance.
Rodgers needs to sort it out and quick, but unless he creates a massive scene (i.e. – finish in genuine mid-table, or in the relegation zone around Christmas) then he deserves time and support. For what it’s worth, I was wholly unconvinced by his appointment, however he’s here and needs/deserves our time and backing. Last season showed what a Rodgers’ side can be capable of.
Our transfer business has been an absolute disgrace for a number of years. I mean, we can moan about Hicks and Gillett all we want – and they certain fucked us over at a crucial time – but ultimately if we’d spent even half the cash we’ve had over the past decade or two well, we’d be in a far healthier position as a Club.
Finally, all this talk of a ‘defensive coach’, needs to stop. They don’t really exist and when they do, they’re generally a disaster. Anyone remember Lawrenson at Newcastle? People need to stop prattling on about them like they’re some key element of the puzzle we’re missing.
It’s not American Football – the game is too organic, and defending involves the whole team, not just the defenders. That’s why, in 2014, after over 100 years of the game, coaching staffs aren’t really broken into specialist areas outside of fitness and goalkeeping.
We’re not playing as a team. There is too much space between the lines and poor movement up front. We are easy to defend against irrespective of the impotent possession that we have in our half of the pitch. Team selection has not helped. Let’s not even talk about the transfer market dealings…
I’m the hugest Gerrard fan but have wanted a reduced roll for him for quite some time – we have to sacrifice his passing for more dynamism in the holding roll. There is no room for sentimentality in football and Gerrad is not the player we need for the role that he is currently filling.
BR getting it wrong week in and week out. LFC is not a Micky Mouse club, but here we are plumbing new depths of ineptitude. The buck has to stop somewhere and the manager is rightly under pressure. Too soon to fire, but definitely a strong warning from the paymasters would be appropriate. The hole has been dug. I look forward to seeing how BR gets himself out of it.
“he brought us the success of last season.” Last season was awesome. However,can anyone using last season as the sole basis to back Rodgers be honest and state the reason Liverpool finished second and not first? he knew that reason and till this day he cannot find a way to fix it which suggests he may never fix it. If he never fixes it he needs to find another Suarez. It really seems like he has no plan b at all. Non at all. Just pass aimlessly. on unrelated note,why do we never score headed goals (from open play,not set pieces)?