Breaking: Liverpool sack Brendan Rodgers

No coach goes into a game with no strikers on the bench and then takes out his only striker when they're a goal behind for a winger.

I said all Summer that this was going to be a hell of a difficult season and that some people would want him gone, and it's happening. They don't seem to realize that he's an absolute baby in managerial terms, that this was his first CL campaign, that he never had to rotate before, never had to integrate 8 players into a squad, lose the greatest Liverpool player I've ever seen, see his captain lose his legs, deal with insanely unrealistic expectations because he set the bar so high etc...

What I don't understand is that 7 months ago, he was a slip away from being the biggest Liverpool managerial icon since Bill Shankly. Shouldn't it take a bit longer than a few months for people to forget what he's capable of producing? If Suarez had stayed, and had scored just 4 goals by December, would people want him gone too?

I wrote this about the manager last term when Tony Evans said Paul Lambert was a better manager. It still stands.

"The thing is, it's not just about winning.

It's how we're winning.

I'm 33. I've been supporting Liverpool since I was 5. I fell for the Reds properly when Barnes was signed. The first team I truly saw was Kenny's 87-91 vintage.

So basically, you can say I got my footballing education from that side. The triangles, the short passing, Beardsley dropping off the striker, Barnes' magnificent wing play, the late runs into the box from midfield by Mcmahon and Houghton, the comeback wins, the never say die attitude.

That was the Liverpool I fell in love with. The style of play that got me hooked. Since then, every Liverpool side I've watched has always been compared to that team for me. Look at my first few posts on this forum 9 years ago or so and you'll see me moaning (as ever) of our transfer market failings. You'll see me begging for a Pablo Aimar (i.e. a Beardsley type). For flair. For more creativity.

For close to 15 years (since 97 basically. Just after my desire for a defensive midfielder was sated by Paul Ince...), I've been begging Liverpool bosses to buy that sort of player. The type that can unlock tight defenses. That can thread a through ball through an eye of a needle. That can terrify defenders with pace and guile, creativity and flair. And year after year, I had to see the likes of Overmars, Pires, Ronaldo and Modric being snapped up by other teams while we signed the likes of Leonhardsen, Barmby, Kuyt and Jovanovic: hard workers, first and foremost. Flair and trickery sacrificed for keeping the shape and defensive solidity.

Why? Because since Evans decided he needed more workers in the side after the debacle of Spring 1997, every manager we've had has valued workers over flair players.

Houllier brought success but he also brought some of the most mind numbingly boring football I've ever seen. He had the closest thing to Peter Beardsley in modern football (Number 37) and used him like he was John Fashanu.

Rafa brought success, amazing nights and for a few months some wonderful attacking play, but he also brought a sometimes spirit crushing refusal to take risks, to go for broke, to sacrifice the system for more creativity. He spent fortunes on every position except attacking midfield. He was all about compactness, the shape, control.

Hodgson was Hodgson and Kenny was hamstrung from the very start with a 35m pounds absolute *bleep* up of a signing who was so limited he required us to go spend more fortunes on limited players to bring the best out of his limited skill set. We all, for a couple of lovely months in Spring 2011 saw a version of a modern Liverpool which mirrored the 87-91 vintage. But then, it was gone with the need to limit our attacking play with our limited record signing.

In Brendan Rodgers, we have a man who puts flair before anything else. We have a man who's first thought is attack. Whose every thought is about scoring goals. It's about winning football matches. Who will not hesitate to go for broke if we're drawing, who wants us to play exactly like the 87-91 vintage did. And, Jesus Christ, he's very close to making it happen.

Philippe Coutinho is exactly the type of player that I've been begging us to sign since Mcmanaman left in 1999. He's the Peter Beardsley we've been crying out for years. He's a player who is full of flair, creativity, vision and skill. And Rodgers adores him, absolutely swears by him. Raheem Sterling is the closest thing (but still miles away) from a John Barnes for 2 decades. Full of flair, pace, trickery and fight. And he's 19. Rodgers adores, has played him since he was 17, has never wavered in his support for him.

We have the best player I've ever seen in a Liverpool shirt in my life in Luis Suarez. A man for which the word flair is not enough. And we have Daniel Sturridge, a man who is scoring goals faster than ANY Liverpool striker in modern Liverpool history.

This isn't about Rodgers getting lucky. This isn't about Lambert being better. This shit did not just happen. It was Rodgers who had the balls to play Sterling (even at 17 years of age). It was Rodgers who went out and bought Coutinho when most of our previous managers would have had not touched him with a barge pole. It is Rodgers who is getting Sturridge to look like the English Thierry Henry. And it is Rodgers that is getting Luis Suarez to break goalscoring record after goal scoring record.

