Anyway, my issue with Rodgers. He hasn’t a clue how to set a team up defensively. He said this last week…
“We have conceded a large number of soft goals, there’s no argument about that, but I think it is just a lack of coaching time that is hurting us. We need to reinforce basic principles at defensive set pieces, but we know that already. We have to get better and we will be working on it."
That’s a disgrace right there. Who do you think you’re kidding Rodgers? You’ve been in the job for 3 seasons now, and the same mistakes that were evident away to West Brom in game one, are the same as the ones we saw on Saturday past.
Here’s some facts to counter your bullshit Rodgers.
- You’ve used 7 different centre backs in the last 18 months, and god knows how many different CB pairings.
- In the last 18 months you’ve spent close to $80M on defenders and a goalkeeper (not including the 4 or 5 loans and free transfers on defenders).
- You’ve tried 5 different defensive midfielders in that time (Gerrard, Lucas, Allen, Henderson, Can) all to minimal effect.
- Of the top 12 teams in the league this year, only Everton have conceded more goals than us.
- Of the top 15 teams in the league last year, only Newcastle conceded more than us.
We are a lower table club when it comes to defending, and we’ve spent 80M in 18 months on defenders to get us there. So do not feed the fans pure shite about having “a lack of coaching time” Rodgers. This defending malaise isn’t a blip, it’s a trend. It’s how we’ve played for 3 seasons.
I watched us on Saturday just retreat and retreat defensively to a point where I was convinced we were hoping Chelsea would score so that it’d allow us the opportunity to go and chase the lead again. I do not understand why our two central defenders continually run backwards and drop deep. They must be getting instructed to do so, cos if they’re doing that of their own free will and Rodgers is allowing it to happen, then we’re beyond fucked. Someone posted a video of how Gerrard got overran in DM the other day. It’s a reasonable video, he’s diving in when he should be standing off, he’s getting easily outnumbered, and he’s too slow on the turn. But did it strike anyone else that everytime Hazard, or Fabregas, or whomever got around him that they then had a fucking acre of space to run into? Why is there such an enormous gap between Gerrard and our centre backs? Because our centre backs are running backwards that’s fucking why. At the first sign of fear, even if it’s 40-50 yards from goal, Skrtel runs backwards. He simply does not know how to defend a line. He’s been with us for 7 years now too. That is fucking frightening.
Lovren too, Agger did the same, Sakho just goes where he’s told, Toure at least understands you have to move up the pitch but he’s too fucking old. It’s not the players though. We have this debate every week about who should play CB, somebody even suggested Emre Can there last week. Christ. Every week of every year we are presiding over which of our CB’s is the least shit, and therefore they should play. Again, it’s not the players. It’s the system. If you can make a hacker like Gary Cahill fit into your system, then you can do it with Dejan Lovren & Martin Skrtel. They’re not horrendous, they’ve just never been educated. You don't just buy a defensive 'leader' and expect him to fix your woes, you've got to build the system around him and let him lead it on the pitch. 'Go be a leader' is not defensive coaching. Moyes had Phil Jagielka and Sylvain Distin – two absolute mediocrities – as the best CB pairing in the country for 2 or 3 years - because he taught them, and obviously drilled them on the training ground mercilessly. It’s not hard.
And that’s my concern. It’s not that hard to educate defenders, to build a system, and to win games regularly. It really isn’t. You need money ($80M is a decent start), time (into the third season now Brendan), and you need the capacity to coach defending (getting found wanting here I'd say).
Our Manager doesn’t know how to defend. We have a striker coming back from injury around whom our whole season seemingly hangs. We’ve, on the short term evidence anyway, replaced Suarez badly, we’ve got a dysfunctional midfield, an awful goalkeeper, and we’re on our way out of our Champions League group. The scary bit of the lot is that Rodgers doesn’t seem to have a plan to fix the structural issues. I was screaming at the TV on the weekend at Skrtel. Stop running so fucking deep. And there's Rodgers writing notes. They came back out in the second half, as they do every week, and did the same thing again. He doesn't even see it.
We have, and I mean this, the worst defence I've ever seen in my Liverpool-supporting life. Sturridge coming back will only put lipstick on this pig.
So yeah, Rodgers is on notice as far as I’m concerned.
