Brendan Rodgers Discussion Thread

I never understood him being reappointed after the way he left. I was literally heartbroken when he left, but the place was going toxic because he wasn’t being backed.

The problem with him not being backed, was the board was never going to back him anymore than then or more than Ange. That’s the level this owner and board are going to back, it’s set by those *, Rodgers coming back was just stupid.

It’s always been clear that Rodgers only wants established players or players who have fallen from a previous high level so he can build back up. Ange bought in players like Mooy on a free, O’Riley for £2m, GG for £2m, Kyogo for £4m, Hatate for £2m, Hart for £1m. Who’s Rodgers ever going to bring in for these prices?

Desmond running down to Spain like a fanboy, like someone who had been shafted by his girlfriend and went crying back to his ex is * sickening. For a supposed smart rich *, I’m surprised he fell for a schoolboy error.

So we are where we are, an owner who knows nothing about appointing managers selecting Rodgers, a manager who can’t pick a cheap player on a consistent basis to fit his style of football and a fan base divided at best by the owner, the board and the manager.

Apart from the fantastic memories, it’s like the Ange era never happened.

 

I take your point that Ange had a clear idea of what specific players he wanted and that they were cheap. I think also that Rodgers is more a guy that wants ideas brought to him and yay or nays them. And that he's probably nayed a lot of the projects we've floated because he doesn't want another 21yo no one's heard of - and yeah, why would he.

But the question remains why we then hired him. The board have worked with him before and I doubt either side would mince their words with regards to their expectations vis a vis the transfer strategy. So what's the issue?

I think you've probably touched on the answer. Rodgers wants to bring in players that are sure things and even a young prospect that is proven at a certain level will come with a certain price tag. He probably assumed putting down £5-10m for a player under 25 was a good investment and the club disagree. His talk about the success of buying cheap players to sell for profit and concerns about the club's bravery suggests to me this is the issue.

And I've got to be honest, I take Rodgers' view in that. Stockpiling £1m players isn't going to take us to the next level in terms of our football or finance. We've stagnated under that strategy. We need to increase our initial investment and take educated risks. He's not wrong and I don't think it's an unreasonable expectation for a club in our financial position.

 

Just finished listening to the Huddle breakdown, which was recorded at 6pm transfer deadline day. Some of the stats put out about as towards the end of the show are very worrying. From GK, to defending, to wingers, goals scored and conceded, shots allowed at goals. All very much down from last year.

Given it the weekend, amd always a glass half full type, but I think he's done. He has the next 2 games (Hibs and St Mirren away), and any dropped points and that's it for me.

The football is awful. The style is awful. His recruitment is awful (he states he full control, he gets full blame).

I probably know deep down it's done for him already.

 

On the playing style debate it is a moot point for a lot of the games we have dropped points this season and a bit of a smoke screen I believe.

Starting with the St Johnstone game at home, O’Riley should have had a hat trick that day, he missed four blatant sitters that you would have expected him to put at least 2 away and we would win the game comfortably. Especially if we had got in front we probably kick on.

Killie in league cup we were terrible but again missed two great chances early in the game then were rubbish second half.

Hibs away in the league I think the exertions of Atletico at home caught up with the team and one draw out of the opening round of fixtures wouldn’t have been a bad run.

Motherwell at home, we miss a penalty, score a penalty and again early in the game miss some really good chances to make it a comfortable game. We concede one corner at the end and shocking defending leads to a draw.

Killie away, we get 1-0 up should really be 3, with Oh failing to connect with a simple tap in and a host of other changes missed. Then are terrible in the second half. Lose 2-1

Hearts at home lose two shockingly poor goals a back post header where two defenders run in to each other and a freekick Hart should be saving. Are terrible that day but Kyogo at the start of the second half misses a sitter that could turn the game and Maeda late on can’t kick it in to an empty net.

Aberdeen we should have been 2 or 3 up at half time Palma, Bernardo and O’Riley should all score. Second half we are abysmal.

So in most of those games it’s not like we aren’t creating any chances the difference is we are not being clinical early in games and it’s leading to us struggling. I remember under Ange thinking quite often if we didn’t get in front in the first half we would struggle in games. This season we are worse at taking our chances.

It’s not just those games though
- Ross County game at home first game of the season scored 4 should have been 6 or 7,
- Aberdeen away scored 3 should have been 6
- Dundee at home was 3 should have been 5 or 6
- Killie at home was 3 should have been at least 6
- St Mirren 2-1 should have been 4 or 5
- Ross County 3-0 should have been 7
- Hibs at home was 4 should have been 6 or 7
- Livi 2-0 at home should have been more
- Dundee away 3-0 should have been double that
- St Mirren 3-0 should have been 6
- Ross County at home should have been 3 by half time.

In the above I am not even talking about taking all our chances just a decent percentage.

What worries me more now though is Ange’s side hardly ever collapsed the way Rodgers team does when teams get in your face. See the way Aberdeen played second half should have suited us to carve them open but we gave up better chances to Aberdeen than we created.

