He does have every right to rip into them, but doing it publicly isn't generally the way to motivate or inspire players. It came across as a veiled excuse, "my squad is weak, so it's not my fault", good old fashioned 'arse covering' imo. Having said that, the side he started with yesterday cost circa £100M & should have been more than good enough to see off a poor League 1 side.
Privately, yes of course. Publicly, no, not in the way he did, without shouldering his share of the blame, which he didn't do. Win as a team, lose as a team?
The cost of the overall team yesterday is irrelevant since most of the players are not his buys. Borini, Allen and Sturridge come to a nice £38m which can't be sniffed at but only Allen as had a degree of time to settle. I don't think the attacking players played as badly as people are suggesting. The defence was awful and Jones had a stinker too, that was why we lost!
Agree with this As I said on another thread, Hodgson got crucified for criticising the team after losing to Northampton, both played reserve teams rather than youth players (although some would come into both categories)
Can't argue with most of that Dave; the one thing that stands out for me though is that the selection he chose lacked leadership all across the pitch bar Suarez. At the back all 5 of those players need a leader alongside them so to play all 5 together was suicide! Just by putting Carra in there would have made a hell of a difference. It was never going to be an easy tie, I speak from experience that Oldham's ground is the coldest place in England (bar a pensioners living room), in Rodgers own words the weekends results should have given the team and HIM a wake up call.
If Rodgers hadn't have publicly criticized the players then I'd be wondering if he was actually watching the game. It placates the fans if he publicly berates them.
My thoughts on the match after a few hours to reflect.. Was I upset with the performance, Yes, was I upset by the result, No, we didnât compete or fight for the right to express ourselves. In a funny (well it is now, wasnât at the time), this defeat, if used correctly by Brendan should work wonders in acting as a kick up the back side of our younger players. I got the impressions that some of them thought they all they had to do was turn up and win, how wrong they were, they maybe starting to believe their own hype, they are a good bunch of young players with bags of potential (well, apart from Robinson, I donât think heâll cut it at Liverpool, nothing Iâve seen from him, since that cameo against Arsenal a couple of years ago indicates heâs got what it takes..) Coates wasnât great, but heâs not played that often, so some of his performance could be put down to rustâ¦. But⦠in passages of the game, I could see where he may not fit into Brendanâs plans, heâs decent in the air (well, that wasnât too evident yesterday) but heâs slower than Carra (didnât think that was humanly possible), his passing isnât up to scratch either, if we get a decent bid for him and can replace him with a Agger/Skrtel type player, then all well and good. The likes of Wisdom, Sterling and Allen were poor but theyâre all young and were due a bad game, weâve had to play the likes of Wisdom and Allen far too often this year, so the 2nd half of the season they need to be used sparingly. Borini didnât light it up yesterday, but heâs still coming back from long term foot injury, his end product may not have been great but I did like his energy and movement, I feel heâll come good. Not having a go at the front two, they didnât really have much service, I still like the potential of the Suarez/Sturridge partnership.. Hope Pepe for Jones, Johnson back in the line up and Skrtel in for Carra, other than that, play the same team that played against Norwich. To end, Brendan, having found a formation that appears to be working for us, 4,2,3,1 please stick to it FFS!
I don't mind him criticizing the whole team, thats sometimes neccessary but to single out some elements when we were poor all over the field and to conveniently leave himself out of any criticism is not on. Fair enough if you stick to pretty much a settled team, he was complacent in his selection, understandable or not, if it goes tits up then you have to also take the flak. Part of his job is to assess the risks of many changes and getting the correct blend, that back 5 was always going to put us under pressure. We conceded 3 goals against a side 19th in the 3rd tier, with 1 win in 10 and confidence shot!!!!
he could have taken some of the blame himself. if he had turned round and said it was my fault for thinking some of the youngsters could cope when some of them need some more work done, fair enough, but he blamed the players but not his own stupidity, ie either of Cara or Gerrard should have been on the pitch from the start. love Suarez, but Captain?
