Rodgers
- Thread starter Dirty Sanchez
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Well one thing seems clear. BR has yet to learn how to turn high pressure situations into us actually achieving anything. He's 0 for 3 after the title deciders last season, the CL group game we had to win, and last night.
The very best find that extra 1% that makes all the difference. I'm not convinced he's got what it takes, but then I never have been. Any relative success has taken me pleasantly by surprise. As always, i hope I'm dead wrong and he becomes a huge success.
The very best find that extra 1% that makes all the difference. I'm not convinced he's got what it takes, but then I never have been. Any relative success has taken me pleasantly by surprise. As always, i hope I'm dead wrong and he becomes a huge success.
The key word in that IMO is "yet". As of now I would agree he hasn't shown he can do it, but he's been sufficiently willing to change things at times for me to think he can develop in that direction.
It would only follow that he doesn't have that ability if his opponents didn't have that ability too, or if there weren't other factors influencing proceedings. What about the 3-2 win against City, probably the single biggest 'moment of truth' game we've faced under him? Is there any particular reason that's not relevant but last night's game is?
To just state it plainly like that is really just confirmation bias.
To just state it plainly like that is really just confirmation bias.
24th January 2015, Brendan Rodgers, in explaining Balotelli's absence from the team for Bolton: "But he knows the level of what this team is at. He has seen the pressing and aggression and if you can't do that, then you aren't going to be a part of that."
28 January 2015, Brendan Rodgers brings on Balotelli against Chelsea, a match everyone believed we would have a chance in as long as we pressed as well as we did in the first leg.
I think Brendan might just be a stupendously fickle cunt.
...or seeing if his words had any effect in a game mario should have been up for?
The problem is pressing and working with your teammates is not a purely mental thing. It's not something you can turn on like a magic switch and just DECIDE you're going to be a good boy today. It's a HABIT that takes PRACTICE, REINFORCEMENT and REPETITION. If Mario didn't show enough of it to make the squad against Bolton, why would he be suddenly good enough for the decisive part of the game against Chelsea?
And like I said, bringing Mario on was probably the best substitution Rodgers made on Tuesday...
I think he rolled the dice and gambled on Balotelli against Chelsea. We had a lot of tired players out there and we were struggling to get in behind the Chelsea defense. It felt for a while that a moment of magic might settle the game. Mario was wheeled out in the hope he could pull off a golazzzo. He even kept in tune with our gameplay. He didn't hog the ball as much as usual, he kept it moving and he pressed from the front. Ten minutes later he reverted to regular Mario. He started playing as an individual and his pressing game dropped a few levels. He later went on to give the ball away that led to the free kick and lacked concentration defending the actual header.
Another frustrating night for us and the much maligned Italian.
To me it only amplifies my point. We won that game but they won the league. We blew it against Chelsea when a draw would have done, then tried to hammer more past Palace at three up in the mistaken belief that goal difference might come into play, therefore leaving us exposed and conceding three quick goals. I have no bias. I want him to succeed. I think he's a little in love with himself and makes some odd choices, but he's paid that much to be that confident in his own ability. I'm just desperate for his ability to actually be as good as he clearly believes it is. He is a good figurehead of the club, if a bit Brent-like on occasion and his use of language is straight out of a shit US management speak book, but we try to play good football, he doesn't let the press rattle him and he has a deep understanding of the essence of LFC. Believe me, I want him to become a huge success, because that would mean the club are a huge success. But at some point he has to win the war not just the occasional big battle, doesn't he?
Same here. Lallana had to get on the pitch at some stage.
And, if you *are* going to use him, don't plant him wide out on the left. What was THAT all about?
A half fit Lallana is 10 times more effective than Ballotelli. Hated it when we were linked with him, was troubled and bemused when we bought him and have only had all my beliefs about him solidified since he's been here. The most un-Liverpool striker we've ever had and a hugely annoying tit too.
My main criticism of Rodgers is his pretty shaky taste in transfers... As for getting the players to play with a style and belief you can't fault the fella.
This season has been a car crash and with more prudent use of the enormous summer fund we could well have avoided being so far of the pace in a league where only Chelsea have looked the part. That said, we have shaped up of late and you would have to say that Markovic is looking useful as is Moreno, good acquisitions as is Can who is the highlight of the season so far. I'm still pissed we fucked up with our strikers this season but maybe with Sturridge finally coming back all is not lost for a top four spot. In selling Suarez and having lost Sturridge to injury all season to only be a couple of wins away is not the end of the world... We do need to start scoring more still and this next set of tough games looks vital. I would love us to go on a mad winning streak again just like last term, but that may well be beyond us without a superstar like we had... I hope that Sturridge can hit the ground running and make up for lost time, he was the second best player in the league last year so... Fingers crossed.
