Brendan Rodgers Discussion Thread

Tbh I don't think we've been playing good football since Aberdeen at Hampden and then Leipzig, since then, majority of performances haven't been anywhere close to the same levels whilst granted we have still been picking up results in most

He'll need to get a handle on why that is and sort it, January window has now arrived, money is there, time to bring in reinforcements to raise the overall standards once again

LB, CDM, CAM, LW, ST all needing looked at, maybe another CB too, of course we're not going to sign 6 new players to go into the starting 11 but those are all positions we should be looking to strengthen in my opinion

 

Over the last 6 weeks or so, I've let performances slide because of how many games we play in this period

Results kept coming. A lot of squad rotation.
All good.

Today, seems to be a bit of complacently and continued chopping and changing happening.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but that midfield probably should have stayed the same as it was the last game. Certainly should have kept Engels in, for his form.

That left side of defence continues to be an issue. Both scales and Taylor are, realistically, backup level for us. Maybe a half step better than backup. But they aren't the required quality of a first team starter, yet we keep chopping that side around trying to please everyone.

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People dont want to hear this but tactically clement has got the better of him in 3 of the last 4 derbies, and if it wasn't for kasper in the cup final saving the penalty we could easily have lost 2 in a row against them *.

 

Tactically outclassed by opposition coach, you could see the idea to press high & prevent much link up between defense and attack. I started only watching at the half but immediately became clear CCV was planned for by Rangers, they gave him space and invited him to get into a difficult position to turn the ball over. Similar with Johnston. If you cannot play out of the back, you allow the defense to organize & park it - nevermind become vulnerable to a counter or deep turnover when pressured, which happened several times

I’m just surprised Brendan did nothing to adjust until last 30 min when momentum was entirely the other way - no rhythm could be developed

Tough one lads, chin up - season is long

 

I don't think he outclassed us at all in the previous two cup finals, the last one you could argue they were slightly better but I thought it was 50/50, they certainly weren't better in the 1-0 game.

 

Sickened with some of the players today, one of the most embarrassing performances I've ever seen from us, no exaggeration.

But Rosgers for me takes equal share of the blame. I've always seen him as very intelligent tactically but the amount of times our midfield are * nowhere to be seen is just unbelievable. That is 100% on him.

We have good players in there...McGregor, Hatate and Bernardo are faaaaaar better than anything they * can put up, yet are getting easily bossed out games against them.

He cannot just keep doing this, if we're struggling in midfield with a press, * drop the other two back and tighten the game up till we ride it out. His failure with this again and again is starting to * me right off.

 

Not a case of expecting us to be excellent every game. It’s just blatantly staring everyone in the face that we’ve dipped in performances over a reasonable length of time now.

Leipzig and the 6-0 against Aberdeen. Incredible performances. We’ve not got even remotely close to those heights since.

And I don’t think it’s harsh to critique performances just because we win. We should all have very high standards.

Of course some poor performances are to be expected. But there’s been too many since November - and too many in these big matches (huns twice, Zagreb, Brugge).

 

For me I feel like we should be looking to bring in another centre midfielder who could play as a double pivot with McGregor, add that to a more traditional left full back who can hold width and a left winger that can actually receive the ball and not just give it back to where it came from or lose it then you easily out do those tactics.

I have mentioned Adem Zorgane before in player suggestions and he is someone I think that would be a very good fit for that role. He isn’t a destroyer type number 6 more of a playmaker but he has good physicality at around 6 foot and is press resistant, with an exceptional range of passing. he is a player very much who has the vision of a Mooy type player. For me we should look to play more a 4-2-3-1 and do that than what we are at the moment. The boy Brownhill at Burnley sounds a bit like that too maybe not as physical but has good vision.

Don’t get me wrong Johnston was awful today at right back but if you had that sort of shape with a proper up and down left fullback and another midfield pivot alongside McGregor, you can easily replace Scales with Trusty as a pacy last line defender who is strong in the air and not worry about him having to do much more than complete simple passes.

