Maybe I was bringing it up because the poster I was responding to was the main culprit. Eh?
Poll Do You want Klopp
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Maybe I was bringing it up because the poster I was responding to was the main culprit. Eh?
Rodgers may14
"I don't want to put a figure on how many but I would rather have one or two absolute top players than seven that might not help us.
It's about the quality. We can't be going into the Champions League this year with doubts about players.
We have to be going in knowing what the players' capacity to play is and their capabilities."
So I guess that answers where the problem lies - firmly at the door of FSG as far as the signings are concerned. The sooner we abandon this soccernomics hokum the better.
If he talks long enough he can't help but contradict himself. If he claims so many different things he can always say he was right. The big queston is are FSG willing to sack him if it means paying him off? A big pay off like that could adversely affect FFP and also handicap any future manager with less of a transfer kitty. I think the yanks are more concerned with revenues than football issues (apart from champions league qualification which is both)
Right mess? They'll probably make the Europa League. They had a ridiculous amount on injuries this season. He has left a still decent squad too. He spent several years at lowly Mainz too. I reckon he is of decent character.
If you're going to use it as an excuse for Klopp, then can't it also be said that "to be fair" it must be also emotionally draining for Rodgers to know that no matter what he does Chelsea and City (and United too) will overwhelm him with far bigger resources? And when he tries to put on a brave face and talks up LFC as one of the biggest clubs of the world, our fans use it as a stick to beat him with?
Objectively, Rodgers is having a better season than Klopp and showed himself to be a more tactically flexible manager during the course of this season. That's why Rodgers will stay and Klopp will be moving on.
The most sensible post of the season.
I haven't said once that I want Rodgers to leave.
Spot on.
Yep, Woland with the post of the season.
And he did it without mentioning lizards or some form of deviant activity.
Rodgers deserves at least another season to get us back challenging.
Until the Utd game we were the only unbeaten side in 2015 and we did it without a striker.
Klopp me hole, he'd never come here anyway.
Benitez? Christ!
Until the Utd game we were the only unbeaten side in 2015 and we did it without a striker.
Klopp me hole, he'd never come here anyway.
Benitez? Christ!
Does it hurt when you klopp your hole @Dreambeliever?
It will if we fire Rodgers.
Even if he was the one pushing for Balotelli (which he almost certainly wasn't), is this enough to be a scrap the entire project? Other managers made similar blunders before; let's not forget that the aforementioned Klopp has replaced his world-class striker with Immobile and Ramos, both of whom badly flopped. And the season earlier he bought Mkhitaryan, who didn't really fit into the team either.
Suarez left, and we got the mix partially wrong when we replaced him. I'm more optimistic about the future for most of our signings than some on here, but we needed more experience and sheer backbone as well as promising younger players.
Why would you do such a silly thing.
Tony Barrett
Last updated at 12:01AM, April 21 2015
Whatever pressure Brendan Rodgers is under after the shambolic defeat by Aston Villa in Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final, Fenway Sports Group (FSG) is not yet contemplating replacing him as manager. Privately, Liverpool’s owners continue to offer their backing and, while Rodgers’ position may not be as secure as it was a year ago, the manager at least has the comfort of knowing he has not reached the point of no return.
Twelve months after handing him a new and improved long-term contract on the back of guiding Liverpool within a slip of the Barclays Premier League title, FSG may have cause to question whether Rodgers can fulfil its ambitions for the club, but its initial instinct is to proceed with him at the helm. The question now is what kind of restructuring needs to take place for Liverpool to become competitive once more, an issue that Rodgers will address when his employers conduct their annual post-season review at the end of next month.
Liverpool are not a club in meltdown or at war with themselves; that needs to be emphasised. Rather, they have created so many unnecessary grey areas that the manager can legitimately ask questions about the hand that his employers have dealt him at the same time as they can wonder if he is making the most of the resources at his disposal. Both parties will feel the loss to Villa strengthens their position; another clear indication of the in-built dysfunction at the heart of Liverpool’s committee system.
That Rodgers has not met the objectives that FSG set for him at the start of this season will be beyond all doubt should Liverpool not finish fourth in the Premier League. At the start of the campaign, Liverpool’s owners accepted that the departure of Luis Suárez made a second successive title challenge unlikely, but they did expect Champions League status to be retained.
That target was reaffirmed as recently as February when Tom Werner, their American-based chairman, said that it was “important” for Liverpool “to make top four” and “continue this momentum”.
He also admitted that he would be “disappointed if we don’t win the FA Cup”. On that basis, Rodgers will have to deal with owners who feel important goals have not been achieved when his annual review takes place.
