AFTER a second league defeat in a row, Neil Atkinson is joined by Rob Gutmann, Mike Nevin and Paul Senior to discuss frustrating goings on at Old Trafford.
Can the manager turn it around?
PODCAST: DISMALAND
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Have yet to listen to the podcast, just wanted to say thanks for not using the photo of Brendan where he looks like a rabid squirrel. The media love to stick it in and twist, he does my head in but does not deserve that.
Yes of course he can. But will he ?
I’m not sure what people expected but this is going to be it for at least the next few games. Even if we had Sturridge, Henderson Couthino and with Benteke and Firmino fully integrated in the team, this is pretty much what I expected. Cagey and at times disjointed.
No way did I think he would hit the ground running. ‘Could’ but not ‘would’.
Couldn’t give a monkeys about last season now – I get why fans can’t help winding themselves up by sticking it onto the end of that disappointment, but Stoke was the end of the last squad as far as I’m concerned.
Crikey lads, what has happened to everyone’s heads. Not because everyone has gone for extreme opinions, but because everyone has clearly got very defensive about their views. This isnt healthy long term at all for the club.
The manager is defensive about his position (though everyone said in advance the loser this weekend would have their manager questioned all week) and we know we had a tough start away from home.
Neil has got defensive about people thinking he is defensive which allows others to say ‘I have had it with this manager and want a change’ with no critical questioning of that position. Who do we appoint (ie a shortlist of more than one obvious candidate has yet to surface and who knows if he is obtainable)
Look at this weekend, we had a midfield missing Pip, Hendo, Lallana and Allen. That left three fit players unless you want to start Rossiter away at OT. And those three have to play in a three (well who wants to see Lucas or Can in a two?) Once you decide that you only have three up front. All are knew to the club and learning to play with one another.
Seven tough aways, we are on course for 2W, 3D, 2L We would all take that at the start. Neil is right, its these league home games that matter and I fully expect us to see a change of shape this weekend (past history tells us that)
The side will be completely different with Hendo, Pip, Sturidge back. Lallana and Allen give you more options off the bench and chasing a game throwing on forwards like Ings and Origi (didnt he look massive btw?) when playmakers already on the pitch (no not lucas)
Courage of his convictions, used to have big bollocks and let them swing freely, now there tucked up tight. Liverpool is a big club, the way set up against Utd was small club. A club this great cannot have that. Its just a question of when now, greater men have fallen.
Would FSG try and skimp and appoint O Driscoll his teams passed and attacked..
Just partway through the pod – but think Rob was spot on with the 2 formations comments (one for possession and one without). The trouble was when we won the ball deep, the midfield and back four were so so poor at keeping it that Ings and Firmino did get a chance to push up along side Benteke…we didn’t keep the ball well at all…that is hardly Brendan’s fault. Lucas, Milner etc. were all guilty of some poor passes (not even looking at times), which put us under pressure and isolated Benteke.
This isn’t pleasant but what can you do. I feel for Rodgers if I’m honest, but the thing with this kind of momentum is it’s unstoppable and irreversible. Results can help but only slightly. From this day on Rodgers has to deliver us the league title or be around 1st place. Anything less and it’ll become untenable. That’s unlikely to happen so why prolong it. I got a strange feeling when the backroom staff were announced that there was no real foundation to disrupt if a change had to happen.
I wouldn’t normally mention change at this point in the season. I don’t think the benefits would be as clear cut as we like to think. I look around the managers and wonder if any of them are any good. One managerial job and you’re names on the list forever. It’s just a revolving door. I thought Harry was fishing last week. Liverpool are worse than ever, Liverpool is the one club I regret not managing. No thanks, mate.
Being so negative about where, deep down, I think Liverpool are as a club these days, I dismiss the popular choices of our fans but, like most, my media interpretation of Klopp is that he’s waiting for us and sending us little come and get me’s. Who knows but my view is – we don’t win anything anyway, if there’s a man who could potentially unite us again then it’s worth it whatever. I’d rather come 8th and be happy than 6th and be absolutely miserable. What does the future hold for us fans now? Well, in case anyone’s naïve it’s acrimony. We may have a couple of months window where it’s achievable then it’s passed for ever. I don’t particularly rate him because I don’t really know him but it feels right to me. He feels like a Liverpool manager. Cruel to be kind an all that. I just can’t see how this reverses.
