Brendan Rodgers Discussion Thread

If we don't have the player to beat Almaty(without out their top player and #1 goalie) with £25 million on the bench from last years signing then £100 million more isn't going to make us competitive against teams in the Champions League.

 

The worst thing is, Forrest could have actually had an impact playing the final portion of the match. That’s his role now. He’s shown repeatedly he can do that coming off the bench, but very rarely as a starter.

I’d much rather have started Yang and then replaced him with Forrest, which isn’t even a good scenario, but it’s a * sight better than starting both.

 

Let’s be under no illusions.

Rodgers shat away 25 million last year - 3 players worth maybe a max half that currently.

He was in charge of transfer policy in a clear deviation from strategy.

So he could not be trusted again.

That said, the board are equally as culpable. Of course they are. Kyogo jota and Kuhn have, respectively, been known as key absences needing replaced for up to 8 months now.

It’s an absolute farce.

But last summer came at a bigger cost in terms of transfers than I think many of us realise.

 

And it’s a boards job to provide the manager with the tools to carry out a job.

Can just imagine the furore in here if he went with a 3-5-2 and we got beat.

People don’t like Rodgers. That’s fine. Just beyond embarrassing seeing some in here treating it like it’s * Football Manager.

 

The fees we spent are on the men in charge of getting deals over the line. Waiting until the last day will have undoubtedly ramped their price up, as teams knew we were desperate.

 

Yeah definitely some of the blame goes on him.
Poor team selection tonight and left some subs too late

 

Everyone slagging off Rodgers needs to take a step back. 6 months ago we went to Bayern and were close to taking them to extra time in the Ko phase. The team that night was:

Schmeichel

Johnston
CCV
Trusty
Schlupp

McGregor
Engels
Hatate

Kuhn
Maeda
Jota

The team tonight was:

Schmeichel

Ralson
CCV
Scales
KT

McGregor
Hatate
Nygren

Forrest
Maeda
Yang

That is some drop off in quality due to a lack of investment.

 

It's Kariat Almaty we were playing. How would we have coped if we were backed to the same extent?

 

Tonight is completely self-inflicted. I don't blame Rodgers. The options he has at his disposal are unacceptable and have been since the window opened.

1 left back in squad who cant play 90 mins. Let Taylor leave on a free and didn't replace him.

Main right back AJ injured and his replacement is garbage and should have been punted years ago. Unproven B team player as backup.

A left winger in Daizen playing striker as our main striker is terrible and we still haven't replaced Kyogo who we sold in January. Yamada/Kenny/Osmand no experience in playing for us and all 3 unproven at this level. Unacceptable.

Our other main winger Jota injured until at least February, no replacement in the squad.

Sold our best winger from last season Kuhn 2 months ago - not replaced.

A 34 year old winger in Forrest who should be 5th choice AT BEST. Miles past his best and can't play 90 mins either. A 4th choice winger in Yang being your main threat of the left - Unacceptable.

Zero wingers on the bench and no option of changing anything other than rotating different players out of position - Unacceptable.

The squad in terms of attacking players is absolutely threadbare. To suggest Brendan "had enough" to get through this tie is absolutely laughable. The bare minimum requirement is to have the correct number of players in the squad to fulfill the required formation. We don't even meet bare minimum requirement here.

I don’t care what formation or lineup some people think MIGHT have won this tie tonight the simple fact remains we as a club did not adequately prepare for this tie despite knowing about it all summer. We did not even meet the bare minimum requirement of replacing players in the squad that we lost, due to selling or injury. Therefore, we've handcuffed Brendan and our coaching staff before a ball has been kicked. I don't care that we've picked up 3 league wins and a cup win against dross in Scotland we needed to BUILD upon what we did last year, and we failed at the first hurdle because we failed to even meet bare minimum.

To be sitting here on the 26th of August having spend a paltry £3M on the squad is beyond pathetic and the only reason we find ourselves out tonight. If you aren't restless in your pursuit of improvement you'll sit still or move backwards. And tonight, we've moved backwards. Sitting here in a net profit of nearly £20M is the price of failure. And that is 100% on the board.

 

Aye wanting whole systems changed to accommodate the failings of the board. It’s crazy. A system that served us very well in Europe last year I should add. So, Rodgers is then to rip that up all because they people who hired him are incapable of buying wingers.

 

Rodgers is not blameless.

He's rightfully getting criticism, because we should've won against Kairat.

But, as mentioned above, he's proven what he can do and instead of building on that, we've put him in a difficult position in terms of options available.

I think this should be Rodgers' last season - I just think there's a refresh needed and there is a lifecycle to being a manager at a club in the modern era, and I agree that some of his football is boring. But tonight, if I had to point fingers at someone, it's the board.

 

I think the rot began seeping in long before the Alamty fixtures though.

Much is made of Kyogo and Kuhn being sold which is fair enough. But by the time we sold Kyogo he wasnt exactly firing on all cylinders.

And Kuhns form by the end of last season was so poor that many wanted him out of the team and Forrest to start instead.

And now this season its Maeda who looks to be miles off it.

So that front 3 had been declining under Rodgers.

Since around the League Cup final with Rangers where we squeaked through on penos this team has been declining I think. The Bayern away game is the outlier in that. But that was a different type of game where they had more of the ball and we had more space to counter quickly.

The quality of our play in these games where we have the bulk of possession I think has been declining since the start of the year I think.

 

they didn’t ramp the prices up from the pittance they are currently worth now.

The board take blame. Of course they do.

Just take idah though as an example. * *, that was forced through at Rodgers request it’s clear to see - it’s also clear to see it was a MAD amount of money even before he signed. Not a single human here said at the time that’s a good deal.

just awful.

 

The cost of those players signed last summer is more on the guys in charge of getting the deals done. Because they waited until the dying minutes of the window they’re inevitably more expensive. As a result we massively overpaid on both Engels and Idah.

For as good as the board are at getting top dollar for any player leaving the club they are equally as terrible at getting deals over the line which means every single window bar one or two anomaly’s, we’re left desperately trying to get players into the club and having to pay over the odds which then seems to become a stick to beat the manager with.

This was a problem before Rodgers was here and will still be a problem when leaves the club.

 

Should have agreed a fee in the January when we loaned him then. I remember plenty, myself included saying it was very strange for there not to be an agreed fee should we want to take him. When it went above £6m I’d have went elsewhere, I said the same when the charade was taking place last summer.

 

Plenty of good managers have a plan B

 

We went 3 at the back tonight. We did change. We had no options to change up top to add any quality though. So a 0-0 wasn’t a surprise.