All managers do it, to an extent, I think. I've seen Wenger do it a lot and Fergie, too. Newcastle had chances. Not as many as we did, but chances were there. Maybe he means that as Newcastle have been more clinical in front of goal this season than us (who hasn't, TBF!), they perhaps were more likely to score and should have done so. Perhaps that's what he meant? I agree with you, however. We did dominate and if our finishing was better we'd have won. Ah, well, C'est le vie!
I make you right on all counts there. Great managers get the best out of the players at their disposal imo & will adapt their preferred method of playing to best suit what they have. For me Rodgers has decided to ignore the reality of what he has & plough on with 'his system' at all costs. For me that's a tad self indulgent, as he's employed to win football matches, style is secondary & is always a 'nice to have', whatever anyone says to the contrary, they'd take winning over playing pretty football & not. So, with that in mind he should have looked to introduce his 'style' at a slower pace & when it's appropriate. To play tippy tappy football requires confidence, you gain confidence from winning games, there's a time to play & there's a time to grind out a result. Interestingly, your last 3 goals have all come off long balls..............
this is fine... but. 1. football is all about results and i honestly think unitl jnauray rodgers needs to be getting those results by changing it up. i mean in every game he picks suso then hauls him off. doing any good? not sure it is. the kid knows what he's about but its not the role we need. we need another option and we sent ot to west ham then messed up the transfers and are seemingly too proud to fix it. Once borini failed to find the net and then got injured we needed to do something and we have only one or two options... one is another cople of kids and one is carroll. 2. the thing is the teams for 4th are muck. the top 3 are not even playing well and are so far and above the rest its unreal. thats why lads are going mad. 3. we are not on 6th place form or anywhere near it honestly we're on villa form. bottom half. 4. i'm not going from one extreme to another, i've call it like i've seen it since august as per usual and get slated for it... commenting after a game is pointless as guys are drunk, asholes or going mad. some can't see how far away from a top side we are and some can't see how with some basic tactical fixes we'd be closer to 6th. I myself cannot see how anyone thinks rodgers will do better than say rafa in turning things round cos let be frank while rafa had lots of things going from him day one and got a good slice of luck and also signed some well he made an awful ot of errors learning the english game! pennent, bellamy to name but two... morientes.... rodgers is going to phook up an awful lot so fsg need to now back their man... but he'd better get his head round getting results pretty quick cos right now we're tracking for 40-45 points not 60-65 points
Got to say I agree with most of that. What I will say in BRs defence is that all a manager can do is prepare his team as best he can to go out and perform. Winning games can often hinge on a bad decision (players being flagged offside when blatantly on), an individual mistake (Skrtel vs City) are a couple of examples. I'm not suggesting we have played brilliantly this year but with a bit more luck we could have had a few more points and things would look a little rosier. Let's not forget how Everton played for the first four or five seasons under Gollum
I don't know why Brendan is getting slaughtered over this. Every manager hypes up their players. Baconface on countless occasions has said Wayne Rooney is one of the best players in the world, when in reality, he's not one of the top four players in Manchester. Pardew compared Coloccini to Bobby Moore, now that is as stupid as someone paying £20+ million for Phil Jones.
On point 1: personally agree and I think he should try in the league what he has tried elsewhere, mixing balls over the top with Sterling more central & Suarez switching wide: doesn't have to be for an entire game but a little more variety. Not all the kids are Sterling. He has the spark, skill& arrogance to cope, others do not. Suso fades in & out. He did the same in the junior teams. I think he will eventually be great but, no point in ruining the lad & still make little difference. By taking him off he's taking away the responsibility for the f*ck up with strikers not heaping it on Suso like he has with Suarez. Suarez can cope with it Suso can't. Again he know the players better than I do, so I can only assume the likes of assaidi/Pacheco/Morgan are lacking in some way at this moment in time. As for the transfers problems/Carroll, old news & false hope. He's not scoring for a team built for his type (injury aside) he didn't set the world alight when he was here. And as pointed out, he wouldn't have been in position to score the type of long ball we have played. He may have got onto some of the crosses but going on last year? I think not. Not enough anyway. So if its a choice of bringing Carroll back and seeing more of last years not scoring goals from hoofing or this years passing & not scoring goals with the hope of additions in January or even the summer? I'll take the latter any day. I'll be damned if we got rid of Kenny in such a disgraceful way only to end up playing the same way with the same lack of end product. It would be personally too much to stomach. 2. I agree; the teams that were suppose to be leaps ahead of us, aren't after all. Still doesn't matter, they're still ahead of us. That hasn't changed from start of the season, neither magically has our squad just because we now in hindsight would have had a chance. Squad wise: what's done is done until January. We can put the players like Shelvet, Sterling, Suso etc left, right or upside down, they'll still fluff their lines as often as they do now. Allen can't become the better DM that we need in Lucas absence just because we wish it. You can say we should have 4-6 points more than we do due to decisions and if we did then we may not be grumbling now. My biggest disappointment I have is the deterioration of our defence, I'll put some of it down to new faces, new system but it doesn't explain it all. If BR can't fix it he needs to bring in a defensive coach that can alongside the overall philosophy. 3. If you mean results wise. We are exactly where we are which is (ignoring said robbed points) in a group between 11 and 17 (villa) so I suppose you are right (I'd also point to two teams in that top 9 that are not going to be there by end of season & should be included in our group). If you mean performance wise overall? I think I've seen what I expected to see, a squad with no depth of talent or experience only starting to play together. We can bitch about all the "experience" that went out the door(they all scored a hatful last year didn't they?) or FSG refused to let in during the summer but again what's the point? They went & weren't replaced. 4. I do believe I said I wasn't referencing you (because you haven't changed your position) but take offence if you must. I believe I said us meaning I veer between my realistic base and hope. As do others. I've not slated you once. Maybe took the piss in genuine good spirit on occasion? Liverpool that Rafa had and Liverpool now is apples & oranges.we came oh so close & H&G ruined it. Past gone history. As you say Rafa in now with this squad would do little more. Maybe a tighter defence, slightly more negative and possibly some more 1-0 that you and I would like to see(result wise) but I think not. He was already for various reasons a busted flush & again is gone. no matter the manager with this squad, for this half of the season? 4-5 more points than we have maybe but then we could argue we were close to having those anyway (which WOULD have put us in the 5-8th group) and again if we did, your arguments would be less convincing. But we didn't and we aren't: lots of season to go & I think I see the starts of a team forming. The January transfer window is the first real test for both BR & this new back room team. Have they recognised the weaknesses of the squad & their own systems? Have they scouted out realistic solutions? Will FSG be prepared to pay for those solutions? But like in the summer I don't want a buy for the sake of being seen to buy. It's pointless. If the 2-3 players we actually need are not available don't buy a dead body to dress in the strip. If they get a couple of players that allows BR to be more confident in changing it up or even more luckily produce results with his set up then by the end of the season this will all be mute. Personally I think we'll be halfway between. So 6th at best. I've been consistent on one point too MITO, I said its a 3 year test for BR not a 9 month one.
