Quantcast
View from the Kop

Has Brendan Got A ‘Big Game’ Complex?

|
Image for Has Brendan Got A ‘Big Game’ Complex?

Liverpool FC manager Brendan RodgersIN the big games Brendan Rodgers has an awful record. At times we have played well and it seems we’ve been beaten by a poor refereeing decisions. But more often it has come from poor team selection or a player mistake that could have been avoided by better preparation.

Rodgers says that his strength is his coaching, improving players, but a big part of winning the big games (not your QPR’s and Norwich’s) is simply getting team selection and tactics right.

Against City we played well and should have won. The key moment was when Skrtel, with us leading 2-1, ran up the left side looking for a pass. Not comfortable playing a left footed pass to the available fullback, and with midfielders not offering an option infield, he turned back and played a ball back blind.

Yes, he should’ve looked and this is an individual mistake. But Allen, who’s main strength is apparently making himself available for a pass, neither was available square nor had dropped deep in the vacant space left by Skrtel to give him the easy option short pass back. This is a straightforward movement of your deepest midfielder when a centre-back advances – to fill in and be available for the pass back. Something that Rodgers should be coaching to any defensive midfielder. Busquets does it naturally, Lucas when he returned always does it, but Allen didn’t and so Skrtel’s mistake cost us 2 points.

Arsenal, a team that plays the best pass and move game in the league, a team who can really stretch the legs of the fittest opposition, is not a team against whom you should make your Premier League debut when you’re not fit. Nuri Sahin, technically very talented, was asked to play a pressing and chasing game against an in-form Gunners team. The result was we were chasing shadows all game and when Rodgers belatedly substituted Sahin, the game was already lost.

Man Utd at home. Yes we were robbed. Of all the big games we’ve played, we played best in this. Jonjo Shelvey’s red card cost us the game. Yes, Evans should’ve been sent off too, but any fan watching Jonjo early this season could see this was coming. Jonjo’s penchant for diving into tackles and getting yellows always put him at risk of a red, and with the higher temperatures in a Man Utd game, surely a more experienced manager would’ve been at Jonjo to calm down and warn him of the dangers of going airborne with his tackles in the present climate.

Perhaps I’m being harsh on Rodgers here, but prior to the United game I can’t have been the only fan wondering whether Shelvey would finish a game he was picked to start for reasons of violent conduct.

Chelsea. Let’s face it, we were very lucky to draw this one. Chelsea should’ve been out of sight in the first half before we literally got a goal out of nowhere. This was a period in which Joe Allen was increasingly lucky to be finding himself in the starting 11 and it was a near miracle that his inability to protect the back four hadn’t led to more Blues goals.

Sahin, now fully fit, was being shoe-horned into a number 10 role he’d never played before to accommodate the Welshman. Kenny won twice at Stamford Bridge in his short second tenure. Rodgers managed to bring in his two top targets (Allen and Borini) to improve the 1st team and we were lucky to escape a hiding.

Off to White Hart Lane. Allen and Henderson were mysteriously preferred to Shelvey and Sahin. Some comical defending against the brilliant Bale and our net was bulging again. The key against Spurs was to set up the team to stop Bale and Lennon providing width, but Rodgers’ insistence on only ever playing 4-3-3 allowed Spurs to attack down the sides at leisure.
[ad_pod id=”liverpool-tees” align=”center”]
Since FSG took ownership our most difficult opposition has been Harry Redknapp’s Tottenham but with AVB taking charge there was an opportunity to set out a marker against one of our main rivals for 4th place. But with such a conservative team selection we were inviting pressure and few could argue Spurs didn’t deserve the victory. In this game we did have our fair share of possession but as Rodgers should realise – it’s goals that win you games not possession statistics.

ManU at Old Trafford. The toughest of tests. The old master tactician Fergie keen to put one over the old rival. A United team without Rooney that still has goals aplenty, but many defensive weaknesses as well. Rio is not the player he used to be. Vidic was brought back not fully fit due to Evans’ unavailability. Neither Carrick nor Cleverley are experts defensively and De Gea is still error prone. What is Brendan Rodgers’ solution to take advantage of Man United weaknesses?