I take offence at trying to shift the blame on the players for Saturday. Was Ings to blame? I thought he did ok. Showed some fight. Is Benteke to blame up there on his own? Firmino out there? Young Gomez, Clyne? Can even? I certainly hold no malice for any of them. I felt for them. The 3 senior Liverpool players weren’t great but with Lucas I can sympathise a bit too. He’s rusty. I just feel the more the fans scream play a 4-4-2 diamond regardless of personnel available then the less chance we have of seeing it. I’ve felt it for a while over various scenarios. Just keep it simple. He can still take the credit if it goes well.
Stupidly, I still think we can put a team out when everyone is back from injury that’s unstoppable. We’re not that far away from putting it to the test. It rarely works out like that though. I think, in the last 50 games we’ve had one good spell of 10 games. One run of form. The other 40 have been below what we expect. There’s no escaping that.
What used to differentiate TAW podcasts from others is that people on it do not just spew generalities on the basis of very little evidence.
Can we go back to that, please?
Whoever the person was that shat on Lucas is dead to me; just watch the game over, mate, look at some statistics, work off evidence instead of your impressions.
If you don’t know who the person was that ‘shat on Lucas’ then their being dead to you is irrelevant.
True. Since we’re being all serious and stuff . . .
Nah, going to trust my own eyes on the Lucas front (and I’m generally speaking a fan of his). He passed it straight to them… Like, a lot.
Him and Skrtel were great against Arsenal but you can’t really accept mad fluctuations in performance from your veteran centre back and defensive midfielder (as opposed to teenagers playing out of position or attackers settling in a new league).
Trust your own eyes?
Watch the game over. THEN trust your own eyes.
Oh whatever, what’s the use. Do whatever you want, it doesn’t matter anyway.
You maybe correct but my feelings when watching it live were that Lucas & Milner were off the pace and flustered in possession,
Not sure if I can do that 90 again tbh mate.
Firmino has a nous for goal? Clearly, just make comments off vague memories and impressions.
Go back and watch the incident where Skrtel’s header was saved off the line by Blind. Off the rebound, Can gets to it and crosses it back across the goal-mouth. Ings (another one who supposedly is a goal-scorer) attempts a ballet-jump kind of ‘shot’ and misses and the ball ends up at the feet of Firmino. Watch his ‘control’ or lack thereof and figure out if he’s got a “nous” for goals.
Seriously . . .
The most watched footy game on the planet and the lack of quality on display was astounding (I say that, it was much the same in this game last season). Ashley Young coming on an looking a Cristiano Ronaldoesque cut above everyone else? What the fucking hell is going on here?
Paul Senior’s spot on on the lack of anger at the shite unfolding in front of them from the senior pros:
– I like Milner as a player but he’s a good center mid the way Joe Allen is (which is sound out of context). He’s not a captain who’s gonna drive you to a result you don’t particularly deserve at Old Trafford in a dog of a game. You look at that team and he’s *the star* and it’s worrying because that couldn’t be further away from his time at City when he played his best stuff. He needs to be the Dirk Kuyt, not the Gerrard. That’s where we need someone like Firmino to hopefully come good as the season goes on.
– It occurs to me that Lucas and Skrtel started the 4-1 in 2009 there when they were in their early 20s. They’ve played for two different title challenging Liverpool teams half a decade apart. I didn’t see any of that experience or nous from either of them to make up for what looked to me like a lack of talent at this stage of their careers, being brutally honest. Lucas is somewhat excused because he suffered a killer of an injury when he was our best player under Kenny in 2011. But Skrtel…
– Skrtel weirds me out. Who looks a cannier, more composed centre half at 23 than what they end up looking like at 30? He’s fucking peculiar. People will rightly say that Lovren and Mignolet are the opposite of whatever in their primes, mid to late 2000s Carragher and Reina were next to him, but he should be leading and instilling confidence in the players around him. Not doing whatever it was he was thinking for their 3rd.