For those who know me, you'll know how adamant I was from the start that the Carroll - Suarez partnership was doomed to fail. I was going nuts at how we were wasting Suarez's talent, using him like Jermaine Defoe, when he was so much better than that. I argued endlessly on here that we needed to surround him with movement, with pace and with intelligent footballers. Well Rodgers came in, sent Carroll packing , backed himself, backed Luis and now look. We have 2 strikers that have more than 1 goals a start this season in the league. THIS HAS NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE. BY ANYONE.

It's because of all of this that I look at Rodgers and give him my full support. People can't just brush off what's been happening this season (and indeed since last Jan) as luck or anything else. It's genius. We've beaten teams by 4 goals or more 5 times this season. Do you know how many times Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs and United have done that combined? ZERO. Not once. Everton? 1 time. City? 4 times- and they have had 5 years or so to Billion pounds up their squad.

You know what… *bleep* our rivals. Compare us to our previous manager. We’ve beaten teams by 4 goals or more in the league 10 times in Rodgers' 64 league games: the same number of times as in Houllier's 6 seasons, 2 less than in Evans' 5 seasons, and 5 less than in Rafa's 6 seasons. This guy has barely managed us for a season and a half!

I've never seen (not even the 87-91 team) Liverpool absolutely destroy the teams around us. We went from breaking records in a bad way to breaking records in a good way, almost in the blink of an eye. The likes of Wolves, Fulham, Spurs, West Brom etc etc... all came to Anfield from 2010 to 2012 and won for the first time in decades. Now? We've gotten our biggest Derby win since 1982. We've had our biggest win at Spurs in our history. We matched our record for goals scored against Arsenal in our history.

This kind of shit you don't just brush off. We're DESTROYING these teams. 5-0. 4-0. 5-1. And we're missing penalties, hitting posts, missing chances while we're doing it. Who from our rivals are doing this? Which Liverpool teams from the last 20 odd years have done this?
You don't just call this shit luck, or talk about Paul Lambert. You *bleep* respect it.

I could go on for ages about what Rodgers' has done right: playing the kids (name me one manager we've had in recent history who would have put Suso on at half time for his league debut vs United? Or sent in Texeira for his debut with 8 minutes to go in a game we desperately needed to win?), attacking substitutions ( putting on a second striker vs Stoke when 3-2 up- in complete contrast to what most of our recent bosses would have done), playing the media brightly and in a non confrontational manner…

And you know what… It’s maybe the last point that’s the issue for some as well as me. Because, while I absolutely adore Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool and almost everything he’s done so far, I still struggle to warm to Brendan Rodgers the man. I still call him Rodgers for example, like I called Gerard- Houllier- after a certain time. Why? Maybe it’s because it’s his love in with the media. Maybe it’s because of little things like calling Howard Webb “Howard” after THAT shambles on Sunday. Maybe it’s because I’m still not certain this bloke is one of us, like Kenny was, like Rafa was. Maybe it’s because, as Tony Evans rightly says, we haven’t actually achieved anything yet.

But Brendan Rodgers the manager? Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool? They make me look at my telly (sorry locals; Out of Towner here) with amazement. They make me see things I haven’t seen for decades, dream things I haven’t dare to dream, feel things I haven’t felt for years.

They make this 33 year old man stay up till 4am in the morning with the adrenaline still racing after watching a master class of an attacking performance; watching replay after replay, full match after full match.

They make me feel like a 7 year old again. And that’s all that counts.

We could go on a bad run sure. But that won’t erase what we’ve done since January 2013. I think people have forgotten how bleak it was before that. Finishing 7th, 6th and 8th. Losing 3-1 in a fortnight or so to Villa and Stoke. Looking like we had absolutely *bleep* all to play for. Couldn't score a penalty, let alone a goal, if our lives depended on it. Losing game after game against awful sides at Anfield.

From that to 4 points off the top with 12 games to go and 66 goals scored in 26 games played. In barely 13 months. Rate Lambert all you want but for Christ’s sake, have some respect. Even rival fans (go to Red Café if you don’t believe me) sing Rodgers’ praises.

Leave your bitterness to one side and just enjoy this incredibly exciting team we have which is making us dream like we haven’t dreamed for eons."

The season is a complete car crash, the sooner you accept it the better. It's a complete write off, and everything we do from today should be about building for the next 3 years. I banged on about this all Summer: Brendan should be allowed to try things and make mistakes, without fear of having the fanbase getting on his back.

This manager has been compromising his footballing principles for the last month because he's under intense pressure from the media and the fanbase. We know how he likes his side to play football; well we're doing everything contrary now. We're playing long balls from the back, lining up defensive teams, using hoof tactics and the average age of the starting 11s is very high.

FSG have a huge to play in making Brendan feel secure. They need to come out and back him publicly, address the fact that we had a disaster of a Summer transfer market and assure supporters that there will be accountability- while making clear that Brendan is their man. Please read Chris Bascombe's brilliant article about the failings of the transfer committee. The people in charge of scouting, recruiting, analysis of players and those in charge of closing deals should be the ones to feeling FSG's ire.

