Brendan Rodgers Discussion Thread

See in fairness he put Idah on and that’s what we tried. Idah won and held the ball up well but our press had ran out of puff and they could come forward a lot easier.

We lost Hatate, who was done by that point but the state of McGregor meant we lost so much there. In hindsight Bernardo should have come on there.

Essentially, as poor as we were second half how many actual chances did we give up? I think we still see a shocking lack of depth in our options from the bench and that limits what a manager can do.

I think if he had a centre back he trusted on the bench he may have put him on and went more 5-3-2. He used to like doing that during his first stint.

I don’t know why he didn’t bring Idah on when he did bring Yang and McGregor on. That would have saved one substitute event because you are only allowed 3. So when he brought Bernardo on although we only used 4 but couldn’t make a 5th.

At the end of the day he maybe could have done better but I genuinely believe they had run their race before McGregor gives that ball away.

 

That’s exactly what happened. Idah come on when we simply couldn’t get up the park. We then did start going long. He was too isolated at that point though as our wide men were nowhere near as high up the park.

We were never changing the team at half time given how well we had performed, then they get a ridiculous penalty 10mins into the second half when we didn’t really look in any real danger. The penalty gives them a lift, then they started dominating the game massively and Rodgers reacted by making changes.

I’m not sure what people expected us to do before their penalty. Change a team that had completely dominated the first half? Change a team that weren’t looking in any real danger at the start of the second?

Classic case of everything is great in hindsight.

 

He's been overconfident in his assessment and willing to take a risk, as well as (over) trusting McGregor.

He's not unique in making these types of mistakes and he's made similar choices before which (for him) worked out better. He flogged Tierney without shame.

He, along with others, balls'd it. Best thing they can do is learn from it.

Starting to think you are Rodgers burner account on here .

 

Just saying it as I see it mate. I can guarantee you if McGregor had been on the bench and hadn’t been brought on and we go on to draw 3-3, the same ones saying Rodgers made a * of it would be saying he made a * if it for not bringing him on. Damned if does, damned if he doesn’t. I thought it was the right decision to bring him on, so I’m not going to slaughter him for a decision I would’ve made myself. We have to assume he was ready to take part as none of us really know how he trained prior to the game. Folk are making up scenarios to use it as a stick to beat Rodgers with.

 

This is a good point, Rodgers does have previous for playing players through injury when they're not ready. To be fair most managers do, but we can't absolve him of blame for Sunday, he knew the situation and made the decision to bring Callum in, which I imagine most of us would have done. It backfired, it happens. He got some things right on Sunday and some things wrong. First half we were sensational.

 

A couple of minutes away from making it 3 wins out of 3 against them, 2 away from home and folk are questioning his tactics. Hindsight is a great thing but I would have made the exact same substitutions he did. As you say, he couldnae win with some regardless who he brought on.

 

Aye I couldn’t really complain about the subs either. I wasn’t moaning with them during the game, so I’m not going to be a hypocrite and complain about them now.

 

Not disagreeing with most of that just saying it's obvious dice where rolled on McGregor (and by McGregor). They got that wrong.

Not particularly beating Rodgers on this one, as lots of managers do it. Just talking about this particular case.

If we'd won things would be different as the gamble would have paid off, we'd all be saying it was great management, but we didn't and it contributed to us dropping points. I think it's fair criticism and a reasonable take. You've got a different perspective that fine.

 

A win and a draw at Ibrox with no fans, is good.. it could have been better but you'd take that..

Just needs to keep it calm but play with the intensity required and it still could be an excellent season.

 

Will be great to win the title for Joe and Brendan before they both move on

 

I believe the real hurt for me from not winning that game comes from two things:

1. Up to the penalty we were so far ahead that we should have been a minimum 3 goals to the good. We lose the penalty lose our way for around 15 minutes, we never really get in the ascendency again but when Idah has that opportunity to square it for I think it’s O’Riley that should have been 3-1 and game over, frustratingly Idah had a great pick out for Yang not long before that. Said it in another thread when McGregor gives that ball away it’s so needless and Rangers had started to look very leggy too. We had weathered the pressure and looked well placed to see the game out. It’s such a gift. To then get back in the lead and not be able to hold out for 10 minutes was just awful, you do everything you can in that scenario to just kill the game. When you see the start of that attack we are very open in the middle of the park and allow them to run on to us. They make a mess of it and we fail to clear our lines, then fail to defend properly. It’s such a poor way to drop points.
2. For me is the way they played for the majority of that game showed they struggle to handle the pressure and if they had lost, facing all these away games, more dropped points would have followed. However, much like letting them back in at new year to that game it totally changes the mood and attitude.

Lastly is probably a combination of the two points above, I think there is a frailty in our own team that keeps coming up time and time again this season which championship winning teams doesn’t have. I just hope this team has enough about it to handle the pressure of this run in.

It seems likely they will look to load the pressure on us and therefore I could see the post split fixtures being.

Killie (A)
Rangers (H)
Hearts (H)
St Mirren (A)
Motherwell/ Hibs/ Dundee (H)

I also don’t see them dropping any points, especially before playing us, both teams before the split are woeful, Hearts away should be a hard game but they are awful against them, Killie aren’t the same team away from home. Ironically if they sneak in top 6 Motherwell would be the one you would probably fancy the most to upset them.

 

Win 6 games and we are champions. Easy.

 

True, and we all want that to happen.

It's also much, much easier said than done, based on this season.

 

I think they will drop points either tomorrow or at the weekend.

 

It's definitely doable but the fact things are so tight means that the ref/var cheating is having a huge impact. We would be clear at the top right now expect for yet more of it this past weekend. To overcome that we are going to have to do something very special performance wise over these 6 games.

 

I think the fuss of the pitch will put them off and drop points tomorrow

 

O no question about that. It is very rare bad situations are 100% one persons fault but IMHO the vast majority of the reason we are in the position we are now in the league today rests at the project signing policy of the board. They are the ones who largely have allowed this situation where the refs/var can materially effect the title.

 

I think the medical team would decide if he’s back too early to aggravate his injury and been deemed ok, but it’s clearly been too early to get him back on the pitch in terms of fitness and match sharpness. Do you think it looked different than that when he came on? That’s down to Rodgers and McGregor, because he would have been asked. I said before the game though he shouldn’t be, because he’s always going to think he can make a difference and say yes if he can play at all. It was a bad call mate, one I’m largely over now tbh, because we have done this with McGregor in the past and it’s worked out extremely well. It was a gamble and it didn’t pay off.

Can’t pretend I wasn’t screaming for him to come on when he did.