BOTH Gareth Roberts and Melissa Reddy wrote last week about the over the top — and increasingly personal — comments that come from Liverpool fans after every occasion Brendan Rodgers dares to talk about football.
For some it feels like the press conferences have become the main event. The football simply a precursor to the much more important spectacle of ‘slagging off the manager for using a positive word’.
Like Gareth and Mellissa, I don’t understand it. Largely because I have never really been interested in what a manager has to say after a game. Yes, Roy Hodgson’s outpourings of excrement annoyed me, but looking like the worst team in the country annoyed me a hell of a lot more. I’m happy to judge what I see in front of me on the pitch, not wait to see what a football manager has to say about it.
When I do seek out the opinions of others there are a thousand people, both writers and ordinary fans, I would rather listen to than a football manager straight after a game with a camera pointed at him and a microphone shoved in his face.
Those expecting insight in these moments are misguided. Those expecting honesty, naïve. Even for a manager who likes to talk as much as Brendan, they are interviews you get through. Obligations that distract from what they would rather be doing at that time.
Pre-match press conferences are much more relaxed but still rarely contain anything of note, aside from a few injury updates. I’ll write about 10 of the press conferences that will take place this week now if you like. Tick off every one of these you hear: “The whole team want to go out on a high”, “The players want to thank the fans who have supported them so well all season”, “We’ll give a few younger players a run if we can”, “The players will be focussed”, “We’ve made plenty of progress this season”, “We’re not thinking about the summer yet”. Blah Blah Blah.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUQw9oGKLTQ
The day I care more about what a manager says than what a football team does will probably be time to pack in. I’ll largely stick up for Brendan and his choices of words because I know how easy it is to say the wrong thing under pressure. To be misinterpreted when you thought you have been quite clear.
I’ve been questioned, argued with and, occasionally, outright abused when I have said things on The Anfield Wrap which I thought were fairly innocuous. It happens. The longer you talk, the more likely you’ll say something someone doesn’t like.
All that said, there are a couple of times this season when I don’t think Brendan’s mouth has done him any favours. One was after Chelsea, in a post-match press conference that led to some reasonable folks saying he should be sacked on the spot. You remember. He said he took Steven Gerrard off so he could receive an ovation from Stamford Bridge.
Now this was clearly bollocks. Firstly he could never have known he would get the applause he did. It was more likely, based on past experience and the fact they all turned up with laminated pictures of him slipping over, that Gerrard would be jeered. But most importantly no manager would ever do that with a game still in the balance.
When it made more sense to take him off for an ovation, at home to Crystal Palace, he left him on, because he looked like he might get us back in the game. At Stamford Bridge he didn’t, he looked tired and fresh legs in the middle were needed. So why not just say that? He chose to make up another excuse on the spot and it backfired massively. At worst he sounded like a manager who would make decisions based on claps from Chelsea fans. At best he sounded like a manager who couldn’t admit the real reason he took off a fella who is leaving in the summer in case he upset him.
It wasn’t a great moment for the manager. But it is likely to be forgotten fairly quickly by most. Something that might be brought up again, however, are the comments he made in a press conference last month. You remember. About fifth being about par for where we are at. He was attacked by the press conference voyeurs about loads of things in that interview. I just thought “you better hope we finish fifth now, mate.”
As we approach the final game of the season there is no guarantee we will. A tricky game at Stoke looms, made even trickier by a star winger telling the whole world he’s getting bullied. As if anyone at Liverpool Football Club looks remotely capable of bullying anyone. Due to Liverpool’s embarrassing goal difference they could draw that game at Stoke and finish the season in seventh.
The truth is, the top four is where you want to finish and fifth to seventh is pretty much of a muchness. I’m aware that as a statement that is hardly “If you are first you are first. If you are second you are nothing”, but I don’t make the rules. But now Rodgers has come out and said fifth is par then any lower than that is admitting failure. It’s adding pressure to yourself where it is unnecessary.
It reminds me of when Rafa Benitez ‘guaranteed’ we would finish in the top four. Now he was dealing with a snide interviewer acting the goat, but it was still an unnecessary thing to say. No manager can guarantee anything with so much out of their control, but by guaranteeing it he was suggesting it was. It was something he should have been able to make happen. Liverpool finished out of the top four that season, and Rafa lost his job.
Brendan didn’t quite go that far, but he did set out what is the minimum acceptable requirement. A par that was lower than the actual ‘target’ for this season, but which still may not be reached come the end of the season.
