red till i die!! » Tue Nov 25, 2014 12:59 am wrote:ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Mon Nov 24, 2014 8:45 pm wrote:Some people were blaming Balotelli for all our woes though when our problems clearly ran deeper than just him.
The little triangle at the heart of our team where Gerrard sits just in front of Lovren and Skrtel is an Achilles heel that even the weakest sides in the division have found it easy to exploit.
The core of a good young side is there, we have the likes of Sturridge, Sterling, Coutinho, Ibe, Lallana, Markovic, Moreno, Ilorri, Origi, Henderson, Manquillo, Can and also the likes of Suso, Wisdom, Rossiter and this Chirivella lad that Real Madrid wants to sign on our books.
Instead of blaming them Rodgers needs to start playing them. Those players seem taylor made for his blueprint but Rodgers can't see past the old guard. What have we got to lose?
There is only one person to blame yakka and It isn't gerrard. Our midfield is the problem and he only makes up part of it. We have no ball winners in that side and gerrard seems to be the only one who can win a tackle albeit not at full pace. coutinho can't, sterling can't, lallana definately cant, neither can sideshow joe or hendo. when your midfield cant win a tackle it puts more pressure on your defence. replacing gerrard isn't going to solve that problem and tbh the likes of ibe, markovic origi aren't going to boost us in that department either. There is hope for can but again he isn't going to do it on his own. His signings are littered with weaklings who are supposed to pass it around everything in order to avoid challenges and thats why every single midfield we come up against walks through us.
I agree, it is the manager who is to blame after all Gerrard doesn't pick himself and I have said countless times that Rodgers needs to man the f**k up.
To be fair to Rodgers though there are extenuating circumstances, managing the decline of probably the best player in our 120 year history was always going to be tough no matter who was in charge. For an inexperienced manager not much older than Gerrard himself doubly tough.
What is obviously not helping is that from the outside looking in Gerrard doesn't want to take a lesser role, he quit England so he could continue playing regularly for us and only yesterday Brendan said that Steven is convinced he can play 3 games in a week, we've also had the manouverings in the press about a new contract and even statements about being prepared to go somewhere else if he doesn't get a new contract here. That doesn't sound like someone on the verge of hanging them up.
Brendan obviously doesn't want to fall out with Gerrard because everyone connected with this club looks up to him, he's pulled us out of the shyte so many times over the last decade it's impossible not to, there were times in the past when we were playing sides packed full of top players and Gerrard was near enough taking them on on his own and let's not forget he turned down the opportunity of being the highest paid player on the face of the planet and a hat full of medals to stay with us. The truth is though Gerrard will get his reward for that once he stops playing, for the rest of his life he will be revered, even when he is 70 years old he will have people who are not even born yet who will have tears of pride in their eyes watching grainy images of him leading the fight back in Istanbul and rescuing FA cup finals with seconds left on the clock.
Gerrard has done his job for this club, when the going got tough he didn't throw the towel in he went that extra yard, it's time Brendan took a leaf out of Gerrards book and did his own job too. As great as Gerrard is the main thing here is the football club, the only way names like Alex Raisbeck, Elisha Scott, Billy Liddell, Kevin Keegan, Emlyn Hughes, Kenny Dalglish and Bob Paisley and Bill Shankly will be remembered forever is by keeping this club relevant. To remain relevant we need managers to make decisions in the best interests of the club, not individuals, no matter how great they are.