I know it’s been the buzz word of the season but see when we get the chance to break on teams we need to be so much better than we are given the superior quality of player we have. To me most of them nullify that by taking the easy option all the time and taking too long to do so.

If this is going to turn around for us I do think Rodgers needs to change system and freshen things up a bit. Create different problems for teams and most importantly being clinical. We have turned down the opportunity to do it with transfers so will need to sort it through what we have. I wouldn’t mind seeing Kyogo, Idah and Maeda as a front 3. Idah to come short and the other two play like they did away at Livi with 10 men earlier in the season.

 

It's true. This is the same for ANY job. When I joined my company in Scotland last January, I noticed they work in a very different way to the company in London that I'd worked at for 9 years. At first, I was moaning at how crap their way was lol (and it flipping is!) ...but after a point, I had to accept it is the way it is.. and... I had to accept that I had to change otherwise it just wouldn't work and I'd be like BR now 8 months in . Don't get me wrong, I still moan internally to myself sometimes lol but at least we're in harmony now.

Yeah BR needs to change his predictable system and stop pulling Kyogo so far back.

 

That's a great point about Swansea actually. I watched his Swansea tear Millwall apart just before they got promoted to the Premier League. Everyone in the ground was like - 'Oof this is great football' - His Swansea team were great, fast and direct. So he can do it, and he has the players here to do it. I wonder why he's binned that style?

 

How annoying are huns when they think they're gonna win the league btw.

* that have been in exile for 2 years are crawling out the woodwork giving it big licks.

Can't believe we've allowed this to happen. These * idiots killed their own club and now they think they're top * again.

Not putting that vermin away for good is a crime that deserves hanging for imo.

 

Yes, the SMSM are really pulling out all the stops to slag us off while blowing smoke up the huns arses and I've definitely seen more oversized huns in their ill fitting tatty tops out and about. Mind you, this will only get a worse if we don't get our act together and we will never hear the end of it

 

I think you're spot on. One of Ange's strengths was that he knew players from outside the big leagues who could do a job. Rodgers semms to have a hard on for the EPL. We need a manager who will bring in the best talent from the lesser-known leagues, develop them, and move them on two or three seasons later.

 

The thing is they're * * anaw..they just seem to be able to beat spfl teams better than we can.

 

If he does have a hard on for the EPL, is that basically saying that the signings in the summer weren’t his then? Because out of the 11 signings we have made, only one has come from the EPL, and it was a desperate 6 month loan due to injuries.

 

There's a lot at stake, including his reputation so over to you Brendan..

A league title in these circumstances would mend a lot of burnt bridges..

Everything points against it, but may as well try and get behind him and the players.

 

I agree with you about the facts but draw a totally opposite conclusion. Ange is not normal and we shouldn't usually expect our managers to be able to be head coach, head scout and DoF all wrapped up in one. The whole point was that we were supposed to have sorted our recruitment out; but it more and more looks like it was just Ange.

If folk are waiting for a new Ange to come in and do that again, we're going to be waiting a long, long time.

 

Interesting stats comparison last season to this season. Ange Vs Rodgers.

Fair to say the general consensus is Rodgers prefers possession based football, tippy-tappy, side and back, recycling the ball and Ange prefers direct high energy football. With that in mind I pulled last season and this season stats for a side-by-side comparison.

What took me by surprise was the possession averages, almost identical.

Percentage of goals conceded is lower this season, surprising considering our back line at times through injuries.

The shot conversion rate is a couple of percent lower than last year, identical at home but less at away games. Strikers less clinical? Apparently not, looking at the stats, we’re apparently just shooting less.

 

On reflection, I think you're right. Our recruitment team / scouting needs gutted along with the board.

 

I don't think many of them have been Rodgers' spots. I think he may have said yes, but no way has been as hands on as Ange was in terms of identifying players

 

Tbf there have been quite a few games where the game should have been done and dusted by half time, like Aberdeen there. Horrendous misses have really cost us. The game against Killie we got beat 2-1, Oh got his chance to start and missed 3 really-should-be-scoring chances in first half.

 

I know I'm a bit repetitive with this, but I really do believe that with a BSer like Rodgers, you have to ignore what he says and look at what he does. If you do that, it's pretty clear he didn't ask for or want Lagerbielke or Tilio; a good argument can be made that he probably didn't ask for or want Yang, Holm or Kwon; it's unclear whether he wanted Nawrocki or Bernardo; and the only signing who went straight in team and stayed there was Palma. So he probably did want Palma, though I highly doubt he was his first choice.

Overall, I don't think Rodgers has much involvement in transfers.

As luck would have it, I saw this as I was writing this, which kind of confirms what I was thinking in in my last 2 posts IMHO: https://www.67hailhail.com/transfer...celtic-transfers-compared-to-brendan-rodgers/

 

Some good work here. Interesting to see that it's the final third that's making the difference. We're not getting those shots away and that kind of seems anecdotally true. We're not fast on the break, we hold up play, struggle to beat our man and are trying a lot of short passes in the box rather than just putting the lace through it.

I also saw some stats a few weeks ago that suggested Hart's save percentage was something like 10% down on last year, so it really is the final third at either end making the difference.