A young Brendan Rodgers showing that he was always destined to be a Scouser: please log in to view this image
Second applies to Liverpool fans, pundits and journos too. He's just fitting in with the culture of noisy complacency and mawkish sentimentality
Rodgers bemoaned his luck today and observed how his players were doing the "right things". If your defence lets in three goals and you miss a load of gilt-edged chances, it's nothing to do with luck and you're not doing the right things. They've been poor in front of goal all season without Suarez (and to a lesser extent, Sturridge) and the defence has been leaking too many goals for years. Utd may not be brilliant, but the class players were in red shirts today and apart from an ageing Gerrard, Liverpool have no such experience or quality. Suarez had Brendan's team punching a few divisions above their weight last season. Without him, they're being shown up as a mid table team - just like they were when he took over, before Suarez hit top form.
Rodgers saying Mignonlet has been dropped indefinitely is good news...for every striker who knows Brad Jones is in goal. He was shambolic when Middlesbrough made him their first choice keeper, and he was a shambles whenever Liverpool gave him a few games.
Rodgers isn't getting a lot of love, for some reason. I will say I thought Man U. looked good. Anyone who gets the ball wide looks fantastic to me at this point, as a Spurs fan, and I give credit to van Gaal for realizing who his real wingers are and making the 3-5-2 work. I would like to see what Liverpool are like with Sturridge back before I take too many shots at Rodgers. Their four key players last year, who made up for all their continuing deficiencies, were Suarez, Sturridge, Stirling and Gerrard. One's sold, one seems to have reached his sell by date, one is injured and the fourth has never been a big scorer.
I don't see Sturridge as a form changer rwaeb so I think their problems will continue MUCH to my surprise.
Sturidge returning will undoubtedly give the side a boost, but whilst they continue to have problems at the back, they will struggle to get consistency. Lovren is in dogshit form, Mignolet's confidence is shot to pieces and his replacement Jones, is championship level at best. If Bournemouth field a full strength team tomorrow, I can see Pool getting turned over. Realistically I feel Boirnemouth will rest a few meaning Brendan might get a lucky break.
Liverpool last season were a confident side. With Suarez in their team they always thought they could win-and often did. For the first few games this season that confidence continued (unfortunately that included against us). Their players played with an extra boost and played to their full ability. Now their confidence is shot-they believe what Rodgers and the press are saying in that Sturridge will change things. He is no Suarez and he was also a player who took advantage of that confidence and had Suarez feed him assists. Liverpool are back to where they were two seasons ago.
I quite like Rodgers, but I don't rate him as a manager on what I've seen. How can he ignore the problems that are plain to all us amateur analysts? The defence has been poor for a number of seasons. He let Agger go on a free and spent £20M on Lovren, who doesn't look worth a tenth of that. His performance at Old Trafford was shocking, yet it was typical of how he'd been performing. The great strength his team had last season was the frightening pace and movement up front. Liverpool attacked very quickly, running in behind teams. If teams sat deep, they conceded possession and space, so Coutinho and Gerrard could exploit that. I appreciate that he was never going to find a replacement for Suarez who was even half as good, but why didn't he look for a player in the same style so that they could attempt to play in the same way as it was so effective? Instead he bought Lambert, who lacks pace and Balotelli whose game is about power rather than finesse. Whichever one plays, there is a lack of pace and movement up front. Neither will play on the shoulder of the last defender and look to run in behind. As a consequence, Liverpool are toothless , yet vulnerable to conceding goals. Teams can play against them without the fear of what they can do on the counterattack. And the other signings he has made have added nothing. He would have been better spending the £117M or whatever on three players - a top class, pacy striker, an experienced top class centre half and a long term replacement for Gerrard. Surely, they could have got three decent players at £40M each?
I don't like Rodgers or rate his eye for a player, but he's a decent coach apart from sorting out the defence. Even at their best in the last campaign they still conceded too many goals and looked fragile at times, using their firepower to put teams away or often put the game past them early. They were very rapid out of the blocks and put teams to the sword before they had a chance to settle, but would struggle if games were close late on. A good manager knows his own weaknesses. Ferguson always employed a strong number 2 and was happy to delegate. It's a sign of a confident leader. Rodgers should be looking to bring in someone who's known for their defensive coaching. Bringing back Steve Clarke might be a start, but it looks like he'll be joining Reading.
Poool 2013-14 could be summarised as : Goals for = Citeh, Goals against = Spurs. Now that the goals for has gone (for now) , that leaves them as one thing (despite what Brenton foolishly said) .
I hope everyone's right about Sturridge not helping much. I think I've been more consistently wrong about him than any other player. I will say I don't understand Liverpool's buys at all. Ours have had one or two minor detractors, understandably enough. But Chadli and Eriksen have six goals each in fourteen games, and Chadli didn't play a few of those. That's something, anyway. But from what I've seen, the one good buy for Liverpool was Lallana, and even he is good, not great. I guess picking up Lambert wasn't going to hurt much, but gambling on Balotelli does not look very wise at all at this point. The fact that "locker room poison" is a phrase (in the US) says something. Everything went south for Liverpool one game after Balotelli arrived.
Charlie Austin has currently scored more home league for QPR than Liverpool have managed at Anfield this season.
No, he's sulking on the Premier League board. I PM'd him to tell him about the board and ever since he is like a pig in muck now he can restart his bromance with Piskie.
Two of the most ridiculous penalties ever were awarded to the Dippers at Klanfield yesterday and they were still outplayed by one of the leagues worst teams. Year on year, favour from referees makes the Mousers look better than they actually are, they have been lucky in a number of games this season and could easily be in a lot worse position in the league. Still, at least we will not have to witness Slipper G getting away with murder on a PL football pitch for much longer. Though no doubt referees will heap their favour onto other Pool favourites such as Sterling, as we have seen recently with no action taken against his hand into the Swansea players face, an offence which we seen other players red carded for.
So it turns out that the nation won't fall if Steven Gerrard leaves Liverpool. Instead the people mostly shrug.
