Brendan Rodgers is improving as a manager, but is it enough for Liverpool?http://www.espnfcasia.com/blog/espn-fc- ... -liverpoolThey say the form book goes out of the window for the Merseyside derby. Right now, that's just about the only thing in Brendan Rodgers' favour. Liverpool are in bad shape and patience is wearing thin. Thursday's Europa League draw with FC Sion, a distinctly mediocre Swiss outfit whose players were pilloried by their own chairman last week, was hardly ideal preparation for what is never less than a crucial clash.
You can always tell when a public figure is doomed. There is a scale of popularity upon which they all slide and, right now, Rodgers is hurtling down to the sharp end. Here, everything is your fault, everything you do is wrong and everything you say is stupid. Lauded by some as the second coming of Bill Shankly when he nearly won the title in 2014, Rodgers is now routinely ridiculed by his own supporters.
Amid the tumult and poor results, Rodgers asserts that he is "the same guy who nearly won us the league, but better." The comment brought widespread guffaws, which is a shame because it was probably true. He is certainly more experienced, especially if you favour Oscar Wilde's view that "experience is simply the name we give to our mistakes." And given Rodgers' eternal optimism, it's clear that he subscribes to Winston Churchill's view that "success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm."
But proof that he's learned something since he arrived at Anfield comes in his noticeable reduction of media appearances. Recall with a shudder, if you will, his performance in the glossily anodyne documentary "Being Liverpool." The over-earnest soundbites, the picture of himself on the wall, the magnificent claim that he wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but a silver shovel. It was clear even then that Rodgers would make as many problems for himself as anyone else would make for him. But now the man who loved to talk has gone shy.
And who couldn't improve as a manager by going through what Rodgers has been through? The handling of big egos, a resounding success in the case of Luis Suarez, arguably less so in the case of Steven Gerrard, given the veiled resentment expressed by the player since his departure. The ability to overhaul tactics midway through a season. The compromises made over transfer policy and the mistakes made along the way. There have been highs and there have been lows, and the latter tend to be more instructive.
If Rodgers was to take over Liverpool now, with everything he has learned, you would imagine he'd be better placed to succeed. He'd keep a lower profile. He'd ruffle fewer feathers. He'd know what he could ask of his players and what he could not. But that's irrelevant now. What is relevant is that his comment was ripped apart with such glee. That's when you know that public opinion has swung too far for hope of recovery. And there's little hope of redemption on the pitch.
There are very few indications that Liverpool are about to improve, and there are clear weaknesses wherever you look. Simon Mignolet has never convinced, no amount of tinkering with the defence has kept the goals out, there's no width in the midfield and they've only scored more than one goal in a game on a single occasion this season. The club has wasted tens of millions of pounds in the transfer market, the squad lacks balance, the tactics aren't working and they face the very real prospect of humiliation against Everton this weekend. Not all of this is Rodgers' fault, but he cannot argue that the majority of it falls under his jurisdiction.
You never know. It might all click at Liverpool. It could be that the unfamiliarity of the new players is the root cause of this season's travails. It may yet to come to pass that the recent return of Daniel Sturridge will make the difference to a team crying out for a regular goal scorer. However, it seems that the more likely scenario is that Rodgers, lacking allies and support, will depart the club before Christmas.
We know that he is a good coach, that he is enthusiastic, that he is open-minded and that he will reappear somewhere else before long, possibly following the lead of David Moyes and re-emerging overseas. You cannot argue that he won't have learned something along the way. Rodgers is a better manager than he was in 2014. Whether he'll get to prove it at Liverpool is another matter entirely.
Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2015 8:39 pm
Im not too sure his temperament would hold in the premiership especially with these players 
