Liverpool FC Forum

ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Sun Jan 25, 2015 10:35 am wrote:

RedAnt » Sun Jan 25, 2015 8:39 am wrote:We may have had an upturn in results recently but I'm still far from convinced that BR is anything other than a good coach. Results of course are hugely important in football but performances and results come from coaching, not management. In his post match interview against Bolton he was again banging on about our "great" performance. Everything he says is designed to cover his own back, or to pat himself on it.
I'm pleased to see us performing and getting results but as RBG has pointed out Brendan is merely putting some (and only some) of his mistakes right.
BR has a lot of work to do yet.

Any manager would have struggled to cope after losing both Suarez and Sturridge and having 9 new players come in, the vast majority of them under 24. Yes he probably stuck with Gerrard as a DM for too long but the decline of our greatest ever player was always going to be a tricky situation for any manager to handle, especially when Gerrard wasn't interested in taking a back seat.
Considering Brendan is the same age as Ryan Giggs I think he is doing a phenominal job.

I guess I just don't like the man. I did, at first, but he seems to lack dignity these days and I feel he'd rather throw his players in the line of fire than take the hit himself.
Look at all the rubbish that surrounded Balotelli's signing. I'm not sure what news was real and what was fake but there was talk of good behaviour payments and bonuses. Is that stuff true? If so if imagine it would destroy a player like Mario. Rooney would never work under such conditions.
Granted losing Suarez and Studge would effect any manager...especially those who haven't prepared for such an eventuality.
If BR drops his ego and the bullsh*t "we played great" approach, it would be a start.

RedAnt » Sun Jan 25, 2015 11:17 am wrote:

ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Sun Jan 25, 2015 10:35 am wrote:

RedAnt » Sun Jan 25, 2015 8:39 am wrote:We may have had an upturn in results recently but I'm still far from convinced that BR is anything other than a good coach. Results of course are hugely important in football but performances and results come from coaching, not management. In his post match interview against Bolton he was again banging on about our "great" performance. Everything he says is designed to cover his own back, or to pat himself on it.
I'm pleased to see us performing and getting results but as RBG has pointed out Brendan is merely putting some (and only some) of his mistakes right.
BR has a lot of work to do yet.

Any manager would have struggled to cope after losing both Suarez and Sturridge and having 9 new players come in, the vast majority of them under 24. Yes he probably stuck with Gerrard as a DM for too long but the decline of our greatest ever player was always going to be a tricky situation for any manager to handle, especially when Gerrard wasn't interested in taking a back seat.
Considering Brendan is the same age as Ryan Giggs I think he is doing a phenominal job.

I guess I just don't like the man. I did, at first, but he seems to lack dignity these days and I feel he'd rather throw his players in the line of fire than take the hit himself.
Look at all the rubbish that surrounded Balotelli's signing. I'm not sure what news was real and what was fake but there was talk of good behaviour payments and bonuses. Is that stuff true? If so if imagine it would destroy a player like Mario. Rooney would never work under such conditions.
Granted losing Suarez and Studge would effect any manager...especially those who haven't prepared for such an eventuality.
If BR drops his ego and the bullsh*t "we played great" approach, it would be a start.

Managers are damned if they do and damned if they don't though mate.
Hodgson used to get absolutely slaughtered for praising the opposition to the heavens in post match interviews (especially Man United and Everton) and let's face it Bill Shankly wasn't exactly a shrinking violet when it came to heaping praise and hyping up his teams either.
I think all that stuff is peripheral anyway, managers and players are taught the art of speaking for half an hour without actually saying anything these days just like politicians so I stopped taking much notice of football interviews years ago.
The days of characters like Shankly, Clough, Allison and Revie firing from the hip are well gone, it's all sanitised and stage managed these days so I wouldn't take too much notice of it mate.
The only thing that matters is what's happening out on the pitch.

Well I agree with you on the interviews. It's frustratingly true that it's the art of talking without saying anything. But I'd not agree about character. Whiskey nose said what he wanted. Benitez liked to get involved. But BR hides behind his interviews. He bottles it. Why big up a draw with Bolton either in front of the cam or behind the scenes? He tells Mario he's not working hard, needs a better attitude and then tells the press he's delighted with a performance that gets us a replay in an already congested schedule. So Mario isn't good enough to play in a team who's "great performance" against Bolton earned a draw. That's niether good man management, squad management or press management.
Personally I'd be more impressed if he was honest and ready to dive in front of a bus for his players. There is room for character in the modern game but as us always the case they need to be brave enough to step forward.
Last year BR had no pressure and could be himself. I feel that he's more bothered about how he looks on MotD this season.

