WELL, there can only be one topic this week; what on earth must be going on in Brendan Rodgers’ head right at the moment?
What an opportunity for him! I don’t really know much about Brendan as a man (though I’ve a feeling I’m about to find out) but I reckon one thing’s certain: he hasn’t come to Anfield to become just one more link in the chain of ‘not-quites’ that leads back to the end of the Bootroom years.
His biggest problem is probably the weight of expectations loaded on to him. Sorry, mate, but this article isn’t going to be much help in that regard.
Brendan’s not quite the first Liverpool manager to be younger than me – I’m three weeks older than Rafa – but he’s a young man in a very significant position. I don’t know how ambitious he is, but I expect he’s worked out that this is his chance to be the Alex Ferguson of his generation. It took Fergie seven years to win his first Premiership; we’ll need to give Brendan time, and maybe then we can start chipping away at that appalling 12-0 Premiership record.
But actually I’m not thinking Fergie (no real Liverpool fan likes to do that for very long.) I’m thinking: we’re following a manager with a tremendous career behind him on the pitch, one who made it to the very top, with one who was a promising young player whose career was tragically curtailed at an early age by injury, and who has worked his way up as a driven, driving young manager with everything to prove.
Now, who does that remind you of? No-one my age will hesitate for a second in answering that one. It is just possible that our pals from across the pond have discovered the next Cloughie?
I’ve seen Brendan described as “self-confident, but not arrogant”. Well, fair enough, no-one wants to bad-mouth the man, but I’m rather hoping they’re understating the case here. You be as arrogant as you damn well like, mate; as long as you get those players motivated, we don’t care whether you do it with a hairdryer or a boot up the jacksie. There are occasions (like directing an amateur theatre production, or getting children into bed) where it is necessary to become a total Fascist. Likewise, we don’t like arrogant bastards on the whole, but they have their place, and it’s in the dressing-room and the dug-out. Of course times have changed, and players have massive money-massaged egos these days, as well as agents (Clough once said: “If a player had told Bill Shankly ‘I’ll have to talk to my agent’, Shanks would have thumped him, and I’d gladly have held the **** while he did it.”)
I don’t have strong views on management structures, Directors of Football etc., but I was glad to hear that Brendan more or less told FSG that if he didn’t have full control they could stuff it where the sun don’t shine. That’s the spirit, son. Let’s hope he takes that spirit into the dressing room and the training field, and, given a few decent performances, the players and fans will love him forever.
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And let’s be prepared for the odd initial glitch. I like the style he created at Swansea, but our players will take a bit of time to adjust. And we will concede the occasional goal, and drop the odd point, and (gasp!) maybe even LOSE the odd match; let’s hear no calls for the manager’s head on a platter every time that happens. What we’ll be looking for between now and Christmas is how he develops the players, who are better than last season’s form suggests. I don’t think either Henderson or Downing are lost causes, but they weren’t used well. Carroll is the key; anyone who can get him pointing in the right direction will have deserved well of the club. And I think it’ll happen. And there’s another man with mighty expectations hanging on him – Lucas Leiva. Let’s hope he’ll be managing the engine-room, working the ball forward from an iron-clad defence. Above all it’ll be the spirit that matters: defending 1-0 leads to the death, finding the spark to turn last season’s grinding 1-1’s into 2-1’s, managing the occasional joyous 6-0 when we catch some team with their pants down.
So sorry, Brendan; I haven’t done much to lighten the burden of expectation on your shoulders – but when you took on this job you must have known what you were letting yourself in for. Best of luck for the season, and you have the full YNWA support guarantee.
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