Club insiders and Anfield regulars know that Brendan Rodgers's work is only just beginning, writes Iain Macintosh.
There’s no way to hide it. You can’t dress it up and you can’t layer it in misleading pass completion rates. Liverpool are having another miserable season.
It’s three years since they last played a Champions League game, they can’t hope to afford or attract the continent’s top players and they just had their pants pulled down at Anfield by Aston Villa. But that is no reason to demand, as some have, for the head of the manager. The last thing that club needs now is more upheaval.
When Liverpool fans were criticised for losing patience with Roy Hodgson so quickly, they hit back by claiming that they could put up with the results, if only the football wasn’t so bad. In the stadium, at least, those supporters have proved their point.
"It’s easy to dismiss message boards, radio phone-ins and social networks as noisy irrelevances, but they have a cumulative effect."
Liverpool have exactly the same number of points after 17 games under Brendan Rodgers as they did under Hodgson and there has been little in the way of mass dissent. It’s the fans who don’t go to games who appear to be causing the problems.
It’s easy to dismiss message boards, radio phone-ins and social networks as noisy irrelevances, but they have a cumulative effect, especially on inexperienced owners like John W Henry.
Kenny Dalglish may have had a disappointing league season, but to dismiss him after just one full campaign, and the first trophy in six years, was hasty. The flood of furious tweets, calls and emails from outside the city and around the world surely played a part.
"Speak to the fans who watch the team live and they’ll tell you of the improvement in the team’s style of play."
Speak to people at the club and you’ll hear a different story. Academy boss Frank McParland told me recently that Rodgers was "a dream appointment" because of his passion for youth football and his insistence that his players, "played with the same characteristics as the first team.
"He wants the boys to be comfortable in possession, he wants them to be comfortable with both feet, he wants them to be extremely hard workers when they haven’t got the ball".
Speak to the fans who watch the team live and they’ll tell you of the improvement in the team’s style of play, in their mentality and of the gradual improvements in individuals, notably Jordan Henderson.
"If certain people had their way, Rodgers would be clearing his desk."
Rodgers is laying down a template for the future. He needs to be given rather more than four months to see it through.
If certain people had their way, Rodgers would be clearing his desk. But that would leave Liverpool looking for their fifth manager in two and a half years. That’s a churn rate that makes Chelsea look like a job for life.
There are genuine areas for concern at Liverpool: the incoherent transfer policy and the continued absence of a stadium solution, to name just two.
On the pitch, however, what the club really needs now is stability and quiet progression. Hysterical calls for change are really not going to help.
There’s no way to hide it. You can’t dress it up and you can’t layer it in misleading pass completion rates. Liverpool are having another miserable season.
It’s three years since they last played a Champions League game, they can’t hope to afford or attract the continent’s top players and they just had their pants pulled down at Anfield by Aston Villa. But that is no reason to demand, as some have, for the head of the manager. The last thing that club needs now is more upheaval.
When Liverpool fans were criticised for losing patience with Roy Hodgson so quickly, they hit back by claiming that they could put up with the results, if only the football wasn’t so bad. In the stadium, at least, those supporters have proved their point.
"It’s easy to dismiss message boards, radio phone-ins and social networks as noisy irrelevances, but they have a cumulative effect."
Liverpool have exactly the same number of points after 17 games under Brendan Rodgers as they did under Hodgson and there has been little in the way of mass dissent. It’s the fans who don’t go to games who appear to be causing the problems.
It’s easy to dismiss message boards, radio phone-ins and social networks as noisy irrelevances, but they have a cumulative effect, especially on inexperienced owners like John W Henry.
Kenny Dalglish may have had a disappointing league season, but to dismiss him after just one full campaign, and the first trophy in six years, was hasty. The flood of furious tweets, calls and emails from outside the city and around the world surely played a part.
"Speak to the fans who watch the team live and they’ll tell you of the improvement in the team’s style of play."
Speak to people at the club and you’ll hear a different story. Academy boss Frank McParland told me recently that Rodgers was "a dream appointment" because of his passion for youth football and his insistence that his players, "played with the same characteristics as the first team.
"He wants the boys to be comfortable in possession, he wants them to be comfortable with both feet, he wants them to be extremely hard workers when they haven’t got the ball".
Speak to the fans who watch the team live and they’ll tell you of the improvement in the team’s style of play, in their mentality and of the gradual improvements in individuals, notably Jordan Henderson.
"If certain people had their way, Rodgers would be clearing his desk."
Rodgers is laying down a template for the future. He needs to be given rather more than four months to see it through.
If certain people had their way, Rodgers would be clearing his desk. But that would leave Liverpool looking for their fifth manager in two and a half years. That’s a churn rate that makes Chelsea look like a job for life.
There are genuine areas for concern at Liverpool: the incoherent transfer policy and the continued absence of a stadium solution, to name just two.
On the pitch, however, what the club really needs now is stability and quiet progression. Hysterical calls for change are really not going to help.
