Brendan Rodgers Discussion Thread

There's been a clear improvement in Europe, trying to downplay it by saying we didn't get to the last 16 is the usual pish the huns spout. We faced Bayern Munich in the last 32 and gave them a real run for their money.

Did the format help? Aye it did, but trying to equate that to us finishing third in the old format and not reaching the last 16 as a "minor improvement" is a lot of pish, and again, is what the huns continually spew on about on Twitter.

We also won the league by 17 points, no matter the situation, winning the league by that much is always impressive, another thing you're, weirdly, trying to downplay.

 

I don't get it..

No European improvement. Yet people praised the way we got batterd by Madrid in the end or couldn't put away a garbage Shaktar Donetsk..

The league was gone ages ago. We dropped 4 points after, 2 on flag day and away at the huns..

We had some freak loss in Perth where we could've scorec 8 in the last half hour alone. We lost a dodgy game away at Hibs where we were robbed of at least a draw and probable win if the equaliser wasn't chalked off. Just after Bayern away..

I keep saying it but there is some things to improve on but some of this is way over the top..

 

Im not concerned what the huns say about us mate. Thats never been a metric Ive bothered with judging the team.

 

Then why are you spouting the exact same pish they do when discussing our form in Europe this season?

 

Ange got away with absolute murder when it came to Europe.

His most impressive result was Alkmaar at home, the rest were utter garbage.

Couldn't beat a one man Shaktar Doneskt over two games, had a 30 minute spell against Madrid that people still talk about, yet this season we've beat Leipzig, drew away to Bayern and Atalanta yet some view it as a marginal improvement.

Just don't get what people were expecting, my only criticisms in Europe this year was Dortmund and Zagreb away, and we clearly learnt from the Dortmund game.

 

What pish am I spouting?

The question I was answering was whether the team had improved under Rodgers overall. Weighing that up I said domestically probably not.

Europe I said we had made progress, but hard to compare with Anges team as he never had the format that came in this year. Jury still out for me as to whether thats a siesmic leap forward under Rodgers or more modest improvement as you cant compare it like for like with any previous season.

 

Needs a plan B
Which could be something as simple as utilising set pieces better.

Maybe we were spoiled but my teenage years was spent watching martin and Strachan teams and we were deadly at set pieces.

From corners or free kicks you had larsson, Sutton, hartson, valgaeren, balde, varga, mcmanus, venegoor, Mcdonald, Caldwell and samaras all capable of regularly scoring a headed goal, that almost never happens.

From direct free kicks we had larsson, maloney, petrov, thommo, nakamura all capable of putting the ball straight into the net.

When was the last time we scored a free kick, I'll tell you, it was jota in the bernabau during our 5-1 defeat and that was 3 1/2 seasons ago, * knows when we scored one before that, might have been Christie during a draw with kilmarnock during covid.

I'm sick of seeing 10-15 corners from every game and never scoring from them.

Get them worked on

 

i would love to know what happened before the brugge game ,we were amazing up to that point then we reverted back to the backwards sideways pish that plagued us the previous year

 

I think teams have had more experience in studying us and playing us. And have started getting better at negating us. Theres a lack of flexibility and variation in how we play. A quite dogmatic persistence with the same patterns of play. Thats not necessarily a demand for drastic changes to formation or tactics - but even things like changing tempo of our play, changing how direct we are, how frequently we put the ball in the box, , the speed we try to move the ball, how often our midfield makes forward passes etc. We dont seem to be adept at mixing this up on the fly when our usual approach is failing to get results. Teams have sussed out what we are trying to do. That doesnt mean they will always be able to stop it because of the superiority we have in quality and resources. But I think we have become quite predictable.

 

I would love to know what happened to Rodgers in the summer of 2018.
We all know the board shafted him with Mcginn and others that summer but tactically he's never been the same.

In his 1st 2 years here there was numerous systems and variations in the play. Off the top of my head we played, 433, 4231, 352, 343, 3 diamond 3, 3421, 541, 532 at various times during that spell. 2nd half of his second season we would play a hybrid 4231/3421 depending on if we were in or out of possession.

Now it's 433 and the horseshoe of death no matter what.

 

the speed we try to move the ball ,how often our midfield make foward passes is exactly the problem i dont think teams sussed us out we stopped doing the things that was blowing teams away .mc gregor is the worst for it the number of times he has a chance to get the ball foward but opts for a safe pass to a defender is infurating.he wasnt doing that up to the brugge game , rodgers came out with ' im not telling them to pass it backwards' the previous season its blatantly obvious he is or putting way too much emphsis on keeping posession rather than creating a goal scoring chance

 

its a mystery ,he didnt even have to tinker with formations though as the early season form was fantastic .other than away days in europe when we needed to sit a bit deeper (even then the ball was moving foward at pace) the was no need to bring back the horseshoe

 

He’s always relied on putting a lot of energy into his work, but what he does is he gets bored or loses interest for a while so the team drops off.

That’s why he can go from an invincible season to an 83-pointer.

In the summer and early part of this season when the champions league games were thick and fast he had us flying. Once the league was won and the European football gone, he takes a break and the energy goes.

People will freak out at that criticism, but I’m not saying he’s a complete unprofessional or he stops turning up to work. I’m just saying his success and style relies on him having his t-shirt on in the training ground with the players around him, with him driving the details into every player.

Some managers don’t need to do that because they’ve got different styles. Rodgers needs to do it and for me he regularly takes a break once things are going smoothly at Celtic and he gets a bit bored.

 

The fact that some fans were raging we only drew away in the CL at Zagreb speaks for itself regarding improvement in Europe. When did we last view a point away in the CL as a bad thing?

 

Be interesting to see what the board give him this summer as heard a few things today that are very likely to come to fruition after next seasons done..

Has a supposed meeting with DD next week..

 

New manager?

 

I'd be very, very surprised if he was our manager beyond his contract. Always thought he'd stay on but no after what's been said..

No saying anything else for now. I'm just a nobody anyway

 

Interesting. Also but worrying if board knows of his intentions as less likely to give him significant backing to bring in the 5 or 6 players we need this summer

 

Cannae say that then nothing, tease..

 

Might be mutually fine both ways, who knows