ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Sun Aug 19, 2012 12:38 pm wrote:i think the manager should shoulder some of the blame (i dont mean that in a ridiculous `rodgers out` sense) but he did make a few mistakes.
the glaring one was bringing joe cole on when we were 2 down and needed to chase the game, the fact cole limped off clutching his hamstring 5 minutes later is almost incidental, it`s the fact he thought joe cole could turn a lost cause around when sitting next to cole on the bench was a player who at the end of last season turned a F.A cup final around against the european champions and scored the winner in a game where we were down to 10 men for well over an hour.
i thought it was odd that he took lucas off to bring cole on as well, lucas wasnt having his best game in a red shirt but at least he was trying, personally i would have brought gerrard off, he was just walking around with a cob on, by taking lucas off and leaving gerrard on (when he is in one of his moods) we were effectively down to 9 men and others like borini werent exactly contributing much to the cause either. the likes of allen probably woke up this morning feeling like he did the work of 3 men yesterday but thats because he did do the work of 3 men, he had to.
after we went down to 10 men i thought tactically we totally lost our shape, playing with 10 men isnt easy but we totally went to f**k, i know it was slightly different circumstances but as i have already alluded to at the end of last season we went down to 10 men in the 24th minute against blackburn and still came out with a win. rodgers didnt seem to have a clue what to do once plan A had gone out of the window.
these arent major criticism`s but i thought the manager could have done a bit more to affect yesterdays result and performance, he seemed to lose control of the situation tactically, although we were down to 10 men it seemed if we were down to 9 or 8.
we werent playing title contenders yesterday we were playing a side that will be doing cartwheels if they stay in the division.
I think as soon as Carragher was installed in our defence ,the back four seemed to wave goodbye to any semblance of shape
Its no surprise that Skrtels game becomes strewn with errors whenever Carragher is introduced ...
Its also pretty obvious that some of Phil Dowd's decisions were at times contemptible ,and he made certain that we would
struggle in that game from the very onset . Rodgers has a set format and in Joe Allen and Borini he has the players that fit
that mold perfectly ,he also has Shelvey (who I was very surprised to see on the bench ) who imo ideally suits Rodgers playing model .
I honestly don't know where that leaves Gerrard ,because yesterdays performance harked back to how he performed under
Kenny ,and its definitely makes for uncomfortable viewing to watch him going through the motions whilst being oblivious to the one trait that made him truly unique.
I think Rodgers should play Gerrard on the wing ,re invent his role and then just maybe he can produce something worthy
of the exorbitant amount of wages he receives . I also believe he is less than inspirational and should relinquish the
captaincy for someone infinitely more passionate about the shirt ..... Otherwise the unthinkable Liverpool mantra ,about
no player being bigger than the club will be dead in the water .
Like I said Rodgers has a few uncomfortable decisions to make surrounding the lethargy of Gerrard and Downing ,and the
ever expanding waist line of Cole and Adam .