LIVERPOOL 1-3 Aston Villa. Nightmare result. Many people will say ‘in fairness to Villa…’ but no, this result was nothing to do with Villa. They practically only needed to show up on Saturday because we had already bent over the barrel and had our pants down in expectation.
There were a number of factors that contributed to the result as well and I’ll touch on those later, but first I really believe that Brendan Rodgers needs to show some kind of tactical nous besides the tried and tested ‘4-3-3’.
I think that besides swapping to a 3-5-2 in the second-half at Stamford Bridge and, I seem to remember some variation on a 4-4-2 in the Europa a few months back, the manager has yet to show that he learned anything during the years he must’ve spent getting his badges.
It’s a bizarre situation really because, while we’re all united in our dislike of Mourinho, you’d think that a young, impressionable coach would learn a lot from somebody who knows how to tweak his side almost as well as Benitez does.
But a lot has been said about Rodger’s attitude and his ego, so perhaps he picked up nothing from working under a world class coach. Because during Saturday’s defeat, he did very little other than look slightly bemused. He barely flinched as Villa’s second crossed the goal-line and he must’ve forgotten his notepad because he wasn’t even making any notes.
I realize that this will come across as a knee-jerk reaction to a defeat but it really isn’t. I’m not calling for his head (at least not openly!) but I am asking that he shows that he can adapt his tactics to the opposition. I’ve never been a fan of manager’s changing their tactics to suit the opposition; you should make the opposition adapt to your tactics – it shows a confidence and strength that will seep through to the players.
However, during a game, when it’s clear your original ‘plan’ isn’t working, you need to change things up a little bit. Anybody could see today that our formation and attitude played right into Lambert’s counter-attacking philosophy. And while the Scot can have some credit for that, Rodgers should’ve learned his lesson at 1-0. He didn’t.
At 3-0, still, nothing. The only changes we saw were in terms of personnel and neither Henderson nor Cole did anything to warrant coming on. I appreciate that Shelvey wasn’t having his best game but without him, we’re generally a man down in the box at all times as he’s one of the few midfielders we’ve got that will actually support Suarez in getting forward.
What I would like to have seen was a response to Villa’s counter-attack. It would also have been nice to see a change-up in midfield too. Nothing drastic, just a slight tightening up of the midfield, is all. Given that Lucas was playing only his third game since his return, giving him a bit more support would’ve been nice.
We’ve seen it too many times this season: the middle ‘3’ in Rodgers’ preferred formation often leaves us swamped or over-worked (and, at times, both) in midfield and we get overrun and when it’s obvious that the wide players in the front 3 aren’t doing enough to chase back, it’d be nice to see a substitution or two and a few harsh words, rather than the embarrassingly typical post-match ‘the players were terrific… ‘.
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Which leads me to the next cause for our downfall on Saturday: the insistence on persevering with the captain. It’s amazing to think that, despite scoring our only goal, Gerrard was undoubtedly our worst player on the pitch by a mile.
In what has been his worst season in memory, Gerrard was lazy getting back, lax with the ball and his set-pieces were abysmal. This has been the case for too long yet, he still takes most of our corners and free-kicks. He really does need to learn how to lift the ball over the first defender.
Some people may try to say that he isn’t being utilized correctly by his manager but it isn’t that simple, I’m afraid. Gerrard is our captain – he should be leading from the front (figuratively, of course, as he’s not up front) but at the moment he’s usually going missing for larger swathes of the game.
I could forgive his wayward corners, his sub-par ‘Hollywood passes™’ and his constant squandering of possession at crucial times, if only the effort was that of the Gerrard of old. I know he can’t be the old ‘box-to-box’ Gerrard that we knew and loved but some tangible effort here and there wouldn’t go amiss. Even a Steven Gerrard at 75% will terrify most opposition; at the moment he’s not even at 40%.
On Saturday, even the goal was serendipity, appearing to just deflect off him as it went in. The time has come to drop the captain but, as with Hodgson and Dalglish before him, Rodgers is too in awe of Gerrard the ‘legend’ to drop Gerrard the ‘man for poor form’ and it’s costing us, as we often look like we’re playing with ten men.
