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Brendan Rodgers got it right against Real Madrid

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Rodgers got it right, despite defeat on Tuesday night

Rodgers got it right, despite defeat on Tuesday night

When Brendan Rodgers rested seven regular starters for players who would usually only be seen in League Cup games for a Champions League tie against Real Madrid, the press and some sections of twitter threw up their arms in outrage.

How dare he not take this elite competition seriously? Doesn’t he know how important this is?

The fact of the matter is, this match was nowhere near as important as people made it out to be. Of course, Real Madrid deserve respect and the utmost attention. They’re the Champions League holders, they have some of the best players in the world and they’re arguably the biggest club in the world. Of course it’s as big a game as we’ll have this season. But Rodgers always took it seriously.

We were never going to win that game. With the form we’re in and the spanking we got in that first half at Anfield with our strongest team starting (excusing Sturridge), I thought we were in for an absolute thrashing at the Bernabeu. It wasn’t the end of the world if we lost anyway; we have two more games away to Ludogorets and home to Basel and if we win both we’ll qualify.

Additionally, we have an even bigger game the following Saturday lunch time: Chelsea at home. While we’re not far off top 4, we are seriously struggling in the league right now. The last month should have been an easy run in the league, but we didn’t take full advantage of it and now we have some tough fixtures coming up. It’s a tall order, but we need to sort our form out sooner rather than later and it needs to start against Chelsea.

Maybe if we weren’t playing Chelsea at the weekend, Rodgers wouldn’t have rested as many players. But then, how many of those regulars deserved to start anyway?

Glen Johnson has been past his best for a long time and Manquillo has often played better than him since he arrived. Lovren has been dreadful nearly every game, certainly not worth the £20m we paid for him. Toure usually turns me into a bag of nerves, but his performance proved that he’s capable of playing better than the Croatian.

Borini in for Balotelli is somewhat controversial, but with the latter not being particularly mobile, Borini put in way more hard work than his compatriot, if not still coming across as more lightweight up front. Gerrard is a big name to drop, but then whether or not he should be playing as often as he is has been a talking point among fans for months now.

Sterling, Coutinho and Henderson perhaps should have started but considering the advantage we can have by having those three fresh for the weekend, perhaps it was a risk worth taking. Besides, in their place we started Lallana, Markovic and Allen who cost a combined £57m. Not exactly a bunch of raw youngsters.

We played well. We were calm, intelligent and defended well. At the end of the day, the gamble didn’t work and we lost. But I believe that Rodgers dealt with the problem as best he could considering the issues presented to him. If he can get something against Chelsea at the weekend, this decision might even be vindicated.

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Drummer, gamer and football fanatic. I love to write about Liverpool and spend most of my time thinking about the mighty Reds. That or Game of Thrones.

4 comments

  • Erin says:

    Other teams that cost a fraction of ours have gone to Madrid and taken a draw, or win.
    Anyway, Brendan is a miracle worker. He set up his team so good and deserves credit for the performance v real, Newcastle, hull etc .

    For crying outloud, he deserves to be sacked.

    • Josh Atkins says:

      Not with their current team, they haven’t. Price doesn’t mean a thing anyway, we all know that a player’s quality doesn’t necessarily equal his price tag most of the time.

      He does not deserve to be sacked by any stretch of the imagination. That would be a massive misstep by FSG if they were to get rid of him. Thankfully, they don’t seem to have any plans to.

      • Erin says:

        So Josh, rested players against Real Madrid and prioritised for Chelsea! It was the right decision according to some media sections.

        Still think is justified? He is on his way to losing the dressing room. And yes, 120 million spent, I want CL qualification at the end of the season. Sadly, he has been found out.

        Make no mistake, the owners will ask some questions. Time to get that 180 page dossier out. To suggest, say he is not under pressure, is nonsense. A liverpool manager under no pressure to win? What are his supporters smoking? Do they understand our club?

        We expect to fight for the win. Against anyone. This is what liverpool stands for.

        • Josh Atkins says:

          It was the right decision. We were unlikely to win either, but we had somewhat of a shot against Chelsea. Of course that’s the one you prioritise.

          He hasn’t been found out. He’s changed formations since Suarez left, one that particularly doesn’t work with Sturridge injured. Sooner he accepts this the better, but hopefully things will improve when Sturridge is fit again.

          Rodgers will figure things out, it just takes time. Last season we jumped ahead in progression way more than anyone expected and now we’ve gone back to a bit more what people were expecting last year, but if we sort things out we can still easily qualify for the Champions League. It’s not ideal but it’s nothing that can’t be fixed.

          And I never said anything about pressure, that was you just then. Of course he’s under pressure. He can overcome it though, providing people have faith.

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