RedAnt » Sun Jan 25, 2015 12:18 pm wrote:Well I agree with you on the interviews. It's frustratingly true that it's the art of talking without saying anything. But I'd not agree about character. Whiskey nose said what he wanted. Benitez liked to get involved. But BR hides behind his interviews. He bottles it. Why big up a draw with Bolton either in front of the cam or behind the scenes? He tells Mario he's not working hard, needs a better attitude and then tells the press he's delighted with a performance that gets us a replay in an already congested schedule. So Mario isn't good enough to play in a team who's "great performance" against Bolton earned a draw. That's niether good man management, squad management or press management.
Personally I'd be more impressed if he was honest and ready to dive in front of a bus for his players. There is room for character in the modern game but as us always the case they need to be brave enough to step forward.
Last year BR had no pressure and could be himself. I feel that he's more bothered about how he looks on MotD this season.

Don't underestimate the pressure he is under mate, you only have to look at the likes of Souness, Houllier and Kenny (although he had to deal with extreme circumstances) to see how the pressure of managing this club can affect someone's health.
Brendan deals with the pressure by putting a positive spin on things yes even draws with Bolton. Shankly was the same, Ajax played us off the park and he blamed it on the fog, in his eyes no one was better than us, even if they beat us they just got lucky.

ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Sun Jan 25, 2015 12:41 pm wrote:

RedAnt » Sun Jan 25, 2015 12:18 pm wrote:Well I agree with you on the interviews. It's frustratingly true that it's the art of talking without saying anything. But I'd not agree about character. Whiskey nose said what he wanted. Benitez liked to get involved. But BR hides behind his interviews. He bottles it. Why big up a draw with Bolton either in front of the cam or behind the scenes? He tells Mario he's not working hard, needs a better attitude and then tells the press he's delighted with a performance that gets us a replay in an already congested schedule. So Mario isn't good enough to play in a team who's "great performance" against Bolton earned a draw. That's niether good man management, squad management or press management.
Personally I'd be more impressed if he was honest and ready to dive in front of a bus for his players. There is room for character in the modern game but as us always the case they need to be brave enough to step forward.
Last year BR had no pressure and could be himself. I feel that he's more bothered about how he looks on MotD this season.

Don't underestimate the pressure he is under mate, you only have to look at the likes of Souness, Houllier and Kenny (although he had to deal with extreme circumstances) to see how the pressure of managing this club can affect someone's health.
Brendan deals with the pressure by putting a positive spin on things yes even draws with Bolton. Shankly was the same, Ajax played us off the park and he blamed it on the fog, in his eyes no one was better than us, even if they beat us they just got lucky.

Hmm, not sure id use Shankly as a yardstick to BR's motivation in the press mate. You may think it's smart, psychological  warfare, but I think it's more likely a short sighted clutching of straws. As you've stated yourself the game of press handling is vastly different now to what it was back then so it's not an equal comparison. Shanks knew what to say to turn the tide his way whereas BR is merely trying to pick his way through a minefield in one piece.

You know why I think Rodgers is still not the right man for this club ?

Well after a few weeks of ok to good results (performance is average to above average...still no where near last season) and Rodgers is back at it.

1)Throwing Balotelli under the bus again (why doesn't he just say he is injured or something.....why does he have to tell the whole world that balotelli has to work harder to get picked)....
2)He wants to tie up Johnson to a long term contract (get used to Johnson playing more games now as he tries to justify his contract extension)
3)Saying the plan was to win the league next season. This season was about consolidating the players..... 

Rodgers isn't gonna change. He is gonna spout more cr@p as long as he is our manager. And most of the times .....it comes back to haunt him.

Apart from his ridiculous interviews....he is also tactically "one-trick pony". 3-4-3 formation works against stronger teams by nullifying their midfield and hitting them on the break. But when we are playing against inferior opposition like Bolton, we should go for 2 upfront (and yes change the formation). But Lambert or Borini upfront with Sterling. But knowing Rodgers ...he is gonna milk this formation as much as possible even when it becomes unsustainable. Its exactly similar to last season.

The diamond formation worked because we had Henderson and coutinho pressing the h@ll out of the opposition to allow gerrard to play in his DM role. But once hendo gets suspended...a more competent manager would have brought in lucas to shore the midfield and tweaked the formation. But not Rodgers. He still continued to play the same way and look what happened against Chelsea and Crystal Palace ?

We should have beaten Bolton if we had played with more presence in attack. We need a manager who picks teams according to the teams we face. Our team is not good enough to play the same tactics every game like Madrid or Barcelona..

I still maintain that if we don't get 4th....he has to go. Even if we win a cup or 2 he should go....

Hope the owners don't give excuses in keeping Rodgers beyond this season. They should just accept that they got swindled by a good talker who has no history to back up his philosophies.

So many people on here batter the manager for our draws or defeats but give him no credit for our wins. How can he get hammered for defeats at the end of last season without getting credited for the run we want on before hand? We had far from the best squad in the league and yet we outplayed everyone else in the second half of last season - whose that down to (don't bother......the players, I know).

When he changes the formation he's tinkering, when he doesn't he's a one trick pony. When he changes the squad looking for the best balance he's over-rotating, when he plays what he thinks is his best starting 11 he's not giving players a chance.