I cannot bear all this waiting for Daniel bollocks. If we really valued the player as we should we wouldn’t brief/leak against him. He’s been a star during his time at Liverpool but what’s his reward? Constant sniping about his attitude to the press. I have little sympathy with Brendan over Sturridge’s injury, even less having spent 32.5m on a replacement.
Bangon
Sorry Paul, you are going to have to help me here… constant sniping in the press? I’m struggling to recall this.
There may have been a couple of stories at one time last season, where journalists who have access to the club questioned whether Sturridge had the mentality to play or train with niggly injuries, but that is hardly damning of Sturrdge, whatever the source for the stories was, and certainly doesn’t count as “briefing against”.
Anyway clearly you had a number of other occasions in mind.
Sturridge was briefed against by someone in the club who told a select group of journalists (Pearce, Evans, Barrett – who all just so happen to be massive Rodgers apologists) that he wasn’t mentally tough enough abd that he was wimping out of playing matches on a slight injury when other players would have.
If thats not being briefed against I don’t jnow what is. By the way I wonder who the source was. I guess it’s impossible to work it out.
PS: the source was Brendan Rodgers.
A manager can express concerns that a player is to too inclined to let minor injuries hold him back in training or matches, without that constituting briefing against, Similarly a manager should be able express concerns about a players performance or fitness, without it becoming a big drama. Twitter and forums such as this want the drama.
By the way, Stalin had apologists, What Rodgers has is some people who have not been inclined to put the boot in as much as a section on online fans would like.
Whoa…….a manager can HAVE concerns that a player may not be pushing himself as much as he should but said manager should NEVER express those concerns to the press who he knows is going to repeat those concerns.
Michael. I would rather managers kept more stuff in house, but pretty much all managers make comments about players to press, whether in press conferences of smaller gatherings. This does not mean they are “briefing against” the player.
You are excusing Rodgers briefing against our star striker. You are apologizing away Rodgers questioning the toughness of a man who has had terrible injuries and who has played through injuries. You are backing Rodgers giving the media stories to write about that inevitably lead to disharmony and our star striker being annoyed. You are allowing Rodgers to secretly pass judgement on Sturridge’s injuries when the medical professionals were only weeks away from finding the extent of Sturridge’s injuries. You are saying it’s ok for Rodgers to give such access to his mates in return for them staying off his back for so long.
You have been wrong all along on Rodgers. But your position is becoming more untenable and laughable as the weeks pass. You still can’t admit you are in the wrong and continue to defend even his most cowardly behaviour. You are the very definition of a Rodgers apologist.
Just a by the by:
brief against phrasal verb If someone, especially a politician, briefs against another person, he or she tries to harm the other person’s reputation by saying something unfavourable about them, usually in a clandestine manner to the media. The material from such meetings is understood to be non-attributable (i.e. the journalists will not explicitly reveal who gave them the information)
That doesn’t sound exactly like what happened eh? No, not to Rodgers apologists it seems – denying reality is a common theme with them.
Thanks for your input Michael.
That’s highly amusing regarding some of the journalists you mention and couldn’t be further from the truth.
Not a good look guys. You’ve complained about the manager briefing journalists on the show, you’ve also complained about ‘someone in the club’ briefing journalists about Daniel Sturridge not playing through injuries, so you shouldn’t be surprised by Michael’s conclusions. If you know more, then spit it out.
Not a good look? Why? The briefings took place and we discussed them. It doesn’t make journalists doing their job by reporting what they are told ‘Brendan Rodgers apologists’. Nothing to spit out but those journalists that support Liverpool want Liverpool to win.
Oh I agree re the apologist line, that doesn’t interest me in the slightest, but that’s not how your initial response reads to me. Thanks for the clarifying your position.
And I think we all want Liverpool to win don’t we?
Some don’t want the manager to win but everyone wants Liverpool to win. Best not to encourage binaries even if others do.
I imagine so. My point is that the journalists are people doing their job. And also some of them are Liverpool fans. There’s no need to trot out this ‘Brendan Rodgers apologist’ nonsense. Because it’s not true.
