Brendan Rodgers Discussion Thread

Rodgers has always been naive in Europe, and has always been naive about the defensive side of the game. And as much as I love him, when I seen Kyogo start when the line up was announced I had a feeling that we’d be trying to impose our game on a team we aren’t capable of doing that to.

 

Was Forrest on the bench btw? Because Yang coming on instead when we were crying out for a safe touch and someone showing for the ball higher up the pitch, and more experience on that pitch, that was * idiotic.

 

Aye, he was..

It was a bizarre sub.. Forrest must be sick of travelling to Germany and not getting on..

 

That was mental to me. Forrest even at his most electric back in the day, one of the biggest positives about him is how much he just keeps the * ball. His pass retention and how much he shows for the ball as a winger is insane and always has been.

 

* Yang on to save the day says it all

 

At that point it’s to not make anything worse. And Forrest is by far the best option there. BR has a history of saying * it and making odd ball subs at times like that.

 

Forrest's best attributes since last season has been being able to hold on to the ball and gain the yards up the pitch.

Yet we bring on Yang who can't even control the plooks on his face.

 

His ball retention has always been insane mate, even more than a decade ago when we got to the last 16, Forrest had the best stats for keeping the ball and finding a teammate from a winger in the CL. He got stick for it at times, not being bold enough etc.


The older he’s got the better he has got at it. He shows for the ball, takes the ball, and takes the best option 99% of the time. We were desperate for that higher up the pitch last night. Yang is nearly the opposite, his decision making is mad and erratic.

 

The only possible explanation I can think of is that he thought Yang was pacy enough to go straight onto the pitch and catch up with the speed of play. In hindsight it was wrong, * even in realtime it was madness.

I was happy to see Idah coming on mind you, personally I think Kyogo is like a man short in Europe, regardless of the lack of service. Look at Maeda's goal - Kyogo is our main forward player and when the ball gets crossed in, Kyogo is actually moving back AWAY from the danger area where the ball landed (thank * Maeda appeared from nowhere!).

 

Kyogo in Europe has came alive when our midfield can move the ball up the pitch and keep it, like the 2-2 against Atletico Madrid first half. His goals in Europe come when we have the quality behind him. We don’t have that quality consistently though. Last night was tailor made for Idah starting it with Kuhn and Maeda a bit further back and playing on the counter, and make the midfield packed and difficult. We had our midfield miles away from defence and attack.

 

Kyogo has 8 goals in 23 games in all European competitions since joining us (including qualifiers).

3 in 14 - CL
2 in 5 - EL
3 in 4 - ELQuals


His level, imo, is not CL by any stretch. Just look at the size difference in players competing in Europe that we come up against. It's like watching a teenage Justin Bieber running out against the Miami Dolphins.

 

Think his first season in the CL, he was mostly out of form, had chances and * them. Last season, he scored 2 of them. That’s not the worst return for a striker we have in the CL. He has 3 in the CL, even Henrik only got to 4 mate.

The link he had to City this season, put him in that team I don’t think he doesn’t get more goals or is unable to perform at that level. The problem is as you say there, size and physical attributes in a team like us, who will not control the midfield and squeeze it up through possession to be able to use his movement. Especially away from home. We need somebody able to play isolated up there, occupy centre backs, run channels, hold onto the ball and allow our midfield up the pitch through that.

Maeda was doing that job best last night, but it was as a by product, we don’t give the teams like Dortmund the respect that yes they are better than us and they will be able to outplay us and dictate the game. We need to play inbetween the lines and disrupt them dictating, make it uneasy for them, and then play what we can, be brave on the ball and show our quality. Right now if a teams better than us, they’ll beat us, embarrass us because we try to dictate our game onto them. We aren’t capable of doing that. Especially looking at what we came up against last night, their natural game is one of the last styles we want to come up against trying to do that. It’s a team that thrives off exploding into action, a high line, space to find in the midfield and movement between the striker and Brandt, dragging isolated defenders and midfielders everywhere? Aye that’s not just them shaping up against us in a style that’ll be devastating for us, that’s the natural game they play.


We tried to play ours, arrogantly. It was never going to be a match up like that.

 

Just watching the villa v bayern game. Villa, who are better than us, are set up exactly how we should have. No high press, letting bayern have the ball but leaving little space in midfield or in behind. Even then bayern have still created a couple of openings. Emphasises how crazy Rodgers had us set up last night.

 

Mate just said the exact same thing in another thread. This is the style we need to do, there’s no space, they’re shifting defensively as a team but when they get the ball are comfortable in their ability and are dangerous moving the ball quickly and decisively forward.

 

Burnley a couple of years ago destroyed everyone in the Championship. They went upto the premiership, tried to play the same way and got murdered
When Burnley were in the Premier League previously they played a very basic way and it worked for them

if you don’t have the players at the level you can’t match them with that style of football

 

Once we scud a couple of SPL teams again, we'll think we can take on the world. Rinse and repeat. This is Rodgers we are talking about. He's no difft to Ange, he'll keep playing his way until the bitter end.

 

Dare I say, we don't have players that can play pragmatic as Rodgers and Ange have both tried to play rock and roll football. none of these players don't know any difft and just play on the front foot. Can't see any of them slowing the game down and playing dirty. Strachan knew how to bore teams senseless and occasionally get results with the old up and under. It's ugly to watch but when it's pulled off against a big team (man utd, barca etc.) its amazing.

 

I'd take Davie Dodds levels of ugliness if it stopped us being the laughing stock of Europe.