Fair point I know I mentioned RH's name again but just think it is a little hypocritical to moan about one but not the other. Of course, there are many different posters on these boards, each with differing views so it may not be hypocritical at all I don't mind someone criticising the team but it shouldn't be done in public to a group of players that have been thrown together to supposedly make a team. If BR had accepted the mistakes he made too then it would be different
It's a love in! I agree with you about the leadership. Just before the match I was musing on the possibil;ity of putting Carra alongside Hendo and Allen just for that very reason. Now, should the kick up the arse be public or not? Yes it should be public as far as it went. The individual and collect tounge lashing will have been done behind closed doors.
I've said it once and i'll say it again, Rodgers is not the man to take LFC forward, yes you can blame the players, when i saw the line up with Borini, Suarez and Sturridge i though at least 4/5 goals for us, leaving Allen on for 90 mins sums him up, this game was crying for a Shelvey type player, they lacked strength in the middle and Allen had another bad game and as for Sturridge and Sterling oh dear, Defence, what defence awful, subs all too little too late, so as soon BR flies the nest i'll feel better.
bit early on the judgement of Rodgers. think the first team is more than good enough to play the way he wants us playing, but squad options are not as good as we think, he needs time to address that.
To be fair I think Gerrez Is right the front line did ok yesterday...you scored 2 goals but let In 3 as the defence and keeper were rubbish If you'd played the usual defence there'd be an extra derby now as they just didn't turn up...Brad Jones Is poor that 2nd goal of theirs I last saw a fluff like that In school...well untill their keeper carbon copied It 2nd half
Leaving aside the issue of our generally lacklustre performance and the players collectively not having enough/any drive, desire or being 'up for it', here are a few points that I think came into play yesterday (and will for the rest of this season): 1. Players who lack experience because of too little game time (injury time-outs/not being selected for PL games) and their youth (Borini, Robinson, Wisdom, Coates) 2. Players who have had lots of game time (and so arguably should have done a lot better) but are still too young and inexperienced to fulfill our high expectations, also at risk of burn out due to our over-reliance and pressure on them (Sterling, Allen, Henderson) 3. Slightly older, better experienced players (Suarez, Skrtel, Gerrard) who had average games, but didn't get any/enough support and service from the younger players and therefore couldn't do anything to rectify the situation singularly. 4. Quick note about Sturridge - don't forget it was only his fourth appearance for us, he's still aclimatising and getting game time (wasn't a regular in Chelski first team). 5. Shelvey did what he could in the 18 mins he got, looked purposeful but also still looks very unpredictable and random with the ball which makes me wonder if he can play within the confined of BR's system. 6. Downing - I'm not trying to bash him for the sake of it but genuinely couldn't tell he was on the pitch. In the last stages of the game Henderson and Allen were our mid basically, Jones plays the ball out to the right, one-twos between them only they weren't incisive enough, then try get it in to Stevie G or the box.
II'm right here. It's funny how Brendan get praised for the youngsters when we win but they're just not good enough when we lose.
While I agree to a point that he should have shouldered some of the blame (although not many top managers do after a poor performance) There's also part of me that says well, ultimately he does shoulder the blame: when he gets sacked. The players keep picking up their wages before and after that paticular event. As for the detail. It should have been levelled at the entire team with the possibility of singling out exceptions that gave their all (if any in fact did). But at the end of the day, the players chose to put on a lilly livered, couldn't be arsed performance in public. The embarrassment to club and away fans who paid good money to travel and see and support them was public; so why shouldnt the rollicking be public too? Why should the wee sensitive souls be spared that? We keep talking about these guys like they're poor wee girls in delicate dresses. Theyre professional athletes paid to give professional performances. If they don't often enough, that manager gets the sack so it's up to him what he risks being said in public. Take the likes of Coates (just an obvious example, swap in any name you fancy): yes you can blame the decision to put in a player that has played once in months into a game. That will explain away his tactical slowness/awareness, positioning. It doesnt explain his "I can't be arsed demeanour". And remember, with no disrespect to Oldham, they are 2 divisions below us. If this guy thinks he's LFC material or even looking to get regular games at a team of the same level elsewhere he's got to show he wants to try. Thats under his control. If his salary and the pampering he gets every day can't make him try, what will the manager do?
TBF on Rodgers, he could have been giving the players a grilling in private for a few weeks, we wouldn't know. This performance might have been the one to break the camel's back! #poorcamel