Agreed. Though its applied freely to journalists in other fields.
I can’t help feeling that FSG have missed a trick, it feels as though the supporters are dividing again, it was all so unnecessary. Mike N was right about the end of last season. If they sack him now or leave it longer he’ll get a shitty send off and that really shouldn’t be what we’re all about. He doesn’t deserve that.
You have your opinion, I’m entiitled to mine.
Over the last 12 months, 12 months in which our manager has performed appallingly, I’ve read the aforementioned journalists write about everything to do with what is wrong at LFC…..everything apart from the performance of the manager that is.
Be it Balotelli, FSG, the transfer committee, attacks on players Rodgers didn’t want at the club (details on said players clearly provided in leaks by Rodgers himself, which you yourselves acknowledged and which most fans find at best distasteful, at worst a disgrace), it didnt matter – all those things were written about after a Liverpool defeat, in place of writing about the performance of Brendan Rodgers. Everything that was wrong apparentky had nothing to do with the manager and head coach. Those articles were the actions of apologists. It is possible to write about those things AND Rodgers’ failures tn setting the team up. That was an option believe it or not. But they chose not to do this.
It’s well known certain journos have never had greater access at LFC since Rodgers became boss. There have never been so many leaks at the club as in this period either, whether it be the behaviours of “Mad Mario” or “Jokey Enrique” (just as we were trying to sell them – great strategy that was) or who is a committe signing, and you are claiming this is all a mere coincidence that those writing from a position of knowledge through these leaks just so happen to have also steadfastly refused to criticize Rodgers until recently. I was a journalist until recently for CNN. Google me. Trust me when I say I know the industry and all its disceit and impurity. I know how it works – you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. ‘The team is struggling lads and I don’t want my name mentioned unless in a sympathetic manner, so here’s some inside information for you.
Now as the majority of our fans have woken up to the fact the man in charge isn’t up to it, they finally begin to go after him, like rats abandoning a sinking ship.
You think thats one big coincidence, I do not. To each their own.
Sound. Do you know the people you’re branding apologists? Have you been in press conferences with them? Do you know what questions they ask?
It started with the manager publicly criticizing Sturridge and benching him before a derby game. Since then there have been a number of stories about his refusal to train/play through injuries and the club/manager’s frustration at said refusal. Where do you think those stories come from? Do you think the journalists make them up? Why would they? And what dot the stories coming out of the States tell us about the nature of Sturridge’s injuries? They suggest that contrary to the press reports he’s been playing through injury for a long time.
Just FYI:
Lucas:
http://www.fourfourtwo.com/statszone/8-2015/matches/803205/player-stats/43191/OVERALL_02#tabs-wrapper-anchor
Can:
http://www.fourfourtwo.com/statszone/8-2015/matches/803205/player-stats/112338/OVERALL_02#tabs-wrapper-anchor
Milner:
http://www.fourfourtwo.com/statszone/8-2015/matches/803205/player-stats/15157/OVERALL_02#tabs-wrapper-anchor
Firmino:
http://www.fourfourtwo.com/statszone/8-2015/matches/803205/player-stats/92217/OVERALL_02#tabs-wrapper-anchor
Ings:
http://www.fourfourtwo.com/statszone/8-2015/matches/803205/player-stats/84939/OVERALL_02#tabs-wrapper-anchor
Skrtel:
http://www.fourfourtwo.com/statszone/8-2015/matches/803205/player-stats/26793/OVERALL_02#tabs-wrapper-anchor
Lovren:
http://www.fourfourtwo.com/statszone/8-2015/matches/803205/player-stats/38454/OVERALL_02#tabs-wrapper-anchor
Here we go again. Will you abandon LFC once your pin-up eventually leaves the club?
There can be no more excuses. The manager must be judged on results, he was handed around 50m to replace Daniel Sturridge a player who, if I understand correctly, he’s frequently undermined in briefings/leaks to the press and wasn’t particularly keen on signing in the first place.
