Posts Tagged ‘Brendan Rodgers’

1FITG mid-season review: Liverpool

Posted: February 12, 2013 by onefootinthegame in Uncategorized
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With less than a third of the season left to run, we’re reaching a key period for a number of clubs that still harbour some sort of ambition for the end of the season. In the first of a series of pieces where we’ve asked some of our writers for their thoughts on their team’s season so far, Trebor A gives us his reaction to Brendan Rodgers’s first season at Anfield.

1. So what are your thoughts on Liverpool’s season so far?

The season has been ok so far, in truth. An unconvincing tricky start in the league set off some alarm bells. The team looked unsure, of how to play under Rodgers. That has now changed, and the players are playing with greater fluidity, and composure. You can see that the team is evolving. The cup performances could have been better. I still can’t believe we lost to Oldham. However, doing well in cup competitions didn’t exactly help Kenny much last season.

2. How are you feeling about your chances in the Europa League this season – is it a cup Liverpool should be actively trying to win and will Rodgers prioritise it?

I’m feeling fairly optimistic about the Europa League. We have progressed well, whilst managing to give young players like Suso, Wisdom and Sterling some much-needed European experience. Liverpool have never won the Europa League – so I would like to see us make history this season. There are some big clubs still left in it i.e. Ajax, Tottenham, Napoli, Chelsea and Benfica. Which will certainly make winning it tough. Will Rodgers prioritise it? I don’t think he has much choice – put simply, this is the only competition Liverpool can now win this season.

3. Would you agree that Gerrard has been below par this season?

English: Steven Gerrard, Liverpool F.C. footballer

Steven Gerrard – still got it. Or, used to have it, but has replaced it in his aged state with something else also useful

No, I couldn’t disagree more. Gerrard, like the whole team, started the season slowly. He looked a bit lethargic. This was understandable, considering his involvement in last summer Euros. He has been excellent for a couple of months now though. What people do not seem to understand is that Gerrard is 32 years of age. He can’t run for 90 minutes from box to box anymore. Gerrard is a different player now – more reserved, but still able to produce moments of brilliance. 7 goals and 9 assists in the Premier League testifies to that. He’s the only premier league midfielder to have played every minute of every game this season as well. That is a remarkable feat, taking his age, and past injury record, into consideration.

4. Has Rodgers fundamentally changed the style of play at Liverpool. Do you feel you can progress into the top 4 in the future playing the brand of football that Rodgers is trying to play?

Rodgers and his love of buzz words, calls his football ideals a ‘philosophy’. When in truth it is fundamentally ‘passing football’. Not exactly re-inventing the wheel, is it? However, in fairness to Rodgers, there has been some change. A lot this has been off the pitch i.e. backroom staff, training methods, scouting network etc. Even the formation has changed from last season. Due to this, the teams results have somewhat fluctuated. The football hasn’t always been sparkling or scintillating, and I still can’t help but fret every time the ball is passed around in our own defence. Rodgers is militant about the constant need to keep possession and controlling the game. It can appear to be counter-productive at times. Yet I can sense the players are starting to become more and more comfortable with this. Overall, the style of play has been progressive. Will this brand of football get Liverpool back into the top 4? Hopefully the results will start to match the quality of football. Only then can progress be achieved. I know it might seem a bit cliché, but I can’t help thinking of this team as a ‘work in progress’.

5. Predicted finish in the Premier League this season?

Last summer, before the season started, I said finishing 5th in the Premier League and winning the Europa League should be Liverpool’s target. Nothing in that regard has changed. Obviously, I would love to see Liverpool finish 4th. While that is not improbable, it is possibly a tad unrealistic. So, 5th and winning a European competition – that’ll do for me.

Rodgers at Liverpool – club at the crossroads

Posted: June 10, 2012 by onefootinthegame in Liverpool, Premier League, Steven Gerrard
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Dynasty: A rich history of success or a soap opera that beggars belief?

Following his unveiling at Anfield, Brendan Rodgers described Liverpool Football Club as “a dynasty”. Which begs the question did he mean the club had with an established, rich history of class and success, or was he likening it to a preposterous soap opera with storylines that beggar belief.

Liverpool’s current predicament is the result of two decades of mismanagement, neglect and short sightedness, leaving the scale of Rodgers’ task much greater than the seventeen points that the team finished off the coveted fourth Champions League place.

On the footballing side, Rodgers has inherited a squad that, despite the truck load of cash thrown at it over the last eighteen months, will need a great deal of work before it can emulate the high tempo possession game that has already become his hallmark.

The midfield in particular, is staffed by players who either lack the technical ability (Spearing, Shelvey), favour the ‘Hollywood Ball’ (Gerrard, Adam) or have simply been non-descript in their Anfield careers so far (Downing, Henderson). The only players who seem ready-made for the ‘tiki taka’ keep-ball style are Lucas and Bellamy, the latter at the wrong end of his career.

There’s then the Andy Carroll conundrum. Given how he was used, or misused, last season, his critics have been overly harsh as he has shown the potential to be an intimidating force in attack. Yet you don’t need Andy Townsend’s tactic truck to tell you that Carroll is not a player suited to a short passing game. Rodgers will either need time to work with him to refine his game (he is still only 23), find a tactical style that suits him or employ him in some other creative option (scarecrow, coat stand, hired goon – answers on a postcard please).

Lastly, there’s the ‘Gerrard problem’. Those who criticise Gerrard are usually labelled as heretics and madmen. Yet, dare I say it, some Liverpool fans have been whispering for awhile that for all his heroics and swashbuckling drive, he has never developed the all round technique and tactical discipline required to dominate a midfield, and the tempo of a game. Whilst others would just come straight out and say that the team plays better, more incisive football without him.

These might seem harsh criticisms given the years when, at his peak, Gerrard seemingly dragged Liverpool to heights that seemed beyond them. That was in the past though – and a past that heavily relied on Xabi Alonso. One-man Roy Race midfields are not a viable long-term plan in the Premier League or Europe, and it is now undeniable, even for fanatics, that Gerrard is way past his best.

Trouble is, as the club captain, local hero, living legend, and crucially, the top-earner in the squad, he poses a big challenge for Rodgers. One possible option is to gradually deploy him as a centre-back, thus adding some technique and passing ability in defence.

All of the above, however, requires time and patience – two virtues that Liverpool are, with some justification, short of. On the cusp of a fourth season without Champions League football, conservative estimates of the revenue lost over this period fall somewhere around the £100m mark.

With the stadium saga ongoing, the club still playing catch-up with their commercial operations, and Financial Fair Play regulations preventing random cash injections, the longer Liverpool are outside the Champions League the more elusive ever returning there will become.

Rodgers and Fenway Sports Group face big challenges on every front. The club have made a brave and well suited appointment but another period of failure will likely mean that the LFC dynasty may go the same way as the TV programme which disappeared from our screen in 1989 – the same year as Liverpool’s last title triumph.