Brendan Rodgers Discussion Thread

All will have been involved. It's a collective failure. They all should try and learn from it. Not sure they will.

 

Has to take a huge slice of criticism for subs, for 2 good points Idah and Bernardo, he counter balanced it with McGregor and Yang.

We don't see training and fitness, and maybe McGregor is partly to blame too, but he looked so out of sharpness, he wasn't on long and the guy Dowell basically jogged past him and McGregor looked like he could hardly move, surely that would have been evident in training.

Yang is just *, no need for further discussion.

Fitness does look an issue, Hetate has been out for a wild and does do a lot of work, but he was juiced, also Matt also works a lot but he doesn't have the energy, that was well evident with Souttar ghosting by him which was pretty horrible to watch.

 

He has eyeballs, he trained. He was very obviously not.

 

My feeling is that Rodgers is all philosophy and little tactics.

I feel that at 2-0 up, he should have instructed the team not to try and play out from so deep in our own half. It clearly wasnt working and as CCV said at the end of the match, we were defending wave after wave of their attacks. We had pace down the wings, we could have tried to hit long into the channels to relieve the pressure.

He just doesnt seem to know how to change it when things are not working.
I think he could have went 5-4-1 to reinforce us defensively.

For me its still very alarming that we have phases in games where we just crumble and lose a foothold. We cant keep switching off and its a recurring fault of Rodgers teams.

 

Did you see training?

 

He did change it by bringing on Idah. We then did start knocking it long for him into channels. The fact is, the momentum had swung due to the penalty which got they * tails up, and their fans right up for it then as well. Momentum is huge in football, especially when you are at home with not a single away fan in the ground. The game goes another 5-10 minutes at 2-0, which would probably have happened if not for blatant cheating, and it would’ve fizzled out with the hun supporters getting more frustrated and even more on their players backs.

Prior to the penalty, I don’t think they had a shot on target second half. We were robbed.

 

Ahh magically fit training and then back to not for the game then? It was shocking management that.

 

Not just Rodgers though, McGregor and the coaching/medical staff all need to learn a lesson from it.

If there is no other option then maybe it's something that happens but that was far from the case on Sunday.

 

So what you think happened is that McGregor trained * all week, looking miles off the pace, then in the biggest game of the season when we are needing energy to try and get a grip of the game, Rodgers just turned to him and thought, “ah * it, why no”

That how it went you think?

None of us know how he trained. So surely we have to assume he trained well enough to be in the squad and therefore deemed fit enough to take part in some capacity no?

 

Hopefully with another weeks training McGregor is fit enough to start on Saturday and that's the main thing..

Can see why he was brought on.

 

It wasnt a change in the set up or formation and even after scoring, we still kept losing the ball and having to defend with our backs against the wall.

It was a full half we poor for, the penalty only represented one passage of play. The drop off from the first half was remarkable. We were not holding onto the ball and even CCV conceded that. It wasnt good enough in the second half and its not the first time we have seen it from a Brendan Rodgers side. We cant just play well for parts of games. We have to have a better mentality and be more stoic.

 

You just said before that we should have been knocking it long into the channels for our wide men. That wouldn’t have been a change in setup or formation either

Did you seriously think we were going to come out and dominate like we did first half? If anyone genuinely thought that then it was incredibly naive in my opinion.

You just said previously that we should have knocked it into the channels for our wide ken as we had pace. That wouldn’t have been a change if setup or formation either. We tried going long to Idah to relive pressure, and at times it did. It came back more often that not, but in all honesty, I expected a backs to the wall job second half. The huns were always going to have a large spell of dominance at some point. The penalty that they were gifted gave them something to feed off though. It rejuvenated the whole stadium. We cannot do anything about cheating. Because that’s what it was, make no mistake about it.

 

It would as we were trying to play out from the lines and repeatedly losing the ball in our own half. Did you see the amount of times Hart decided to give it CCv or Scales from a goal kick?
Surely I dont have to explain the difference?
And iv clearly said I would have went 5-4-1 as well. You can go long and play it to Idah down the channels. He is big, mobile and powerful and capable of holding up the ball and/or winning free kicks, corners and throw ins. Thats what we needed to relieve the pressure.

I did expect Rangers to come out and have a go, they had to. But Rodgers knew that and made like for like subs and stayed in the same formation. Do you think we were powerless to do anything about the shift in momentum? You dont think we can be more pragmatic?

Rodgers got the second half wrong mate. We let in three goals. He has to react and make changes that affect the game and i dont think he did that. Idahs goal was against the run of play. He just isnt tactically savvy.

 

Aye so when we brought on Idah we then started going long. So are you not counting that as changing but going long to wide men is?

We basically were a 4-5-1 as well. The wide men were nowhere near as high up the park as first half. We clearly set up to try and soak it up and take the sting out the game. Which was working until the penalty. Hart hadn’t made a save second half until that. We were powerless to that. Johnston makes a good tackle, wins the ball, they get a penalty. Scandalous. It’s all well and good folk saying take the ref out the game. That’s impossible when you get decisions like that given against you.

 

He was miles off the pace and clearly not fit, that doesn’t just appear on one day.

and really, if he was fit, we all know he would have started. Reminds me of Neil Lennon with Efe Ambrose vs Juve or Kieran Tierney vs the Huns.

 

So he trained * all week and looked miles off it but Rodgers just threw him in anyway? That what you’re going with?

 

Going with he looked unfit all week and Rodgers went with maybe I can get a half hour out of him and was wrong.

If BR truly thinks he was fit, do you not think he would have started?

 

I think Rodgers has went with the medical team and McGregor himself. Who he will have been in deep discussion all week no doubt. The medical team have deemed him fit enough and McGregor has probably said he is good for half an hour.

Just because he didn’t start the game, it doesn’t mean he wasn’t fit enough to take part. That’s normal for a player coming back from injury to be given game time off the bench. We were already playing Hatate who was never lasting 90 minutes.

 

It's pretty clear that's the likeliest scenario. Possibly not helped by us losing a grip of the game second half. Collective delusional decision making. We've all seen it before. Ange did it with Kyogo at least once, probably more.

Not like Rodgers hasn't played obviously unfit players before.

 

I don’t think he will have looked majorly off the pace all week in training and Rodgers has just chucked him in. In the biggest game of the season when he knows how much is at stake? Nah. No having that to be honest. Folk are carrying on as if Rodgers is a rookie manager and someone who is stupid. He is far from either of these.