Liverpool FC Forum

[tubby]

Don't know whether it's arrogance or naivety (personally think it's the former) with Rodgers, but playing Downing at LB against Bale and Lennon. Well done B-rod clever decision. 

Yes that is a very worrying sign, almost everything Brendan has done up to know has been good and brave but playing Henderson and Downing makes no sense to me, they are both useless and we have better options on the bench, Assaidi, Sahin, Shelvey and Suso. At LB I would have played our, errmmm Left Back Enrique?

I wish the interviewers had the balls and/or brains to ask managers these type of questions post-match becuase we fans deserve to know the reasons behind these kind of weird and costly choices.

He's a bold manager so was trying something new. And to be honest Downing has been useless at everything else he has done so at least we now know he is completely useless at anything he is asked to do.

[mart]

He's a bold manager so was trying something new. And to be honest Downing has been useless at everything else he has done so at least we now know he is completely useless at anything he is asked to do.

Bold is not the word I would use. Stupid fits better.

It almost looks like we play Downing in the hopes that someone will buy him at christmas.

[The Raven]

Don't know whether it's arrogance or naivety (personally think it's the former) with Rodgers, but playing Downing at LB against Bale and Lennon. Well done B-rod clever decision. 

Yes that is a very worrying sign, almost everything Brendan has done up to know has been good and brave but playing Henderson and Downing makes no sense to me, they are both useless and we have better options on the bench, Assaidi, Sahin, Shelvey and Suso. At LB I would have played our, errmmm Left Back Enrique?

I wish the interviewers had the balls and/or brains to ask managers these type of questions post-match becuase we fans deserve to know the reasons behind these kind of weird and costly choices.

He's a bold manager so was trying something new. And to be honest Downing has been useless at everything else he has done so at least we now know he is completely useless at anything he is asked to do.

Bold no...... stupid yes.

[Thommo's perm]

I see a lot of people are comparing Rodgers + Hodgson at the moment.  I don't think thats fair on Rodgers at all.
Hodgson had a better team.  Reina was in better form then than he is now, he had a fully fit Lucas, a Carragher that still had something to offer, a much better Steven Gerrard and players that could score goals like Maxi + Kuyt and hell even Babel.

Anyone that wants to compare the two managers records needs to take this into consideration.

Rodgers has infinitely more in common with Shankly than with Hodgson

[fivecups]

He's a bold manager so was trying something new. And to be honest Downing has been useless at everything else he has done so at least we now know he is completely useless at anything he is asked to do.

Bold is not the word I would use. Stupid fits better.

It almost looks like we play Downing in the hopes that someone will buy him at christmas.

I think he had a difficult decision to make. He knew Johnson had to play at RB, rather than Wisdom. He also knew we carried more attacking threat in the last few games with Enrique on the left of the front three. Downing while clearly not a natural LB had done OK in that position. So what does he do? He knows we need more goals. He knows the threat of Spurs wingers. He knows better than us, what other options were available at LB (he would have got crucified if he played Robinson IMO). He made a call and it didn't work (BTW I didn't agree with it before the match either, see the start of the thread) BUT I'm not going to condemn him for it now. It's too easy in retrospect.

[Kenny Kan]

Don't know whether it's arrogance or naivety (personally think it's the former) with Rodgers, but playing Downing at LB against Bale and Lennon. Well done B-rod clever decision. 

Yes that is a very worrying sign, almost everything Brendan has done up to know has been good and brave but playing Henderson and Downing makes no sense to me, they are both useless and we have better options on the bench, Assaidi, Sahin, Shelvey and Suso. At LB I would have played our, errmmm Left Back Enrique?

I wish the interviewers had the balls and/or brains to ask managers these type of questions post-match becuase we fans deserve to know the reasons behind these kind of weird and costly choices.

He's a bold manager so was trying something new. And to be honest Downing has been useless at everything else he has done so at least we now know he is completely useless at anything he is asked to do.

Downing would make a useless feckin tea lady, he'd lose his bottle dropping a sugar cube into the cup .

So why the feckin hell a manager would play this useless tw@t at LB (where's Robinson?) is beyond me - and against a threat like Lennon.

[Kenny Kan]

He's a bold manager so was trying something new. And to be honest Downing has been useless at everything else he has done so at least we now know he is completely useless at anything he is asked to do.

Bold is not the word I would use. Stupid fits better.

It almost looks like we play Downing in the hopes that someone will buy him at christmas.

I think he had a difficult decision to make. He knew Johnson had to play at RB, rather than Wisdom. He also knew we carried more attacking threat in the last few games with Enrique on the left of the front three. Downing while clearly not a natural LB had done OK in that position. So what does he do? He knows we need more goals. He knows the threat of Spurs wingers. He knows better than us, what other options were available at LB (he would have got crucified if he played Robinson IMO). He made a call and it didn't work (BTW I didn't agree with it before the match either, see the start of the thread) BUT I'm not going to condemn him for it now. It's too easy in retrospect.

Well, if we now rely on a LB to help us score upfront then something is obviously wrong.

Rodgers made a boo boo, you don't give team's like Spurs (who are pretty good going forward anyway) anymore reason to attack us. Defensively you still need to be tactically sound, and I'm afraid Rodgers dropped a bolloc.k here.

[Kenny Kan]

He's a bold manager so was trying something new. And to be honest Downing has been useless at everything else he has done so at least we now know he is completely useless at anything he is asked to do.

Bold is not the word I would use. Stupid fits better.

It almost looks like we play Downing in the hopes that someone will buy him at christmas.