His saving grace might be that both of our rivals for fifth place have tricky away games this weekend too. But Manchester City might have nothing to play for, and I wouldn’t trust Everton to wash my car. If results go against us? Well it’s crazy to make a decision on the future of a manager based on one weekend. But if we finish below the manager’s par, that number five might come back to haunt him.
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Having lived in communes I have this theory that when numerous people live together the pressure grows a little bit each day until eventually it gets to the point where it goes pop. Then, calm is restored until x months later when it’s built up again and reaches breaking point again.
I feel the club is at that point now. It’s becoming untenable with the manager, Sterling, FSG, the transfer committee, Gerrard, Ayre and the fans. We can’t carry on like this. I think it’ll only get worse over the summer. I’m completely at breaking point already. I feel like I’m gonna explode with it all. I need to spend more time at my allotment, go on holiday and reconnect at the start of next season and see where we’re at. In some ways, I’d be happy if the club imploded and started afresh all round. It’s become a nightmare.
What I don’t like this season is the way the club and its personnels, including the manager, have been way too happy to air our private dirty laundry in public for their own selfish purposes. Too much political manoeuvring and gamesmanship, it plays a part in annoying the hell outta everybody
Agree…this club has handled its business poorly and on the whole, very poorly for 20 years.
The par comment was silly because it didnt take into account points total. 70 points and 4th is not better than 80 points and 5th…I know that seems backwards but you cant be a better team with fewer points.
For me, i always look to 2 points per game as par for the course. 2013 was not so good…2014 was overwhelmingly good…2015 not so good.
20 years? And the rest, mate. The rot started when Kenny was burned out after all the Hillsborough funerals. He couldn’t see what was happening on the pitch, admitted it, signed some shit and walked away for the better of the club. Continuity was lost, Souness panicked with the looming UEFA home grown players rule, coupled with senior player-power resisting change. We’ve been playing catch up ever since. Unfortunately it is no longer Arsenal, the Mancs and some shitbag outfit coming up from division two, oil infiltrated the league buying seats at the top table, pushing us further down.
Until we are afforded a Ceo who is based at the Club we are well and truly stuck behind the 8 ball and the situation will not improve. The theory behind the money ball method of recruitment for European footballers is frankly tosh and its theory Is redundant and not pragmatic in the free financial market forces of Global football, it’s limitations should be confined to Base Ball and NFL in the USA where both leagues adopt a fairer distribution of talent using the ‘DRAFT’ which also helps to keep a cap on transfer expenditure.
It’s been said a million times and that is probably no exaggeration that if you want to play with the high rollers of European football you better be prepared to flash the cash if you are hoping to get a seat at the high stakes table, and if you’re not prepared to make a financial stand then the rules are you stand back as a silent on looker until you feel bold enough to have a go.
That is precisely what is the situation with Fsg. I don’t know the figures of their net investment into LFC may be it is time for some transparency so we all know how much they are in for, after all it’s no secret with all the other big hitters of European football
I suspect that the news re FFP will encourage FSG to put LFC up for sale. They’ve done well to turn the club around financially and with the improvement in commercial revenues as well as the work on Anfield ensuring an improvement in matchday revenues, they should get a healthy return on their investment. LFC for £500m – any takers?
That depends upon how much FSG have leveraged against the club in other ventures. They may be another stack of cards outfit, where it’s all great until one of the cards falters.
All £$ put into the club will be in the form of zero interest loans, that’s great. Come selling time, that’ll be due, and the pending TV bonanza will be reflected in the selling price. Talking out of my arse, I’d guess they’d want over $1 billion USD (they’re yanks, after all).
The net figure is around £140m in the last 4 and a half seasons.
The way you speak though insinuates you’re asking how much they’ve invested. They’ve invested a £50m loan into the club. The transfer money spent is our money. They just determine how much of our money we spend.
I like Brendan, but there’s no question he’s a gobshite. He has no humility when the team is doing well, and goes to great lengths to proclaim how he has worked wonders by changing the system and so on. And when the team is going through a rough spell, he’s the first to deflect it onto the team – a lack of ‘character’ or ‘leadership’ etc. He’s a young manager, he’ll hopefully learn from this. Though the fact that he’s got an Andy Warhol-style pic of himself on his lounge wall suggests he’s unlikely to be able restrain his ego.
I wouldn’t necessarily use the same term, but there’s something very disturbing about a LFC manager who publicly states that he thinks our squad lacks quality or mouths the cliche about us “lacking that wee bit quality in the final third”.