 

Brendan needs to work with the squad on how to play through the huns aggressive press that they have been doing on us lately.
It seems that they have been working on this and will try to adopt this approach every time they play us so we had better have a plan to combat this.

If we are being denied space between our defenders and full back, then we need to be brave on the ball to take it out to find the pass to the midfield. Our midfield also need to be moving to make themselves available to take the ball and be prepared for a quick one touch pass forward onto our attacking options.

We need to work on this as sure as eggs are eggs, the huns will keep trying this approach as they do not have the quality in their squad to go toe to toe with us.

I expect us to have a better way to combat their press the next time we meet.

 

Again thigh, dipped from and exceptionally high level. How often do we spank a team 3-1 in the CL and 6-0 in a domestic semi against the second best team in the country? Today in isolation was especially *, like inexcusably gash from everyone, but credit where it's due that we've not dropped the sort of points the Huns have away at tough grounds for our league and put ourselves in a position to qualify from the CL groups.

We need a fresh injection of quality in January as some of these players have ran their race but overall I'm still please with where we're at at this point in the season. One * result against the zombies won't change that for me.

 

All good, insightful stuff here mate, but we have players already who could do well in that system. Engels and Bernardo both are capable of playing in a double pivot alongside Cal.

Point is we should be able to switch to that as and when required, then go back to the two 8's playing higher up when we settle things down.

There's no excuse for us to be that open and overrun in midfield even with the current squad.

 

Sack the c#nt

 

How can he not change our game when it's not working ?

After 10mins it was apparent we couldn't break their press and kept giving ball away in dangerous areas.

If I was watching that game any where else I'd expect the captain to see it and change it or at least a player feigns injury for the captain to get instructions from manager to combat it.

But nothing changed in first half or second we kept doing the same * at times I wonder what's the manager doing ?

 

First time I think he needs to look at tactics, they know Mcgregor is the main pivot to our team and are ready to pounce or react as soon as we initiate any move. I would love to see a tactical change 442 343 anything to give more options and strength in midfield.

 

Was let down massively by every single player today. If players aren’t prepared to move off the ball and choose to hide, then there’s very little he can do. We will have prepared like any other game, but today is on the players 100%. I honestly cannot believe McGregor today. A Celtic captain * hiding behind the mutant *. Scandalous. I remember years ago on the new year game, we started every bit as bad as today and conceded the first goal. Midway through the first half Brown absolutely clattered someone and it set the tone for us. Dembele scored before half then we get the winner with Sinclair. We needed that today, and McGregor was found out. Shat it second half big time. Couldn’t wait to stand beside Bajrami when we had the ball to the away the option.

 

Thing is, he's usually excellent at changing it up, for whatever reason he didn't do that today.

Waiting until they scored again to make subs is beyond in incompetent, the performance in the first half merited a couple of changes at half time.

As I said earlier, with how good this season has been in general, this could just be a blip, it's up to Rodgers to prove that.

 

We made subs before they scored their second

 

I worded it poorly, I meant close to their second, for me the subs had to be made 10/15 minutes earlier, if not at half-time.

It's probably my main issue with Rodgers, there's times where I feel he can leave the subs a bit late, if we bring the likes of McCowan, Valle, Trusty and Idah on at half-time, I don't think that finishes 3-0. Not so sure we get anything from it, but keeping the same team on at half-time was asking for trouble.

A lot of what ifs either way, just need to move on and forget about this, one things for sure, this squad isn't as good as made out, it definitely needs another 2 or 3 players added (with 3 or 4 more moved on)

 

Anyone trying to absolve Rodgers of any blame is just * at it. He's just been schooled by * Phil Mitchell and had no clue how to deal with it. He needs to get his act together as much as any player on the park.

 

We have all seen this coming....Why didn't he?

His subs and starting lineup is abysmal.

Hatate/Scales/Taylor should be nowhere near these games its been proven many times already.

His subs are far too late...Don't understand why managers cant change things earlier in games even in the 1st half.

We knew they were gonna score a 2nd yet he persisted with that * squad....