Play Allen as our furthest forward attacking midfielder.

I’m not going to rib into Joe Allen in this article. But he has been struggling for form even in his preferred role so to play him in a role that he is least familiar against the league leaders at Old Trafford is quite simply stupid.

Rodgers no doubt had the idea that Joe would help maintain possession, like he did so in a good performance against United at Anfield. But to do this with Shelvey and Henderson on the bench, both who have much more experience in this role was ludicrous. Personally I was desperate for Sturridge to start alongside Suarez, as Carrick was always likely to struggle against Luis. I was pleased, like most fans, to see Daniel introduced and in addition to scoring he caused lots of problems for the United defence with his movement and interplay with our Uruguayan.

It’s understandable that Rodgers was wary of starting the two together in such a high profile game before they had played together, but it’s unjustifiable to start Allen in the position he was played. Unsurprisingly Allen put in a lipid performance, unable to get on the ball, show any offensive passing and regularly being out muscled.

Rodgers may be a good coach. He’s certainly been a student of the game, going to great lengths to learn different coaching techniques by travelling and observing other coaches and consolidating his own thoughts on how to develop a team into a huge dossier that he impressed FSG with. But this will be of little help to Brendan if he is unable to effectively pick a team to win the tactical battle on the pitch.

Last season Kenny beat Arsenal at the Emirates, Chelsea at Stamford Bridge twice, United in the cup, Man City at the Etihad and Everton, including in a cup semi-final. He did that with a team that is supposedly worse than the one we presently have.

To my mind our poor results against the big teams this season has been primarily because Brendan Rodgers has been outthought by the opposition manager.

Ultimately we can only judge our season properly when it’s over. Our record at Old Trafford is awful anyway and Rodgers is hardly the only manager to be outfoxed by Ferguson. But if we are to improve this season Brendan needs to analyse his own performance at least as much as those of his players. It’s not just the cards you are dealt, but how you play them that wins you the game.

You can catch more from me on my own blog: http://taintlessred.blogspot.co.uk/
[ad_pod id=’DFP-MPU’ align=’right’]
Live4Liverpool is recruiting columnists. For further info contact the site editor at live4liverpool@snack-media.com

Follow us on Twitter here: @live4Liverpool and ‘Like’ us on Facebook

Share this article

Gabriel Darshan (Writer) - aka Sutha Nirmalananthan aka TaintlessRed. I am a lifelong Liverpool fan who has followed the Reds from near (e.g. living in Kirkby) and far (e.g. living in Johannesburg), though am again living back home in the UK. I’ve watched football in stadia all around the world, from the Maracana to the Camp Nou, though Anfield will of course always be the greatest! I enjoy healthy football debate, preferring reasoned analysis based on sound evidence over gossip. I also write a blog at http://taintlessred.blogspot.co.uk/ on all things Liverpool FC and you can follow me on twitter @taintlessred

59 comments

  • Marvel says:

    What complex? Two reasons:
    1) Technically and
    2) Mentally.
    Technically bcos our midfield has bn in shambles all season. There’s never adequate shielding for the CBs n opposition players come in at will. This is MOSTLY as a result of Allen’s poor displays and Gerrard’s positional indiscipline n inconsistency. Lucas has bn rusty but still does his job despite being mostly isolated.
    Now mentally bcos BR has a terrible approach to bad results frim a media perspective. He keeps praising effort n character despite poor performances. I call it the ‘Wenger sickness’.
    It’s BS. Every home loss is unacceptable. You dont come out praising their ‘honesty’ and ‘pressing’ and using words like ‘terrific’, ‘magnificient’. It’s utter cr**

    • Chan says:

      No, BR’s strength is in writing 180 page nice sounding dossiers and be compliant towards the Americans, that was the basic requirement of the job.

      BR has no complex of any sort because he does not posess any know how, simple.

      If we want to pick one for him, it would be INFERIORITY COMPLEX. He knows he has nothing to offer to our club, that is why he always likes to talk, telliong all and sundry about our tactics before a game for example. You do not see guys like Pep, Rafa or Mour doing that on a regular basis.

