Lol Mito yes, I like to see crap in front of me. Your standards are a little higher than me or I'm too rose tinted lol..and I missed off Yesil....
I think thats a very fair assessment. I would class Coutinho a massive success though considering what you paid for him (yes he's struggling at the moment but he's been a major reason why last season and 2nd half of year before you guys have been on such a good run). I would also class Allen a flop. Considering you paid 15m and its only cause you guys are in dire straights at the moment people seem to think he's better than he is. Last season he would not have had a look in on your team (although there are a few who love him on here). What Rodgers has been good at is raising the overall level of what he had previously here. Transfer's wise though i'd leave that to the experts.
well yes we got him cheap and young and while he blows hot and old he has the chance to improve more... Allen.... look when he plays he gives his all but he's injured a lot and i call him best of bad lot rather than success... and thats not to disparage henderson but the others as henderson should be no 1 midfielder on list and allen competing with others for slots... e need a player like him to work hard. pity he's out injured a lot. I still say he's average and theres nothing wrong with that par se.
Can't disagree too much. Have been very hit and miss. Problem is that he's doing similar to Rafa in that he's trying to find players in that middle price bracket of £10-£20m and in this day it can easily go one of 2 ways. they can ither be very good, Cout, Sturridge, Moreno or could flop, Borini, Aspas, (on evidence so far can add Lovren, Markovic,Balotell to that list). I know we needed to bulk out the squad a bit to compete in the CL but maybe we shouldn't have risked it and instead taken it for what it is, a nice bonus and if we finished 4th then so be it, but kept a good squad together for the league and add 1 or 2 top quality players like Chelsea have done. I know Chelsea are different a they have better depth already, but what ruined Rafa was his high turnover of players. His net spend was low but it didn't work. Look at Wenger, similar thing. The teams that win things buy 1 or 2 top class players each year and it gradually builds up your squad depth by displacing those who weren't as good in previous years. Take Chelsea, they replaced Lampard and Torres with Fabregas & Costa. No more wa really needed and it's paying dividends. United used to do it a lot too, they'd go out and buy 1 brilliant player for £30m each year and then the squad would eventually build up through time. Maybe we should have done something similar and brought 1 or 2 proven quality players with the Suarez money (at that point we could match £30m for players and had CL to entice them) bu instead we went down the try and get players in the next level and hope they work out, which at the moment they aren't. Rodgers is a brilliant coach, especially at getting the best out of players like Hendo, Sterling, Coutinho, Sturridge who were young players with good repoutations but didn't perform consistently but so far, his transfer dealings have been dodgy. I'd say a 40% hit rate so far. Room to improve for sure.
It's your last paragraph that contains the key to this whole dilemma. Rodgers does appear to have a knack for developing young talent and that is what we've presently got. Our youngsters have talent and they will evolve into very good players. Unfortunately we have to live with the consequences of that approach. Sure Rodgers may have had the opportunity to buy big in the Summer on star names. But they would have been mature players who would probably have expected the youngsters to feed them and in so doing lessen their own learning process.
I don't buy that buying mature players will hinder a youngsters learning process. Buying the wrong mature players will (Balotelli??)....but buying good enough mature professionals will only help the squad as a whole.
True. No one could say Suarez hampered the development of sterling and Sturridge, in fact total opposite. His moaning and pushing of them to do more and be better can only have helped them both.
But you have to remember that Balotelli is still only 24 and he could really benefit from a leader figure, just as Sturridge did with Suarez. The problem at the moment is that our so called senior players are letting us down - Johnson, Skrtel, Enrique, Gerrard, Lucas. Lovren was supposed to come in as some leader figure but he's letting us down. These are the players our youngsters should be turning to in tough times. Adam Lallana is the only senior figure I can think of who is setting the right example (in terms of experience and age). Henderson and Sturridge are other good examples but they're still young themselves. Someone made a great point that I didn't pick up on at the time but Can was on the left hand side and Enrique kept playing him into trouble. As a youngster, Can should be looking for help and guidance from a senior player like Enrique. Rodgers really needs some proper leaders in this team.
It's a fair point on Balotelli but I really can't count him as a young player anymore. He's been around long enough to know what's expected and while he may not be senior and definitely not mature, he can hardly fit into the 'young' category and for me, his attitude stinks. Agree that we need leaders, we need players of Suarez's ilk, or maybe of the nature of Suarez when he first came to us is more realistic. We are missing that experience and quality right now.
Yep, I expect better from Mario also but he's younger than Sturridge and he needs guidance also. Sturridge was a natural fit for our team and he excelled. Like last season, Sterling and Sturridge could play without having the responsibility of being the main man - Suarez would have that all on his shoulders. Mario has had to shoulder that burden which I think is unfair considering a) he's a new signing, b) completely different style of football and c) the manager isn't playing to his strengths.
Rodgers hits in the transfer market are outweighed by his misses IMO, just look at the first player he busted a gut to get in....Borini. He would have him out of the door tomorrow if he could and no club of real stature came in for him....Just sunderland and QPR. Rodgers got lucky with Kenny signing Suarez and coming in to a club with Sterling already signed. Moyes had the same luck with rooney and Martinez with Barkley, however Moyes can take some credit for Rodwell and Barkley
Summer 12.... huge issue with carrol going, rodgers bought allen, many on here think he's important jan 13... huge success coutinho and sturridge vital for 2013/14 season summer 13.... disaterous senior buys, young potential bought too. jan 14... no buys summer 14... young players bought, southampton trio and badontelly. in short rodgers has followed the strategy laid down to buy young. i firmly believe summer 13 and jan 14 is why we are hurting now...... but summer 14 balotelli decision is a disaster. all these young kids could be great for us in 12 months time but its the nuts move for balotelli and failure to strengthen the first 11 since jan 13 thats the issue.
already on it i feel. borini hasn't worked himself off it in training yet and apsas ran away so i think balotelli fits the bill nicely.
Unless something drastically changes, I would imagine so. I still have lingering hopes for Borini. Rodgers doesn't seem to rate him though.