We are a huge, massively supported football club and there must be clear accountability. I've been banging on since the Summer about the need to sack the transfer committee and I remain convinced that in no other industry could people sink a company and stay in their jobs.

Once that happens, Brendan must be encouraged to look at the rest of the season as stage 1 in a 3 year plan.

That means playing the players that are going to be here, leaving players that are going to be leaving out of the side, getting new signings used to the way we play, and most importantly binning Lambert because every game starting with him is a game lost in the evolution of this football team and generally building a new side.

Brendan has proven to have massive testicles during his time here. He must be encouraged to stick by his principles and to trust his ideals. If that means starting Jerome Sinclair at Old Trafford, then great. No matter if we lose. Better to lose by playing your style of play than by compromising your principles for fear of fan pressure.

I'm fully behind Brendan Rodgers. I hope he will be allowed to manage this team the way he wants to.

Stop acting like spoiled, whiny brats and be a bit more rational.

Art Morte wrote:"In Brendan Rodgers, we have a man who puts flair before anything else. We have a man who's first thought is attack. Whose every thought is about scoring goals. It's about winning football matches. Who will not hesitate to go for broke if we're drawing."

Oh yeah? The same Rodgers who leaves Coutinho and Lallana on the bench to start Henderson and Gerrard in AM positions and Lucas and Allen in CM? That Rodgers who goes for flair? That Rodgers who goes for goals, who freezes out one of your two fit strikers? Who substitutes that only striker for a winger at half-time? That Rodgers who doesn't hesitate to go for broke if drawing, yet said just the other day after drawing Sunderland at Anfield 0 - 0 that ""If you can't win it's important you don't lose"?

I don't mind fans still giving Rodgers their full support, but to pretend that there's no valid reasons to question Rodgers' abilities and that he should be just allowed to carry on the way he wants, regardless of the results, is just blind stupidity.

iftikhar wrote:I'm still not sure if you don't understand or refuse to understand or just love acting like some pompous, patronizing, self-righteous person.

It's alright with you that we got kicked-out from a fairly easy group. It's not alright with us. Not because we are some "spoiled, whiny brats". Because it's not alright. Not after you spend 100 million. Not after you make a series or tactical errors & oversight.   Not after it's apparent that it's not due the superiority of our opponents.

I guess you are happy with us finishing 3rd. That's really good since being content with what one have does bring one at peace. But take a look around you, fans of what other clubs are happy finishing 3rd!!! How many of them have splashed 100 million this summer! How many have won the European Cup five times! How many have a fan base that spans pole to pole! How many got a home that vibrates with thousands singing YNWA!

It's totally alright to be ordinary if you are actually ordinary.

iftikhar wrote:Like I said, Rodgers STILL have the patience. But he needs to get the basics right, NOW.

mr-r34 wrote:
Bring in Sami.

El Cujo wrote:They need a long term plan, and right now I think they believe Rodgers has one.

HEIL MEIN REDS wrote:El Cujo fighting the battle alone I am not sure anyone particular person seriously asked for his head in this forum. If someone mentioned it, it must be like a hyperbole comment in match thread. It is clear that he needs help in two areas, defensive organisation and transfer window. So it all points out to one thing, having a sport director above him

Rodgers has borne the brunt of the criticism but said he was working hard to turn the corner.

"I think the message from me is clear: I don't think there would be anyone better to do the job here," he told several national newspapers. "Seven months ago we nearly won the title unexpectedly, I had time to work with players and we took them beyond where the club has been in a long time.

"This has been a difficult start with new players, less coaching time, young players; we are virtually starting again. I don't think there is anybody better equipped to deal with that having been here for the last two and a half years and experienced what this club is about and seeing what we get from the players whenever we are at our best.

"Criticism comes with the territory when you don't win games. Football is very short term. The same people who are criticising me now were maybe saying I couldn't do anything wrong six or seven months ago. That is the way football works. You have to accept that as a manager and fight even harder to bring success. This period has ensured I will do that for sure."

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers, speaking to Sky Sports:

"I thought we had done enough to win the game, it epitomised our season really. We created so many chances today and David De Gea was man of the match. He's had four or five games like that this season. David's a top class goalkeeper and his ability to make saves is outstanding but his distribution is also excellent, he knows when to go short and when to go long.

"We also made defensive mistakes and that cost us today. We've just got to keep working, we know what the solutions are and hopefully the confidence will return. We came here last season and it was the reverse scoreline, today we were the better side in the first half but you can't concede the goals we did. We nearly went in front and they went up the other end and scored because we lost our runner from the midfield area.

"Today, we created opportunities which we haven't been doing. I'll keep searching for the solutions. It's been difficult this year but that's the way it works. It's clear we haven't scored or created enough goals."