      That inferiority complex also explains wny he needs to surround himself with expensive but equally incompetent people such as his pet Allen.

  • bob says:

    rodgers IS the worst manager in our history . at least since shankley built the club up into what it is today .
    it has been evident for a long time now that rodgers is not capable of producing the results we need , shown by the astonishing fact that rodgers team has beaten nobody in the top half of the table… staggering with over half the season gone

    his signings are awful , and his persistence in playing the useless allen is gross bad management

    • redrum says:

      Your totally right, why anyone wants him here totally amazes me . Anyone is better than this dope

  • Brad says:

    Such a one-sided analysis. YEs Kenny beat the big sides but he lost to the bad ones. Chelsea were half the team they are now. We actually beat Everton this year but for a shocker offside call. Etc. etc. etc. Balance would be nice.

    • Dale says:

      This site is simply anti-Liverpool rhetoric. Despite Liverpool playing far better football than they have for ages, despite the promising youth players coming through, despite BR ridding the club of deadwood, this site is capable of writing non stop negativity about the club.

      YNWA…

      • bob says:

        the only anti-liverpool people here are rodgers fans like you . who else would want to keep a manager playing boring football , and not getting any results ? mancs perhaps ?

        • bazza says:

          Bob you are a complete moron who does not know anything about LFC. Read what the club have stated about the appointment of BR, then you might learn something. This is a long term project and BR is a young manager who still has a lot to learn. Even the best managers make mistakes.

      • vjm says:

        I would like to tell you that liverpool played far better football when kenny is our manager. Yes we lost to poor team but we were only short of a striker and now look at the shortlist….

        • fotheringham says:

          correct vjm , Kenny had us playing better and had no problem beating the big clubs .

          If Suarez hadnt of got involved with the Evra thing , Kennys team would have done even better

      • Jimmy Areabi (Editor) says:

        Absolute rubbish, take a look around will you before posting comments like that.

        It’s funny how ‘positive’ articles prompt responses from people who claim the site is too pro-fsg/rodgers/the club, and then gets accused of being anti-lfc when somebody questions how things are being done. It’s all about balance, people 🙂 there are fans who have opposing views you know…

      • TaintlessRed says:

        I’m sorry you think I’ve been biased, but I’d counter that what you call bias is a measured opinion. The facts state that Kenny had a much better record against the top teams.
        BR deserves credit for developing youngsters but Kenny gave debuts to Robinson, Flanagan and Sterling. The article however is simply a comparison of how BR has done against bigger teams not his youth strategy, transfer dealings or other aspects – – hence the title.

      • Cold_salmon says:

        so Kenny didn’t have LFC playing good football last season?
        your memory is short.
        there were games LFC was playing some damn good football, we were playing teams off the park, teams couldn’t touch us.
        LFC were in 2 cup finals…but that’s not good eneough is it?
        and now we got BR….
        what a gong show.
        and the BR supporters are saying “well BR is human he makes mistakes, he’s learning, he’s young”,
        well then BR shouldnt be at LFC he should be at Wigan.
        we are LFC and we demand the best managers out there.
        right?

        • The King says:

          100% correct . KD has us playing some good stuff , better than Rodgers boring sideways passing nonsense

  • bob says:

    rodgers fans love statistics , they love them ….
    after every poor result we hear excuses like ” but we deserved to win because we had 58% possesion ” – nonsense , it scoring goals that matters .

    or they cry ” yeah its not fair , we had 24 shots to their 9 ” – nonsense, it scoring goals that matters

    every manager has his excuses – souness can point to a unbelievable injury list for years , evans can say only a lapse in form by his goalkeeper stopped him winning league , hodgson can point to injuries to gerrard and cole , etc etc

    rodgers has had damn all injuries and his star striker in exceptional form , but still people make excuses

    fact is – only one stat is important ……. winning – and rodgers is the worst at it … here is proof

    • bob says:

      win percentage _________ average points per match

      52.11 shankley 1.81
      57.57 paisley 1.97
      54.20 fagan 1.90
      60.91 dalglish 2.08
      42.04 souness 1.55
      51.77 evans 1.80
      52.12 houllier 1.80
      56.28 benitez 1.90
      41.93 hodgson 1.51
      47.30 dalglish 2 1.65
      38.46 rodgers 1.5

      results is all that matters

      • Brophy says:

        Shocking stats . Rodgers is a championship manager not good enough for a club like Liverpool

        Time to go Brendan

      • Woolyback whopper says:

        No injuries?