I don’t know how LFC or any other top club footballers react but one seriously negative comment, gratuitous and/or self-serving (deflecting attention from one’s own failures), undoes 20 cliche positive comments.
I’d like to know what FSG’s “play book” was wrt to how Gerrard was to be used and/or accommodated this season.
Also, I’d like the people who point to the ‘middle 1/3’ of the season, during which we actually did better points-wise than our performances (better though they were) deserved, as evidence of what a good manager Rodgers is, to explain how the first 1/3 and the current 1/3 of the season are not evidence that he’s NOT a good manager.
All of the explanations (well, basically excuses) put forth to account for the crappy first 1/3 league and CL performances negate all of the explanations for last season’s excellent performances, especially in the 2nd half of the season. There was nothing ‘pragmatic’ about what Rodgers did during the first 1/3. He made bad decisions, personnel selection and deployment-wise, and he persisted with them. He almost never played Balotelli with a proper striker partner (heck, even Sterling, who is NOT a striker/CF) and never accommodated him, adjusting (in general) the style of play to personnel available.
Markovic was sidelined after being used repeatedly out of position and subbed off for no apparent reason, Sterling was suddenly thrown back in as CF vs Crystal Palace (ffs!), Manquillo hasn’t had a game in what seems like ages, the list goes on.
The stupidities and illogical nonsense he says during interviews are, in the end, immaterial. But they’re not helping much, either.
“When you are spending £100m you should be winning the league”
Another Brendan Rodgets Quote upon beating Spurs last year and now we’re talking about going from 5th to 7th
Standards and expectations are continually dumbed down yet nobody calls anyone out and from the looks of it , we won’t see any accountability for what can only be described as a negligent waste this season
Nice one Kev!Brendan has really dug is own grave by that comment;
“When you are spending £100m you should be winning the league”. But the reality is that it looks like FSG will keep Brendan because his contract conditions suit their “cunning plan” (Baldrick – Blackadder), i.e. They use MoneyBall techniques and have a puppet manager who says all the right things and does not kick up a fuss about the transfer commitee (however that is really operated). I’ve seen transfer (and management) mistakes for the last 27 years. Does anyone see us breaking this cycle unless we get an oil rich sugar daddy? (last year was a once in a lifetime exception where if we could have defended better, we would have walked to the title).
You have hit the nail on the head. The man who sold us was, after all, a Chelsea supporter.
Bullshit…There is no moneyball in football and BR is not a yes man and never says the right things you knob!
People were saying some of the stuff he came out with was ‘shankly-esque’ last season when we were boss.
If you don’t like someone it’s easy to find fault in everything they say. Just as the reverse is true.
The hiring of a manager who commands respect by virtue of his achievements (trophies and league finishes), and a few qaulity players in thier prime,would be a statement of intent and soothe everyones concerns. Rodgers ,Origi and Wings would do the reverse.
I hope Rodgers is gone…More players will leave and another season of transition under BR i promise you and i fear we will be much worse next season under dodgers..He needs to go, and FSG need to get their finger out of their fucking arse and do something once the refree blows off the game vs Stoke which am 99% sure we will loose by 2 goals! He is useless..He will play Emre at RB and Johnson at LB, and Gerrard at DM and Streling upfront! He is useless and deluded like his fans!
A good start would be for Rodgers to stop going on Talksport so often. I appreciate that Brendan wants to come across as media friendly, but do you hear the likes of Wenger, Mourinho or Van Gaal talking to Alan Brazil at 8.30 in the morning? No.
I’m surprised that the club’s PR department (if it has one) allow him to do it. Those radio shows are only interested in hearing him put his foot in it or say something controversial as it gives them a headline. The manager of Liverpool Football Club should rise above that.
The problem with that is Brendan doesnt trust himself to do a good enough job to merit being kept as LFC manager. He knows if the press begin to criticise him as they should he’s a goner…..so he keeps all his buddies in the media onside by giving them greater access to him than they would get with a top manager. He scratches their back, they scratch his.
Remember Rafa’s relationship with the media? He was secure enough to trust himself to do a good job, win matches/win trophies & they’d speak for him, so he didnt mind rubbing the press up the wrong way or giving them short shrift and no access.
But with Brendan it couldnt be more different. Its insecurity on Rodgers’ part, plain and simple. I mean, is there a bigger apologist/sychophant for any other manager in the entire world than James Pearce at the Echo? Its truly sickening & he isnt called out on it. Gee, I wonder who his source at the club is….
Fantastic post