He is also likely to have to explain how a team who finished second last season have fallen short in every competition after a summer in which £120 million was spent on new signings.
It is here that Rodgers will almost certainly go off message. Not a political figure by any means and certainly not one who seeks out confrontation with his employers, Rodgers has, nevertheless, consistently managed to reveal his misgivings about Liverpool’s transfer policy, which increasingly seems a misguided attempt to cheat a system that won’t be cheated.
In the past month, Rodgers has admitted the strategy of prioritising unproven talent is in place “whether I like it or not”, the obvious inference being that it is the latter not the former.
When asked whether the Anfield club’s playing budget and wages policy make a fifth-placed finish in the Premier League almost inevitable, Rodgers would not deny the suggestion. Instead, he emphasised that neither he nor his players could afford to accept their fate.
“You look at Arsenal’s squad and the teams that are above us, but it is certainly not a mindset we want to adopt,” Rodgers said.
“We have to fight to get in there, and whatever the barriers are in front of us whether it is finance, whatever of other clubs, we have to do everything we can to break that barrier. We are where we are.”
On Sunday, Rodgers did not put Liverpool’s defeat to Villa down to a lack of effort, insisting that his players had given him “all that they can”. Again, it does not take an expert in reading between the lines to come to the conclusion that Rodgers believes in terms of ability, experience and match hardness, Liverpool’s transfer committee has not blessed him with enough players of sufficient substance to be able to manage a game of the magnitude of an FA Cup semi-final.
The complexities and inadequacies of Liverpool’s approach to transfers ensured that such a situation would inevitably transpire if the buys they have made failed to yield the desired results. There is no sense at this stage that either manager or club feels a separation would be in their best interests, but there is a growing feeling that neither is getting exactly what they want or need from their relationship.
Heading into the latest in a long line of crucial summers, Liverpool must either correct their structural deficiencies or go back to the drawing board again.
Last updated at 12:01AM, April 21 2015
Whatever pressure Brendan Rodgers is under after the shambolic defeat by Aston Villa in Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final, Fenway Sports Group (FSG) is not yet contemplating replacing him as manager. Privately, Liverpool’s owners continue to offer their backing and, while Rodgers’ position may not be as secure as it was a year ago, the manager at least has the comfort of knowing he has not reached the point of no return.
Twelve months after handing him a new and improved long-term contract on the back of guiding Liverpool within a slip of the Barclays Premier League title, FSG may have cause to question whether Rodgers can fulfil its ambitions for the club, but its initial instinct is to proceed with him at the helm. The question now is what kind of restructuring needs to take place for Liverpool to become competitive once more, an issue that Rodgers will address when his employers conduct their annual post-season review at the end of next month.
Liverpool are not a club in meltdown or at war with themselves; that needs to be emphasised. Rather, they have created so many unnecessary grey areas that the manager can legitimately ask questions about the hand that his employers have dealt him at the same time as they can wonder if he is making the most of the resources at his disposal. Both parties will feel the loss to Villa strengthens their position; another clear indication of the in-built dysfunction at the heart of Liverpool’s committee system.
That Rodgers has not met the objectives that FSG set for him at the start of this season will be beyond all doubt should Liverpool not finish fourth in the Premier League. At the start of the campaign, Liverpool’s owners accepted that the departure of Luis Suárez made a second successive title challenge unlikely, but they did expect Champions League status to be retained.
That target was reaffirmed as recently as February when Tom Werner, their American-based chairman, said that it was “important” for Liverpool “to make top four” and “continue this momentum”.
He also admitted that he would be “disappointed if we don’t win the FA Cup”. On that basis, Rodgers will have to deal with owners who feel important goals have not been achieved when his annual review takes place.
He is also likely to have to explain how a team who finished second last season have fallen short in every competition after a summer in which £120 million was spent on new signings.
It is here that Rodgers will almost certainly go off message. Not a political figure by any means and certainly not one who seeks out confrontation with his employers, Rodgers has, nevertheless, consistently managed to reveal his misgivings about Liverpool’s transfer policy, which increasingly seems a misguided attempt to cheat a system that won’t be cheated.
In the past month, Rodgers has admitted the strategy of prioritising unproven talent is in place “whether I like it or not”, the obvious inference being that it is the latter not the former.
When asked whether the Anfield club’s playing budget and wages policy make a fifth-placed finish in the Premier League almost inevitable, Rodgers would not deny the suggestion. Instead, he emphasised that neither he nor his players could afford to accept their fate.
“You look at Arsenal’s squad and the teams that are above us, but it is certainly not a mindset we want to adopt,” Rodgers said.