        It’s all well and good not liking him, but that sh* just makes a * of you

        • fotheringham says:

          Rodgers has been blessed compared to most clubs injury list , have a look at Utds , Chel , and Arse have all had multiple players out at one time

          Rodgers – only realky Lucas for 4 months has had any negative impact
          You still dont know much Ozred

        • TaintlessRed says:

          Kenny didn’t have Gerrard for half the season and the other half he played through his groin problem. He also missed Luis for an extended period and Lucas. These are the injuries that matter. Losing Borini, I Lucas’ delayed return and Kelly isn’t as bad a situation as Kenny had.

      • Greg says:

        I think anything below 50% win is NOT acceptable for LFC
        Rodgers win percentage is simply pathetic .

      • The King says:

        These really show just how poor Rodgers is , any other club would have got rid in November

      • Souey's 'tache says:

        Don’t slate Rodgers for using stats, bob, then use them yourself to make a point!
        Where those win percentages of other managers also taken only halfway through their debut seasons, which you can only judge Rodgers on?

        • Dave Tobin says:

          Even Hodgson had better record half way through debut season

          EVEN HODGSON IS BETTER THAN RODGERS

          get it ?

    • Cold_salmon says:

      i luv your stats Bob.
      it just goes to show that BR is a mid table manager at best.
      If BR was to manage Barcelona , he would make them a mid table team.

  • Jag Kooner says:

    And not to mention the complete change in personnel. We had a lot more experienced players last year, Maxi, Bellamy, Kuyt. Experience is a vital ingredient to success which is what the new regime want to build up to not buy as that would be too expensive!

  • tommy says:

    scoring goals is a massive part of winning , but not letting goals in is just as important , i believe sturridge will bring goals and he’s also added pressure up front , i think we’ll come good too , maybe ive been asking for to much to soon from this team and rodgers , i really thinking this season is about foundation , just want to see more wins from now on in till may

  • dave says:

    Spooky. All of us in the pub watching the Utd game said exactly the same thing. Agree entirely. Beginning to think that BR is too lightweight for this job. His philosophy is deeply flawed, inflexible and limited. His team selection seems a bit toothless and tactics do at times seem naive. Hope things improve soon.

    • TaintlessRed says:

      Thanks, we all hope BR learns sooner rather than later and results against better teams improve. He can’t keep making decisions like playing Allen as a virtual number 10 and expect us to get results against top teams.

      • Cold_salmon says:

        why are the BR supporters keep saying he is learning?
        why make that argument?
        LFC is a big club, and we don’t need mickey mouse managers.
        when Kenny got sacked, LFC should have replaced him with someone who has won things, not a manager who is “learning”.
        BR needs to go.

  • Dave Tobin says:

    Rodgers has proved himself again and again not up to the job . Unable to win against any good club has made us a joke . Also his coma inducing backwards football will put fans off watching us

    This is NOT the way forward . Please go Brenda

  • Elias says:

    The midfield is dead .. With allen not producing any threat and performing average only gerrard is doin the job. We need attackn mids

  • tommy says:

    anybody here read the artical by independant 5.18pm working class area of liverpool , bout poverty in anfield , people their wonder when is lfc past or presant going to put something back into the community ,

  • Terry Mac says:

    Rodgers seems lacking in many requirements needed to managing a big club , not least his inability to win a game against any top half team

    Liverpool should never be a training ground for young managers , while they learn and make mistake after mistake , a club like Liverpool should have and deserves the best

    England tried a young upcoming manager in Mclaren , Chelsea with AVB , Newcastle tried Roeder , plus many more examples with disastrous outcomes

    FSG have picked a dud in Rodgers , the longer this lasts , the further away from the top we will be

    • Terry Mac says:

      ps . you write good articles Gabriel , they are not one sided and biased , but fair and realistic

      • TaintlessRed says:

        Thank you, glad you like my articles. I agree that Liverpool should be the pinnacle of a managerial career, not a place to practice. You can make mistakes at smaller clubs and it’s accepted, we should never tolerate mediocrity.

