I hope Liverpool win tonight too. They'll finish second and will come up against a group winner and get royally spanked. Unless they draw Chelsea. In which case I'll hope that they'll win that too.
How was it embarrassing Have we or countless other teams ever qualified let alone win it...A huge amount of jealousy showing through there matt...
The difference is that we don't start the season aiming to be in the Champions League. We start aiming to survive and see how the season progresses. Liverpool started the season saying that they were going to win the league. Yet almost half way through the season, they are mid-table and already out of the Champions League. In comparison to their target at the start of the season, they have been an embarrassing failure.
'Pool have had a season of failure by their standards, which is not the sole fault of Rogers. Rogers is not the only person at 'Pool that contributed to the planning of this season, to the decision to dispose of Suarez, or to the decisions that led to the players they acquired. There are money people involved in these sorts of decisions as well as big picture sports people and small picture sports people. I would class Rogers as being in the small picture sports category (i.e. season to season) unless he also plays a role in longer term planning at the club. No club moves a player like Suarez in or out without a considerable amount of consideration by many people. The season so far is a classic parallel of our season after we lost Scotland / Gomez / Bodde .... 40 goals walk out, you either replace them (extraordinarily tough to do), or you toughen your defense and drastically lower your goals-against to match your goals-for capability. 'Pool have failed to do any of these to date. The fact that they lost Suarez and have "lost" Sturridge for a significant part of the season so far is a huge goals-for loss. It's a simplistic analysis but it really models the situation pretty well. We had Sousa to lower the goals-against - if you want to pin something on Rogers it is that he hasn't been able to meet that objective. Ironically, Sousa has now disposed of Rogers in the Champions League (I am amazed by the externalities of our Club - Martinez, Sousa, Rogers etc). Rogers is responsible for executing on the season's plan with respect to the squad's performance on the field; but not necessarily for the squad he has had to deal with. Now, there may very well be "people", both inside and outside the club, who will look at the season so far and point a finger at Rogers and place the blame on his shoulders. Insiders will do it to cover their own behinds, or there may be some justification if there has been a manifest failure to extract value out of the squad on hand. Outsiders will not understand the inside operations of that club and will therefore cast blame on the manager because he's the only person in the public eye. As I said in the first paragraph, with the absence of Suarez and Sturridge and the goals-for deficit compared to the previous season, if you have to fault Rogers it is that he as not devised and coached a plan to lower goals-against. You can pick nits on a game by game basis, but on the overall season picture 'Pool are conceding more goals than they are scoring and conceding at more or less the same rate they did last season - that's never going to have a good outcome. It's as simple as that. Questions: How does 'Pool management (executives etc) view the execution on this season's plan. How do they view the performance of Rogers given the constraints on the squad. Answers: Will determine whether Rogers stays or goes.
Lawrenson is piling on Rogers today, http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/30434299, claiming that 'Pool are rudderless. Vultures are soaring
Nobody is going to sack Rodgers while there is a window coming up, If he gets the right couple of players then everything will be ok but if he dont then maybe they may sack him at the end of the season. He has done well since he went there and has the backing of the board atm.
It'll be interesting how long they'll give him to turn it around (if any) ,The owners have no affiliation the Club and certainly less with the Manager so he's on borrowed time I would imagine . It's amazing how one player has papered over the cracks of the limitations of another man.Another problem he has is once the media get their teeth into a real or perceived story then they're not happy until it becomes a reality .
I'd be worried giving him much more money, didn't do the best with the 120 million he spent in the summer.
A couple of points from the lasts few posts: 1) Lawrenson is of the opinion that it's not about money, and spending in Jan will not fix the "problems". He seems squarely hitting the Fire Rogers nail on the head without coming out and explicitly saying so. 2) I don't think Rogers gets to say how much is spent on players. He may say this player or that player would meet his needs, or get me a player like this etc, but in terms of the negotiation of the deal and how much money is actually spent that is totally above his pay grade. I would be surprised if he is even privy to some of those numbers before the deal is closed unless he's being given the choice to spend X here and here versus Y there. Since Rogers is never quiet for long on anything, it's going to be entertaining to say the least.