“We have to fight to get in there, and whatever the barriers are in front of us whether it is finance, whatever of other clubs, we have to do everything we can to break that barrier. We are where we are.”
On Sunday, Rodgers did not put Liverpool’s defeat to Villa down to a lack of effort, insisting that his players had given him “all that they can”. Again, it does not take an expert in reading between the lines to come to the conclusion that Rodgers believes in terms of ability, experience and match hardness, Liverpool’s transfer committee has not blessed him with enough players of sufficient substance to be able to manage a game of the magnitude of an FA Cup semi-final.
The complexities and inadequacies of Liverpool’s approach to transfers ensured that such a situation would inevitably transpire if the buys they have made failed to yield the desired results. There is no sense at this stage that either manager or club feels a separation would be in their best interests, but there is a growing feeling that neither is getting exactly what they want or need from their relationship.
Heading into the latest in a long line of crucial summers, Liverpool must either correct their structural deficiencies or go back to the drawing board again.
Similar articles in the Guardian and Telegraph today.
I'll never understand the policy of buying 10 x £10 million players and hoping one turns into a Sturridge or Coutinho. Yes, we should always try to bring through the next Gerrard or Carragher and in Flannagan, Ibe, Sterling, Sinclair etc we're doing it a bit, but why not spend £100 million on two proven world-class players?
In all games this season, both Ramos (6 goals, 2 assist from 973 mins) and Immobile (10 goals, 3 assist from 1555 mins) averaged a goal/assist every 120 mins game. Their combined 7 goals 1 assist in CL group stage accounted for 57% of the team's total goals.
Besides, there's Aubameyang, who at €13 million and in his 2nd season, has 20 goals and 10 assists in 38 appearances (3181 mins) so far - goal/assist every 106 mins.
Mkhitaryan was out for weeks in Sep and Dec.
I'm sick of the briefings, to be honest. No-one is coming out of this looking particularly good.
Yeah it doesnt make much sense, FSG seem to talk a good game but their strategy has been very confusing, almost like they have gotten in over their heads and dont know quite what to do. I think FSG have gotten a fairly easy ride from the fans considering the way they have carried on so far
Director of Football
When FSG took over they made it clear they wanted to work with a DoF structure so the manager was tasked with coaching and running the team and a senior figure would be responsible for running scouting and player recruitment. This is a key fundamental in the moneyball approach to American sports that they wanted to replicate. They interviewed Rodgers and asked him if he would be willing to work in such a structure and he said no. If he was to be in charge then he had to have total control, so then they folded and let him take the job even though his system was completely at odds with their vision for the club.
Transfer Committee
Then despite this they implemented a transfer committee to oversee all transfers and in some cases this has directly impacted the way the squad was built, the most obvious examples of this were Carroll going out on loan while Rodgers was told he would be replaced and then the committee refused to buy Dempsey and we were left short of players. And of course Balotelli who Rodgers clearly saw they were trying to force on him instead of Remy so he came out and said he didn’t want him at the club and wasn’t interested in signing him to try and torpedo the deal, then they signed him anyway and it inevitably didn’t work at all. There have been some weird moneyball signings that just look odd in retrospect like the club was gambling on buying loads of cheap players and one of them coming good, Rodgers has never seemed to have any interest in Assaidi, Balotelli, Aspas Luis Alberto etc
Youth Policy
FSG has talked up their vision for a strong youth policy building rather than buying a team and we have seen Rodgers giving games to the likes of Sterling Ibe Flanagan etc but it all kind of falls apart if you are not prepared to keep the good young players you are producing. Both Sterling and Henderson are so far refusing to sign new deals over the money involved, whats happening with Ilori and Wisdom. At the moment it looks like Rodgers will get another season, but it depends how we finish the remaining games. If we limp home in 6th or 7th place with the squad looking disinterested I think he may be fired. If we push City all the way to the wire for 4th then I think he will get another year but we must keep Sterling and almost every area of the squad needs to be rebuilt from goalkeeper defence midfield and most obviously strikers, but at this point we dont need more young players we need experience in the 25 - 29 age bracket.
Will they back Rodgers? Have they backed him properly so far?
Having a DOF has nothing to with moneyball. Neither do any of the signings.
Almost every single American sports team has a GM and a coach. And Baseball had that dichotomy long before moneyball hit the scene.
Moneyball is about using advanced stats to recognise underappreciated talent. It's got nothing to do with our shitty scouts picking shit players
Almost every single American sports team has a GM and a coach. And Baseball had that dichotomy long before moneyball hit the scene.
Moneyball is about using advanced stats to recognise underappreciated talent. It's got nothing to do with our shitty scouts picking shit players
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