Brendan Rodgers Discussion Thread

See if it had been we drew with Leipzig and beat Brugge we would all be buzzing to be on 8 points in fact after Dortmund if we had been sitting here on 6 I would have been happy looking at fixtures then.

I have maintained I felt Brugge was an acid test game for us. A club who have been doing what we have been aspiring to do in Europe in recent times.

In some aspects we failed that test last night in that we were poor in our performance but in others I take confidence that we got something out that game. The BMG home 2-0 defeat from 16/17 came to mind at 1-0 down last night from a stupid mistake. Not playing well, but in a stuffy game with few chances, being passed around us a bit, it all felt very similar.

The one thing that wasn’t the same is we found a way to get an equaliser and by the end of the game looked the more likely to win it. To me that is progress, in our last 3 games we have actually finished looking the team more likely to do something or at least comfortable in the game including Atalanta away.

Yes we need to be better on and off the ball when playing technically superior teams and our decision making needs to improve but we literally kicked the ball in our own net last night, played poorly for an hour and still never lost the game.

Reflecting back on it I am disappointed in the performance as I feel we let them settle and play their game. They were technically good and well drilled but much like the Bodo/Glimt game a couple of years back I feel we made them look better than they really were. But I do see signs of progress that we didn’t get beat and as I say finished looking the more likely to win it.

 

It's been a 9/10 season so far, but if I had any criticisms of him so far, it's having favourites and not making subs earlier.

On the latter point, he does make subs around the 60 minute mark and they do usually make a difference, but if we brought Bernardo and Valle on straight away yesterday, I think we go on and win it, there was no real reason to keep Engels and Taylor on after their performance.

Continually playing Engels and Taylor over better players is really poor. It's not doing Engels any favours at all and is keeping a better player in Bernardo on the bench, there was no reason for Taylor to come straight back into the team after Valle's recent performances.

He's been fantastic this season and I do think he'll change it up going forward, he did after Dortmund.