This season has been a car crash and with more prudent use of the enormous summer fund we could well have avoided being so far of the pace in a league where only Chelsea have looked the part. That said, we have shaped up of late and you would have to say that Markovic is looking useful as is Moreno, good acquisitions as is Can who is the highlight of the season so far. I'm still pissed we fucked up with our strikers this season but maybe with Sturridge finally coming back all is not lost for a top four spot. In selling Suarez and having lost Sturridge to injury all season to only be a couple of wins away is not the end of the world... We do need to start scoring more still and this next set of tough games looks vital. I would love us to go on a mad winning streak again just like last term, but that may well be beyond us without a superstar like we had... I hope that Sturridge can hit the ground running and make up for lost time, he was the second best player in the league last year so... Fingers crossed.
Don't agree with the "shaky taste in transfers" bit. For one thing they're not just down to Rodgers, and for another you yourself list (rightly IMO) some names of players who look to be developing well. And it's a bit contradictory, surely, to call the season a "car crash" but then to go on and say (again rightly IMO) that where we are now is not the end of the world. My main worry about Rodgers has centred on his ability to address our defensive frailties but even those look to be moving in the right direction, though there's a way to go yet.
Can't blame Rodgers for the clear chances missed
Of course you can, he bought the players that aren't very good at finishing chances. He needs to get better at buying players that score, he's only signed one, and he's injured most of the time.
I think most of us, to be honest, have a shaky taste in transfers, or at least unreliable judgement as to who will turn out to be best for us.
I don't mean bias against Rodgers, I mean bias in terms of a pre-conceived idea that 'adding something extra' in big games is the thing that defines the best managers and that Rodgers doesn't have it.
I would say that the idea you might be biased towards that conclusion is backed up by your implying that we lost the Chelsea game because of an unnecessarily attacking approach. But that's not how I remember it at all: we seemed fairly measured and then Gerrard fucked up and they scored and then defended brilliantly, as some of the best teams ever have discovered against a Mourinho team determined not to concede. I'd concede that he was foolish to chase the goal difference in the Palace game, and I'd agree that it was partly down to inexperience, but him being inexperienced surely isn't in question.
At the end of the day, any one of those last 10 or 11 games of the title challenge were as big as Tuesday's semi-final, weren't they? What about the Swansea game, where we came under real pressure? The Soton game? The Norwich game? Of course, none of them would have counted for much without winning the subsequent games, but then the same could be said of the Chelsea game, couldn't it? So really the only way he could have avoided the ultimate charge of bottling a big opportunity was by winning every one of the last 11 games, something way beyond what a manager could reasonably be expected to squeeze from that set of players. Or perhaps you'd say that the big opportunity had only arrived in the last few games and that's when the test was failed? The problem with that is that the test being at that point is dependent on having won all those preceding games, and there's a strong case that those games being won lessens the chances of winning yet another, not least from the mental and physical effort already expended.
Three players out of how many and for how much though Jules? We've spent a fortune and yet not we've basically been without a strike force all season and we've wasted the momentum we won... We crashed out of Europe when basically we shouldn't have... It's been a bad season to go from a very very good second to sixth... I take your point it's a committee but mignolet, Allen, borini, and failure to strengthen up front... I just think it's fair to say there are a whole bunch of expensive flops in there.
I think Rodgers is good at getting players to play well which is the most important characteristic for a manager I just feel we could have spent a lot more wisely. I know it's a cheap shot but it was obvious last season that Mignolet was flakey but we allowed him to continue without competition while spending millions and millions... If you are arguing all the mistakes are due to the committee and not Rodgers then fair enough but IMO if you spend 100 M on a good second placed team then you shouldn't be hoping for a new source of goals in February and hoping for your goalkeeper not to have a mare...
Many good points Peter, and of course having a world-class £50 million striker or midfielder or both would have probably got us over the line in the league. I have always believed that the very best offer the extra small percentage needed. You pay millions to players and coaches to seize the moment in what the Yanks call 'clutch' situations and I'm just not sure we have the players or the management team to make it happen. Of course we went on a staggering run and a huge part of that was down to BR in all aspects, and maybe it's just that we're trying to achieve this without being able to compete for the best players, so we'll always fall short. But until he proves otherwise he's still just a good manager not a great one.
I'm looking forward to next season as I think we'll see a return to the form of last and who knows? I would very much like FSG to back him in making a really big statement-of-intent signing, but if we don't get CL and can't offer the same money and opportunities as the rest we will continue to struggle with that. We need a signing that galvanises the team for next year without SG there, not chumps like Ballotelli at £16 million in the hope BR can make him a world beater.
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