The man, Brendan Rodgers

Hate that comment. You have said last few months which is a bit better but even so, Suarez missed the first 5 in the league, Sturridge missed 8 over Xmas/New year (probably the busiest time where squad depth is most important) and yet we till got through all of them.

 

Point taken - and like I said not trying to discredit you.

The reason I specified the last few months is because they are the most high pressure games where form starts to go out of the window and lesser teams start nicking points of bigger teams more frequently as they are getting more desperate. I said, and believe, that without your two top players during that time you would have struggled to maintain consistency. It was in direct response to a comment about squad depth and my way of agreeing that squad depth is something Brendan will need to look at over the holidays.

I knew it was a controversial comment and like I said, it takes nothing from the performances the team have been producing.

 

It's not like we've had injuries to Sturridge, Gerrard, Johnson, Lucas, Enrique, Agger, Sakho, Cissokho, Kelly, Allen plus Suarez suspended. Oh wait...

 

Rodgers is class personified. If we win the league this season and he goes elsewhere straight after he'll still be a legend at the club for how much he's done with so little... but you know what they say, less is definitely more. Let's go all the way now, it's right there for the taking.

 

Fair enough, think it's just because had a few people from other clubs on here saying how lucky we've been with injuries despite missing both of them for periods, our first choice LB all season, first choice RB for half the season, Sakho out for half the season and Lucas injured for a 1/4 of it as well.

We know we don't have the depth that City/Chelsea have and have been lucky in the respect that we have about 15 players that are first team quality and we haven't had to go beyond that too often (helped by no CL) but with the extra CL money I hope we buy 3 or 4 1st team players to help that depth. Today showed that when you look at our bench, our attacking players just aren't good enough (Aspas & Moses) which is why BR has been looking after forward players in the winter window.

We'll never know if one of Sturridge/Suarez was out whether we would have done as well, butwhen Suarez was missing we didn't do too bad and Sturridge was scoring and the same when Sturridge was out, Suarez took responsibility and was scoring so it may not have made much difference.

 

Look, here is the point I was making:

When Man Utd were steamrolling the league 5 or 6 years ago, they were reliant of Ronaldo. However, if he had got injured, they had world class back up in Rooney, Tevez and Berbatov.

When City won the league if Aguero got injured they had Dzeko and Tevez.

When Chelsea won the league if Drogba got injured they had the likes of Anelka and to a lesser degree, Torres.

All these teams had back up that, whilst not being as good as the players that were injured, could do a job to a similar standard and pull results out of the back in the tail end of the season.

All i was saying, in reference to a comment by a Liverpool fan about squad depth, was I struggle to see how, in the business end of the season, when everybody is scraping for points, when little teams start causing big teams huge problems, you would have coped without Suarez, or sturridge for an extended period of time.

I have repeatedly said that it takes nothing away from the fact that you have been the best and most entertaining team in the league, and is a result of the fact that you havent, like other clubs, spent zillions on a new first team squad, but that I AGREE that squad depth is something Brendan will probably have bookmarked as a priority for next summer!

jeez,

 

Fair point but we were without Suarez for first 5 games and Sturridge for a fair few mid season. Also have had quite a lot of disruption to CB pairings esp loss of sakho who I think would have been well established by now as first choice. And don't forget Enrique who has been out a long time.
Fortunately players like sterling and Flannagan have really stepped up and made team selection easier .

 

Your right if we had lost both we'd have been screwed but you'd have to be pretty unlucky to lose both at the same time! If we'd have lost 1 for the last 10 games of the season yes it would have significantly weakened us, but we had shown in parts this season that we can cope without one of them. We all agree we need to strengthen and especially with someone that can take the pressure off those guys when they aren't at their best (like they weren't today).

 

Thats why Liverpool winning the league will be the best success story in last 15 years because Liverpool no way have a good enough squad like Chelsea, Arsenal, City, Arsenal and United but were top of the league.

 

Agreed! And yeah who is to say how you would have coped - I think the main reason you will need to strengthen is that this time next year you may well be juggling premier league with champions' league latter stages so another top striker will be a must for you then. Good luck to whoever you bring in trying to take a first team spot off one of those two mind...

 

suarez only missed 5 games.... but sturridge missed 9 weeks and we coped. however it is a key point. you are right. aguero has been missed so if we took a big injury now it'd disrupt us... however... we won't know how we would cope unitl it occurs and i would put it down as a TEST to see what we would do rather than just assume we'd fall apart.

In the end the city game could be a wash but i get the feeling pelligrini is a footballing man with fair play and positivism at his core and so i feel it'll be a tight game (best i can hope fo) decided on a few moments one way or the other. who knows what will happen but my hope is the chance falls to our players at the kop end and not theirs.

 

Rodgers is proving himself to be tacticalyl astute in his in-game management.

But where he has really shone is his coaching. He's making players believe and they're getting better and better. If you look at the squad this season, not many of the new signings have made an impact bar Mignolet, and to a smaller extent, Sakho.

This shows you that he has taken the team from last season (that finished 7th) and simply made them better.

Not only that, he carries himself extremely well with the media - I know some people don't like it and think he's like David Brent but I don't. In a day and age when the media is so powerful and in your face 24/7, he's done bloody well. Now with a bit of success behind him, his words will carry much more weight.

 

yes. tactically very good, his touches are clear to see and impact on game positively 90% of time

yes. coaching is key its his January signings of coutinho and sturridge who are delivering.

no. he's not that great with the media... he like all coaches talks a lot of rubbish. in short when you are top they lap it up. when you are not it looks bad. eg nobody question recently when he said he takes the pressure for his players... utter rot. but cos he's top he can say nothing wrong. he is right now the darling of the press as he is from the league not a foreigner par se.. they forget he's a hurling playing fenian from northern ireland. he is the great british hope with british players and the bnp press love it. he's no worse than anyone else.. but no better. it is a lot of cliches that sound woeful in 7th but in 1st? its lapped up.

 

Rodgers just exudes class and dignity. Like chalk and cheese when you compare his behaviour and manner to the likes of Ferguson, Mourinho, Wenger, Moyes etc.

Really hope you win the title as you play the best football ib the league and what more can you say about Suarez, POTY without a shadow of a doubt.

 

Some quality posts on here

 

Who the **** are you?

 

oh no... don't let this one be seen

 

I was right.. in 7th he sounds woeful. it was indeed lapped up when he was on a good run wasn't it?

fun thread this.

 

Haha oh dear God! I read the first paragraph and daren't go on!

Here's to Luis Suarez - the biggest con man who fooled an entire fan base into thinking Rodgers was quality.