And most of all, none of us really know what's going on - who's fit, who's confident, whose linking up together in training, opta stats - Rodgers and his team do, they have far more to go on than we do - we're basically guessing.

Games like the Derby highlight Rodgers lack of football acumen  ,if  posters and to a much lesser extent supporters cant see the frailty in his tactics and at times banal
substitutions then they're bigger fools than the money men who allow his inadequacy.

5 wins and 2 draws in the last 7 PL games, top of the form table, and much closer to the top 4 than we've been in a while, and people are still bitching about Rogers' tactics and decisions.

Lucas was injured too early in the game. He probably didn't want to completely change the formation that soon into the game, so he brought in Allen as a like for like. There was no other option to do that. I like how many people have said bring on Lovren, and push Can up. The same people who have been talking about how poor Lovren has been this season.

Rogers is paid millions of pounds every year to make these decisions, and has done a damn good job of it. Believe it or not, he probably knows a little bit more about football than the majority of us. Everton were out to not lose that game, and when a half decent side only plays for a draw, it's not that difficult for them to get one. It's the Derby. Form, ability, favorites, everything goes out the window because it's a game played at such a high emotional level. The way a manager deals with that will completely affect the decisions he makes.

But what am I saying? Of course all of us who have the advantage of hindsight know so much more about managing a team than Rogers does...

Spare me from your American colloquialisms ,but there's no bitches here dog    If you truly believe Rodgers is doing a good job then you're entitled
to your opinion ,but time is often more than a great leveller and when this season draws to its close we will see how much the club lost in affording this
man the opportunity to stumble along with our dreams .

f*ck YEAH !  

I agree with ethanr, this season was always going to be transitional and we were never going to be front running with clubs like City and Chelsea who were building from a position of strength.
Both of those clubs didn't have to sell their best player like we did and they didn't lose their main striker for half a season either.
Considering what we have had to cope with I think we have done well.

As much as Im ***** that we dropped two points yesterday I think jumping on here slating Rodgers every time we draw and lose throwing daggers and BR is slightly over the top

ethanr » Sun Feb 08, 2015 7:57 pm wrote:5 wins and 2 draws in the last 7 PL games, top of the form table, and much closer to the top 4 than we've been in a while, and people are still bitching about Rogers' tactics and decisions.

Lucas was injured too early in the game. He probably didn't want to completely change the formation that soon into the game, so he brought in Allen as a like for like. There was no other option to do that. I like how many people have said bring on Lovren, and push Can up. The same people who have been talking about how poor Lovren has been this season.

Rogers is paid millions of pounds every year to make these decisions, and has done a damn good job of it. Believe it or not, he probably knows a little bit more about football than the majority of us. Everton were out to not lose that game, and when a half decent side only plays for a draw, it's not that difficult for them to get one. It's the Derby. Form, ability, favorites, everything goes out the window because it's a game played at such a high emotional level. The way a manager deals with that will completely affect the decisions he makes.

But what am I saying? Of course all of us who have the advantage of hindsight know so much more about managing a team than Rogers does...

I don't agree Ethan, I'm one of the few that has been defending Brendan on here but I think he could have done better yesterday. Not saying that he completely ***** up, just saying he should have done better. His biggest mistake (and maybe his only) was bringing on Allen, a very negative move. Yes, Lovren has been Sh*t but so has Allen. However, bringing in Lovren would have been a better move tactically. Don't think that Allen had a single pass forward and he was never forward enough when his teammates needed him, don't think he passed the half-way line actually. Can on the other hand, in his current form, would have been a huge threat with his powerful runs, his passing and his shooting. It might have been a bigger risk to bring in Lovren but sometimes you have to take risks if you want to win. Not sure we wanted to win though, we looked pretty happy with the draw.

It's all very nice that we're in a great form at the moment, but what matters is where we stand on the table, and currently we're 7th, still 5 points away from 4th. If we want to reach that position we'll need to do better than this. In fact, we'll probably have to go on a similar streak as last season.

Tactically  Inept,and regardless of media spin that he's one of the brightest young managers in the game ,I really would like him to disprove my opinion
that its all bollocks and simply an attempt by the collative of Rodgers apologists to blow smoke up our collective arses.

Red, I assume BR discusses his strategy before a game just like Maureen does, he doesn't pull it out of a hat 3 minutes before kick off. SG is going to swing round our neck... he wasn't pulled off because of it being his last derby game.. his last Ure game, last whatever game and we're going to have to live with that. BR has annoyed folks because of odd decisions however the greatest frustration before Crimbo was players simply weren't gelling or playing to their potential which was not all BR's fault. I don't apologise for BR but we're inching forward, every game we're looking more solid and into next season this team should be firmly in the groove and churning out results. Yep it isn't overnight but if we continue the recent progress then we're clearly on the right track. Cheer up mate, be happy-clappy!