    • Souey's 'tache says:

      How old was Kenny, when he took over his first stint in charge (no experience)? How old was Shankly even?

      • Dave Tobin says:

        Kenny was great player , knew the club inside out , and was taking over the best team in the world

        Big difference betwen that and giving this no mark the job of returning us to greatness – totally different

        And Shankley ? Shankley was taking over a run down 2nd division club – now THATS where Rodgers should be

  • Woolyback whopper says:

    Written by a wool, for wools

  • Snake Plissken says:

    You could also have put it like this:
    ‘Has Brenda got an inferiority complex?’
    I say definetily yes. Even AVB at Spurs is challenging for third spot and his team won away at Old Trafford, shows that AVB must have some balls.

  • fotheringham says:

    If Rodgers cant win the big games then Rodgers shouldn’t be at a big club
    So ? Get rid Mr Henry

    • Souey's 'tache says:

      So it’s ok to beat the big boys and lose to the lower placed teams? Give your head a shake!

      • Dave Tobin says:

        We need to compete against the utds , citys , chels and arsenals – thats our competition .
        Or do u think southamptons and readings are our rivals now ???

        give your head a shake u dummy

        • Souey's 'tache says:

          Everyone’s our competition, dummy, we’re in a league with 19 other teams. You get the same no. of points for beating City and Reading

  • Scouse Ed says:

    Its a damning stat – Not one team in top half beaten , or even more important NOT one of the top clubs beaten

    Rodgers doesn’t have a clue how to beat teams , sure we beat the QPRs ,Sunderlands and Fulhams – with our talent , thats to be expected

    Problem with Rodgers is – he is totally predictable , this ‘no plan B’ nonsense is … nonsense . His unwillingness to be flexible and change makes him a rubbish manager .

    Its easy for other teams , they know whats coming and only some magic from Suarez will save Liverpool

    Easily the worst Liverpool manager , his stubbornness with Allen is pathetic too

  • Henry says:

    All the stats say Rodgers is rubbish , the results against top 5 is embarrassing , the league table doesn’t lie , and all his signings ( too early judge sturridge) are embarrassingly poor , and his football is dull and slow , so ?
    can anyone tell me why a huge club like Liverpool is putting up with this ineptitude and shockingly poor management ?

  • Greg says:

    Its as clear as mud to me that Rodgers must be sacked , i know FSG had their ‘long term plan’ nonsense , but its not working and shows no signs of working

    FSG hired a plonker who doesnt have the skills to manage a big club , it would be crazy to waste more time with this guy

  • Cold_salmon says:

    i’ve stated before, BR does have an alternate plan, check it out:
    Plan A: pass, pass,pass, pass,pass, pass,pass, pass,pass, pass,pass, pass,pass, pass,pass, pass,

    Plan B: pass, pass,pass, pass,pass, pass,pass, pass,pass, pass,pass, pass,pass, pass,pass, pass,

    Plan C: pass, pass,pass, pass,pass, pass,pass, pass,pass, pass,pass, pass,pass, pass,pass, pass,

    see he does have a plan, and maybe some day in the next 10 yrs, we’ll win something.

  • Ozred says:

    Agree with everything in this article other than having a better team this year. ROvers has made some clear tactical errors that have probably cost us points and more importantly belief.

    Allen is the one that stands out though as you’ve mentioned there have been others.

    Must learn from his mistakes otherwise his Liverpool term will be short.

    • TaintlessRed says:

      I think that only at the end of the season we’ll be able to say whether we had a better team this year or last. I agree that the loss of experience in Bellamy, Maxi and especially Kuyt hasn’t been adequately replaced. My point in the article was more to say that Rodgers has had the opportunity to move some out and bring some in so in his view we ‘should’ have a better team.

  • The King says:

    Like everyone else says – Rodgers shouldn’t be manager of a top club
    OUT OF HIS DEPTH

Comments are closed.