I’m a big fan of TAW but I wonder if a few of you aren’t barking up the wrong tree. 2013/14 was the outlier; that was the season he gave up on his philosophy to accommodate (wisely) the stellar talents at his disposal. Last season was all about trying to re-impose his turgid death by football approach and it failed. You have an image of what constitutes a Brendan Rodgers team that may be based on a chimera, a mirage. A typical Rodgers i team is ponderous, a Rodgers team with Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge is explosive, but that’s the exception, not the rule, hence Benteke and Lallana.
The above is speculation, but it’s worth considering when thinking about a ‘typical’ Brendan Rodgers team: it may not be what you imagine. It is possible to be both bold and solid btw. You’re creating a false binary.
Personally I think he’s great at improving individual players, particularly attacking players, but isn’t great at setting teams up. If he was he’d be able to cope with playing two games a week and the challenge that is Europe. It is possible to be both bold and relatively solid,
Last words: what’s wrong with Jeremy Corbyn? He’s left of Tony Benn, you should be happy.
To the manager: if you’re worried about the media, stop reading about yourself.
Lucas – “dying light” fucking hell. He gave away 6 passes out of 36. Not quite he gave away every pass.
But hey he’s an easy sacrifice I suppose, always has been.
Too true, though he wasn’t at his best on Saturday. What grates about the weekend, was that we set up and played like a small team. Indeed the first half suggests that both teams are declining forces. We need to get out of this funk and fast. We were just as bad against Stoke but that’s been whitewahed because of the result.
This has been our problem for years in my opinion. We’ve been content with average players. Not arsed about the number of passes he did or didn’t make. It’s modern football fan shite. He’s not good enough, reckless and slows our tempo. Opta don’t measure these things.
I’ll politely disagree with you Robin. I realise he’s a Marmite player but he does best when he’s constant in the side, I get the feeling he doesnt know where he stands with this management IMHO of course
Don’t get me wrong, I really like Lucas but in his 8 years I think we’ve had 18 months of very good performances. 1 season and half a season. My point is only that I’m not surprised he’s slipped so far down the pecking order. Best thing all round would be to call it a day, again, in my opinion.
Again I will disagree about the 18 months but people only see what they want to see.
I well remember after Benitez got pushed, the knife boys went for their next target of Lucas. “Let him go for free”, “Wouldnt even get in a Championship side” etc etc.
Lucas is the one player i’d say has been that ultimate clubman and yet large swathes of support demean him constantly whilst professing that they want ‘loyalty’ to come back into football.
To watch the gushing over Milner a player who’s been with us 3 months over a player who’s been here 8-9 years is pretty distasteful to be honest but again as I say, he’s an easy sacrifice. Remember this time last year it was all about Can replacing the awful Lucas, until Lucas had to be brought back in with Sakho to man the bilge pumps and stop a rapidly sinking ship.
I don’t agree at all with that assessment Andrew. I wonder if the passage of time has clouded your judgement (apologies if that comes across as patronising – it’s not intended, only that all of us are guilty when we like a player of taking only the positives and changing the narrative slightly).
You mention when Rafa went the knives came out for Lucas. Is that really the case? Under Rafa, Lucas was booed. He clearly took time to settle and it was only after Mascherano left and he moved into the holding midfielder role he began to find his feet, though slowly. By the time Rafa left Lucas’s career hadn’t been great, he admits that himself. We all remember the derby’s and his nightmares in those games. He had the reputation as a bit of a liability.
But, when Rafa left Lucas became probably our best player in the following season. He earned nothing but praise from everyone including me who’d spent his previous years slating him. So, I don’t agree the knives were out after Rafa left. I’d say it’s the opposite.
He missed most of the next season 11/12 through injury after another good start to the season. 12/13 he missed the first half of the season and struggled for the remainder on his return. 13/14 he had a poor first half of the season and was dropped to the bench for the second half when we did well. Last season he hardly played in the first of the season and when he came back in I don’t think many came out with much credit.
I stand by an 18 month good spell and little else. He’s wanted to leave for the last few years – I’ve read his words on that. Each time the club failed to strike a deal. Yet, he’s become a cult hero who loves Liverpool so much he’s beyond criticism. I really like and respect him but my primary concern is that Liverpool have the best players. For years, I’ve wanted us to replace him with better.
