If you say Rodgers was responsible for getting Henderson and Downing playing then you must credit Hodgson for making Lucas. And clearly if you think that, you're a muppet whose opinion is invalid.
There were good reasons to sign those players and I always expected them to deliver more this season after they'd settled. Some players do that, y'know? Though the old Lucas critics would never know it.
We created a lot of chances last season, more than anybody else, as I understand it. Ditto corners. And a record number of woodwork hits. The law of averages said more of those would go in this season. The players weren't aiming for the woodwork and Brendan hasn't made the goalposts bigger so you can't say that's down to him, either. Indeed, do a very conservative estimate and we could've made 5th easily:
Round over 30 woodwork hits down to 30.
If the average seems to be between 5 and 10 hits per season - and asking around, that was the consensus - then take 10 as a conservative estimate.
30 - 10 = 20 fewer woodwork hits.
Assume only half of those 20 woodwork hits go in, that's 10 more goals. More conservative estimating to err on the side of caution.
Spread 10 goals over the season and we could've had another 15 points, which would've taken us to 5th, a point behind Spurs.
That's all with conservative estimates.
Mathematically speaking, that's not how the law of averages work. The numbers involved are too small to make those assumptions. At top level football, minute differences in training methods can transfer tenfold onto the pitch. It's more down to the coaching staff practicing finishing and shooting this year as opposed to Kenny's pass and move football. For the record, without Kenny we would not have adapted as fast to Rodgers tactics.
We don't know who Kenny would've bought in the summer but we were ready to kick on as winners. FSG set us back. And Rodgers hasn't really taken us forward. We may find we lose more quality in Reina, Suarez and Skrtel than he's able to bring in this summer.
Once again, you don't know that. Kenny bought Downing, Adam, Carroll, Henderson, Bellamy, and Enrique. I don't count Suarez as that deal had been agreed before Kenny came to the club. Of those, only Henderson and Enrique remain in good standing. Henderson was played out of position, but Enrique was good. So 3/6 if you count Henderson as being good last season. Which I don't, reason being him playing out on the right and not being confident enough.
Rodgers either did
something to make Henderson and Enrique play well or he did
nothing and they miraculously got better by themselves. If you're making the assumption that Rodgers did nothing, then you must make that assumption about Kenny as well. Anything else is bias without any sort of evidence.
For a bloke who's all about possession and passing, Brendan really had to rely on Carra more than anybody else this season, which is a bit like Bill Gates relying on steam. But then there were many times when it seemed the players were reverting to pass and move instead of pass and pass and pass and pass and pass and move, with far better effect, which made me think Brendan had lost confidence in his own Big Plan.
Had Kenny changed his tactics, you'd have claimed it was a tactical masterstroke. About halfway through the season we gave up on an offensively fluid 4-3-3 because our front 3 didn't communicate with the midfield. And it worked, as we played much better in the tail end of the season than we did at the beginning. So what if he lost confidence in his plan? He adapted and succeeded.
Rodgers' transfers, as much as you can judge any player in his first season, have so far been no less a mixed bunch than Kenny's seemed. Kenny's players are working out now and I think if we'd held onto Carroll he'd have continued to improve, too. But as ever, the Lucas Protocol will make a fool of judging young players too early. Managers not so much because they play a much bigger part in the jigsaw and when they're delivering exactly what their record showed, you can't be surprised. There were good reasons to sign Jordan Henderson; there were none for Rodgers except keeping a Championship side in the Premier League, which McCarthy, Curbishley, Allardyce, Hodgson and Megson have all done, too. Big woo. You can wait for a 22-yr old player to become a 24-yr old but waiting for a young Rodgers to gain the necessary experience could take ten years.
So basically you are saying both Rodgers and Kenny have the same track record on signings? Fair enough, but Rodgers didn't spend 100+m. I agree that Carroll would have been ever so useful this season but you have to say, why wasn't he improving at all under Dalglish for 3/4ths of a season? Was Kenny trying to get the most out of 0g 0a Downing? Was he trying to play Henderson in the role he was supposed to play? I don't think he was. I think he had been out of management at that level for a while, which showed in his hands-off approach to tactics. We wouldn't switch tactics halfway through a game then, we would now. We wouldn't change formations, or anything. We were so strict in our positioning that it damaged the team. Hodgson played the same way.
Now don't get me wrong, KK is ten times the manager Hodge is, but near the midpoint of the season, the similarities were evident. We chose to ignore them because of the sentimentality involved, and because the results were better. But the results are better this season, and I'll bet they will be next season.
So, in summary: we should've and could've taken a step up on last season but we took two steps back. Kenny had the chops to take the step up but in my never-humble opinion Brendan doesn't. As you knew before you started reading this post.
I bet more of you agree with me now than did last summer.
I don't think so. I think Kenny did well to get us to two finals, but was cack in the league. I think he was too rigid in his formations, and tactically naive at points (IE the FA cup final, only being saved by the rare brilliance of AC). He was, however, better at handling issues, not as slimy, and didn't bootlick at all.
Kenny was a good match for that transitional season, but we would not have progressed. Rodgers, as much as I hate his interviews and methods (and I know you do too, MFG) is taking us forward. Perhaps he is too stubborn at points, but you'd know about that, wouldn't you? You're a huge fan of Rafa.
