Brendan Rodgers Discussion Thread

I’m becoming increasingly concerned overall if I’m honest. I was one of his more vocal backers last season when the team were poor due to personnel and recruitment issues, and the hangover from the previous manager.

However, if he can’t see the problems we have in the build up of play, or is choosing to ignore it, we are in huge * trouble.

We are fine once we get to certain areas of the park, but the pressure we unnecessarily invite upon ourselves against average teams who are reasonably well coached is unfathomable.

I dread to think what Aston Villa will do to us on our own 18 yard box if things don’t change rapidly.

Rodgers has seen this every day in training and in games since the international break in November or whenever it was, and as far as I can see is refusing to, or is incapable of addressing it.

You can tell it’s by design as well. At times today at the end of the first half you could tell players weren’t playing naturally. Almost like they are pigeon holed in to playing in specific patterns, and when it doesn’t work out they all look as confused as me.

The game against Young Boys is arguably the most important in our recent history, in order to break that barrier of European progression. I’m not even half as confident for that game as I was when the draw was made.

You can argue they are a poor team, but so are Rangers, Dundee and Kilmarnock, and we’ve looked clueless against them in several periods of four different games.

 

You thought he was miles off it today?

 

Rodgers and McGregor summed up the game perfectly. It should have been all over by half time.

 

We do need to work on our finishing, if we do the last two games are far more comfortable.

 

Maybe something to do with him being able to find a pass that no * else can

 

Good footballers make the right decision.

Any * can hit random balls in to areas, concede possession 18 times, but get praised as Pirlo by some because 1 out of 19 is a successful through ball.

Guys like Kuhn, Bernardo, McGregor, Engels, Taylor, Forrest, Johnston, are more than capable of making incisive passes.

They just aren’t braindead enough to try it every single * time.

 

I was moaning about a week ago that although we've been winning 3-0 n 4-0 we didn't look like scoring much.

Now the wee * has us looking like scoring for fun the last 2 games and not doing it.

 

You've expressed my concerns almost exactly.

Rodgers has a very specific way of wanting our team to play football, and in my opinion, it has always been out of reach of the squads he's had at his disposal.

You could see last season he'd made compromises, keeping some elements to the attacking style Ange had brought it. Now that's basically all disappeared. We're doing this short-passing, build-up play that the squad literally cannot perform. They don't have the skills required to play that way and their performances are regressing under this philosophy.

This is a team that was assembled for and thrived through exerting pressure using vision and pace. Through-balls and big runs. I feel like we're not only no longer playing to their strengths, we're in fact playing to their weaknesses.

Not only that, there's a malaise that's settled round the team. They're not a team that seem enthused to play football. And I'm looking at it thinking, we've been here before. I remember how this story goes.

 

I don't know how anyone could watch the game last night and think there was a malaise in our play.

The winter run had a lot of games and a dip in form was inevitable.

 

You didn't think there was a malaise around the team in the Hun game or against Zagreb? And in numerous other games we went on to draw or even win?

It's not even just there in how they play, but even how they interact on pitch. They score a goal, maybe a couple guys clap them on the back, if that. Watch old games under Ange, the whole team celebrated goals together, genuine elation among them for a daft wee goal against whoever.

I don't see them as a team who are enthused to play football. They look like they're going through the motions even in important games. It might just be a Winter slump but it's a slump that'll cost us if we can't pull the finger out against YB.

 

I dont think we have played very well over the last month. Theres a consistent pattern of starting brightly enough, squandering a lot of chances and then conceding goals or goal scoring chances against opposition who have very little possession. Struggling to finish to games early and keeping opposition in the game needlessly and inevitably conceding goals.

I dont know of Rodgers can do much about the squandering of chances. But defensively as unit we dont defend well enough and thats something thats more systemic.

Rangers with around 40% possession in both recent games scored 6 and could have scored twice that.

Ross County, Kilmarnock, Dundee - 5 conceded there against teams with 20/25% possession.

We have also either been level or only a goal up against Ross County, Kilmarnock, Dundee, Dundee Utd with about 20m to go. So we arent winning games comfortably.

The Winter fixture congestion may account for some of it, but we have the stongest squad of any in the league so it should actually be to our advantage being able to call on a much deeper squad.

Profligacy up front has contributed to these games being tougher than they needed to be I think there are real concerns on the defensiveness side in terms of both system and individuals.