Lots of people losing their heads. I understand why, but for me it is too early for anyone to be panicking after 5 games.
Don’t get me wrong, there was a lot to be concerned about, both in terms of the performance of the players and the plan from Rodgers, in that game.
At the start, I was happy about the team selection and how they seemed to be set up. The problem for me is that what I assumed was going to be 433 with the ball 4141 without, seemed to get stuck in 4141 whether we had the ball or not. If that was by design that seems very strange and really limited the ability of the team to play on the break and left Benteke isolated.
In the second half we started to play some football, but we still didn’t seem to release Firmino and Ings to get close to Benteke, rather Can seemed to be given licence to get forward. Odd. Both Ings and Firmino seem capable of doing a defensive graft, but the intention with their selection must surely have been to see them further forward.
Next couple of games become huge. If we don’t get the points and start showing some attacking fluency against Norwich and Villa, maybe I will start to lose my head. As it stands there is still everything to play for. 3 points behind two of the obvious rivals for top 4. 3 points ahead of another.
“for me it is too early for anyone to be panicking after 5 games.”
Yes mate, we’re all judging him after 5 games. He’s had no time or money to spend. But then you say you might call for his sacking if games vs Villa and Norwich don’t go well. So in your eyes it’s madness to “panic” after 5 games but 7 games is perfectly reasonable?
And it’s not “losing your head” to call for this managers sacking if the next 2 league games don’t go well. Its called common sense. Common sense that many of us have had for a while now but others have lacked.
Some people wanted him gone at the start of the season, some after West Ham, more after Saturday,
I’m not at that point, I hope I don’t get to that point and that results and performances allow me to enjoy the rest of the season.
If results don’t improve and Rodgers is sacked, whether during the season or at the end of the year, I will be disappointed, but I won’t be looking at myself and thinking, if only I had more common sense, I would have seen that coming.
Look Graeme, I like your views a lot more than most who write on here. You seem more balanced. I want to touch on this ‘5 game thing’ though. We finished the season in appalling fashion and I, for one, was happy to write it off and start again. New backroom staff were brought in and new players and we all hoped it would be a fresh start. Had we got the same results in the 5 games but shown some fight or given an idea about what we’re about then I could accept it. Something’s not right though mate. We had the terrible slump at the start of last season where Rodgers looked like he was struggling, then we had a good run of 10 games or so (I despise it when people change a narrative months or years after the event but although we got the results I don’t think we played particularly well in lot of those but we won so it goes down as a tick). Then followed a slump that was even worse than the earlier one. My view of last season was 10 acceptable performances from 58.
But, new season, water under the bridge, new start etc, except it hasn’t been. There was talk of Rodgers losing the dressing room around the end of last season. Well, from what we’ve seen so far it looks to be the case still. I don’t know what’s going on but the players body language suggests something’s wrong. For me, this is now a 65 game run under Rodgers that’s yielded very little. There’s been a few glimmers of hope but really, it’s by far outweighed by the crap we’ve been served up.
At what point do we say enough’s enough? Are you honestly confident that we’ll go on to better things? I can’t see it. My point though is, this isn’t 5 games. It’s closer to 65.
Hi Robin. On one hand you are absolutely right it is 5 games plus the majority of last season, and I can understand anyone wanting to use that as the benchmark to judge Rodgers.
But… The owners have given him backing and funding for this season, which means, to my mind, there has to be something of a clean slate when assessing whether he should keep his job now this season has started.
At the start of the season, I thought Rodgers had it in him to bounce back. For me the 5 games played is too small a sample to discount that. We will have more evidence one way or the other soon enough.
I’m not sure how far we would need to get before I was ready to say enough is enough. Maybe not long at all, but I would like to see more games, preferably with Coutinho and Henderson back, before making that judgement.
I get that mate. I was all for a clean slate. I just don’t think it’s become a clean slate. I think this is clearly a continuation i.e. a major slump. I expected Rodgers to get the whole season and still think he might. I expected poor performances and some defeats but I didn’t foresee this. I’m shocked by our lack of desire. I also think we could be a good team when the injured players return. Fingers crossed mate because this isn’t good for any of us. #WTRLWAL
Problem is its not just after 5 games. We got the same tepid stuff all last season. Square pegs in round holes round the pitch. A striker that’s not getting much service or support. It’s all too familiar.