I think he had a difficult decision to make. He knew Johnson had to play at RB, rather than Wisdom. He also knew we carried more attacking threat in the last few games with Enrique on the left of the front three. Downing while clearly not a natural LB had done OK in that position. So what does he do? He knows we need more goals. He knows the threat of Spurs wingers. He knows better than us, what other options were available at LB (he would have got crucified if he played Robinson IMO). He made a call and it didn't work (BTW I didn't agree with it before the match either, see the start of the thread) BUT I'm not going to condemn him for it now. It's too easy in retrospect.

Well, if we now rely on a LB to help us score upfront then something is obviously wrong.

Rodgers made a boo boo, you don't give team's like Spurs (who are pretty good going forward anyway) anymore reason to attack us. Defensively you still need to be tactically sound, and I'm afraid Rodgers dropped a bolloc.k here.

[friendlyguy33]

The next few games look fairly critical to me. We shouldn't be only about two points clear of a team like Villa after the dreadful start they've had. Lose on saturday to Southampton and we are virtually dragged into the battle at the bottom of the table.

These are the games before we face United in the New Year-

Southanpton (h)
West Ham (a)
Aston Villa (h)
Fulham (h)
Stoke (a)
QPR (a)
Sunderland (h)

At least around 13-15 points from those seven games we should be expecting given that four of these teams are relegation candidates. Much less in terms of points from those games will add to the pressure on Brendan.

[jacdaniel]

The next few games look fairly critical to me. We shouldn't be only about two points clear of a team like Villa after the dreadful start they've had. Lose on saturday to Southampton and we are virtually dragged into the battle at the bottom of the table.

These are the games before we face United in the New Year-

Southanpton (h)
West Ham (a)
Aston Villa (h)
Fulham (h)
Stoke (a)
QPR (a)
Sunderland (h)

At least around 13-15 points from those seven games we should be expecting given that four of these teams are relegation candidates. Much less in terms of points from those games will add to the pressure on Brendan.

These games are crucial now and will shape our season.  We were unlucky not to take more points from United, City, Spurs and Everton but we move on.

A good few wins in those games and we're challenging for 4th.  A few more draws and we'll remain midtable.
A few losses and we could be near the relegation zone.

Still all to play for though

[babu]

I have always thought this club was different. The supporters, the match goers, the fans.... all different from the plastics at chelsea, the bandwagoners at city and insufferable at united. The blue supporters get credit as far as i am concerned, not withstanding the vile they spout.

I think when a Liverpool supporter says the manager made a mistake, this should equate to a mass demonstration at a club like chelsea or city.

What i am trying to say is that despite the fact that we have a relatively inexperienced manager, we need to temper our criticism. I still believe that we have the most influential support base in any club, in the world. what we say matters and has ramifications.

Lets act with the class that has so long be associated with the club. Don't let twit and *****'s lasting legacy be one that supporters are eager to turn on our managers.

YNWA

[stmichael]

The problems have built up over a number of years due to gross mismanagement and lack of strategy at the very top. Sadly I always knew it would come to this if we struggled to get results quickly this season. It was always going to be easy to blame Rodgers given his short track record.

[Boxscarf]

Rodgers needs time, he inherited a horrendously average mid-table squad and he's trying to ring fences whole-sale change on a shoe-string budget, we cannot expect too much too soon which is what a lot of supporters are doing. Added with the fact that we have rotten luck both from our biggest foe the framework of the goal and referees, is it any wonder we are where we are at the moment? There's not a lot you can do when your team has players like Downing and Henderson in it and there's not a lot you can do when you star striker gets kicked to the ground (yes, Gallas that's exactly what you did) and nothing is given.

[Boxscarf]

The problems have built up over a number of years due to gross mismanagement and lack of strategy at the very top. Sadly I always knew it would come to this if we struggled to get results quickly this season. It was always going to be easy to blame Rodgers given his short track record.

We could have Mourinho here and the results would still be the same. The problem isn't the manager, it's the players and those at the top who are little more than penny-pinching idiots who are 95% image, 5% substance.

[ycsatbjywtbiastkamb]

The problems have built up over a number of years due to gross mismanagement and lack of strategy at the very top. Sadly I always knew it would come to this if we struggled to get results quickly this season. It was always going to be easy to blame Rodgers given his short track record.

it`s easy to blame rodgers because he has made a lot of mistakes.
lets face it if hodgson or even kenny had made half the mistakes rodgers has they would have been absolutely lambasted, because rodgers plays 4-3-3 and talks a good game he is avoiding a lot of warranted criticism.
from the moment he walked in he has been making mistakes, the way he handled the carroll situation in the media, the transfer day debacle, spending £30+ million in the summer but failing to address the striker problem everyone in football (bar rodgers) knew we had, saying one minute the title challenge starts here and then the next minute declaring it`s going to take us 4 years to even challenge for a top 4 place, his houllier-esque habit of putting positive spins on poor results, his refusal to change his style even if it means we miss an opportunity to exploit an opponents weakness (if a team had 2 five foot six centre halves he wouldnt play a target man)...i could go on and on right through to his latest clanger of expecting downing to cope with lennon on wednesday.
there probably is a very good manager somewhere inside rodgers but imo that piece of coal needs a hell of a lot of polishing before it turns into a diamond.
when we were linked with the likes of martinez, lambert and rodgers a lot of fans questioned wether they had the experience to cope at a big club, well up to now at least we know rodgers cant.
he has got to improve dramatically in the second half of the season (which to be fair apparently he traditionally does) because if we dont other clubs will be flocking like wolves in the summer looking to buy our best players. his declaration last summer of `every player has his price` basically tells us that fsg are prepared to sell if the money is right.
the problem with that though is who do we bring in to replace our best players? another one of rodgers mates?