Always been a Rodgers supporter and backed him tooth and nail but for the first time really I felt like it was time to go on Saturday.
Rodgers knew he was under pressure this season and for me what he had to do was just go for it, if he’s gonna go go out fighting. And then you go to Old Trafford against a shit United side and put 10 men behind the ball. Not acceptable. Why play Ings if you aren’t gonna get him near Benteke, Why have Firmino eased into the side then decide to play him as essentially a second RB at Old Trafford. Then also when you’re 2-0 down why take off your striker who is playing as a winger and replace him with another to do the same thing, why not take Lucas off and throw that striker on and throw caution to the wind.
Really poor and for me if we don’t get 6 points from the next 2 games it’s time to move on.
Me too Adam. It’s the apathy that kills you. Like many others I wasn’t that bothered by the defeat on Saturday. I can’t remember feeling that way after a defeat there, of all places. Fume (and I’m not anti-Rodgers by any means, I just feel worn down) may be derided but its better than apathy. Once we as a club, manager, players and supporters become immune to defeat then we’re in trouble. It looked very much like we’d reached that point on Saturday.
It is NOT 2 shitty results and the ‘whole of last season’ We’ve revamped the squad AND backroom staff.
Geddit ?
This is not ‘evolution’ but another revolution. What I’m seeing here is something a bit better than when he started (giddy defenders, the very definition of a missing midfield no squad just a 1st 11), a bit better than Benitez’s first games (oh Jesus have we made a mistake ?), but basically still the shite you expect when you SPUNK THE CASH AND START ALL OVER AGAIN (ALMOST).
We lost to West Ham. Get over it. We lost to Man U. Get over it. We only starting playing well second half. Get over it. You’ve been whinging about Rodgers since before he came. Fucking get over it for crying out loud.
I said a ‘few games’ earlier – in all likelihood we probably have 10 games or more transitioning, MAYBE, back to form, fitness etc that on paper I believe our squad possesses. At the very least by then less risk of talking out of our arse about trajectory.
Till then, pretty happy to eat childish accusations of ‘Rodgers Apologist’ nonsense for breakfast, so please send it over ! Hell, I’ll even be that elusive 12th man, sailing the seas of web-induced garbage as the club finds its feet again…
At the risk of playing devil’s advocate, which Rodgers signings would get in Rafa’s team or could we regard as an upgrade on the players sold? Off the top off my head I’d say Clyne (at a push), Sturridge and Coutinho. The rest are expensive downgrades. Imagine a Rafa team with Suarez. Woof.
P.S. I’m not into this apologist malarkey either. Everyone’s entitled to an opinion, I’d rather that opinion was based on critical evaluation but footy doesn’t always work like that!
For me it’s more disappointing that the manager can’t appear to grasp what he perceives as his own idea of killing the space between our back and midfield lines and do it as far up the pitch as possible in their half. We now have genuine pace to cover space behind the back line and the GK can start covering outside the box and playing sweeper. It’s not rocket science. Then we give ourselves every chance of dominating the opposition half and getting the right players on the ball who can do most damage and supply Bene. What an absolute beast! I can’t believe their are arseholes out their thinking he’s a waste of money. Just proves what idiots we have now supporting our club as well as managing it. 2 wrongs don’t make a right. Anyway let’s try staying calm and see what happens in the next 5 games I can recall before a ball was kicked plenty of people thought if we had 17 points or more after 10 games then we’d be right for the remainder of the season and 20 was viewed as a dream start??
However agreed to say we have been pants for 2 games, yes that’s correct it is a mere 2 games and btw don’t you know the world will end if we don’t win on the weekend. Let’s just keep some perspective in all of this nonsense
Just finished listening. Great points. It was like you guys were reading my mind.
I don’t think trying to get as many points off the bottom is necessarily a bad thing. We always lost points to the bottom because LFC would just expect them to bow down.
You also assume he knows what to do and he can’t. I think it is more he doesn’t know how to do it.