Finally, this persistence with Downing at left-back has gone beyond a joke. In fairness to him he wasn’t solely at fault for any goal against Aston Villa and at times he got forward into decent positions. But putting him in that unfamiliar position seems to unsettle the entire back line. The winger has played at (or been switched to) left-back in 4 of the last 6 games and the Reds have conceded 8 goals in those four games.
After his switch to left-back against West Ham last week Liverpool let in two goals within 16 minutes, having looked comfortable at the back with Enrique until his withdrawal after 27 minutes. Again, this is not particularly a problem with Downing, more so that he clearly doesn’t have the faith of his three fellow defenders so the whole defence becomes more unstable.
Obviously, the entire team and the manager are all to blame for the weekend’s result. But there is no doubting that Rodgers could’ve stemmed the tide at 1 (or even 2) nil. The look of ‘I don’t really know what to do… ‘ did not fill me with confidence. Many will point solely to the players today but a great tactician is worth at least 2 or 3 top class players; particularly when he knows how to best use every single player at his disposal and in that respect, the manager was left sorely wanting for the visit of Villa.
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To be fair to Brendan Rodgers, he didnt have too many options on the bench to come on and make an impact. But we have to admit Rodgers got his team selection wrong here.. We should have played with Wisdom at rb with Johnson at lb. that will balance out the defence. It also baffles me why Assaidi isnt in the match squad. Would have made much more of an impact than Cole and Downing combined. But, just keep the faith in Rodgers. He will fix this and we will bounce back. Ynwa
Agree with author Brendan hasn’t a clue
Gerrard should be dropped or advise Brendan to drop him because Brendan cannot stand up to him
This is what happen when you have Mediocre manager at the helm, He just won’t have the ballz to drop the big guns in the team. someone like Pep or Mourinho would do it in a blink of an eye.
Liverpool is more than what this man could handle
faith in Rodgers ? Get lost . I just want Rodgers gone ASAP
rodgers needs 2 learn he cant b telling everybody we are 4 3 3 and that it if its working or not with villa 3 5 2 hitting us on da break it was crying out for us to put 4 across da mid
I agree BR needs to be more flexible with formation when 433 isn’t working. Also agree with you point on Shelvey, no one else gets into the box like he does when Suarez is working his magic. Downing was our best player and didn’t unsettle the back line at all. Allen made mistakes for goals 2 and 3,and Skrtle’s error for the 3rd was horrendous. Steven isn’t on form, but despite giving the ball away a little too often and not covering the ground as he used to we have relied on his passing all season. He’s the only one who is being penetrative, it’s no surprise he’s made the 2nd most key passes in Premier after Baines as Allen hasn’t made any. The 3 in midfield means we ‘don’t’ get swamped. But we are too slow in the transition and are losing goals to counter attacks. Allen has to be dropped. We would improve if either Sahin or Shelvey played with Lucas & Gerrard. Suso is also an option, and if we need someone wide he’s surely a better bet than Jonjo. Assaidi should at least be on the bench to give us an option to come on as sub, even if he isn’t good enough to start.
How many options i asked can or could have been done from Benitez to Rodgers they prefer to remain the same of taking goals without scoring goals as i asked them to play with a 3 5 2 formation they win and stop using it again. lfc managers didn’t even know and understand unfortunately what kind of formation Liverpool needs making comnents for nothing
when are people going to wake up and realise rodgers is out of his depth ? rubbish signings ( all of them) , silly selections , players playing out of position , boring football , waffle he feeds the fans , stubbornness in sticking with allen etc etc etc , i could say a lot more
ps . gerrard is still our best midfielder , but he is not interested , he knows what rodgers is . we will see a different gerrard with a new manager in place
Hello pool fans… Villa fan here
I am not here to gloat. I am delighted with our result if course etc etc
But I wanted to see Liverpool fans reaction to Rodgers efforts on Saturday.
I watched his press conference after the game and was a little shocked by the arrogance on display.
Firstly as a villa fan. He consistently describes the goals as “poor” sloppy and I think bad.
Not it push my look here I am not trying to wind up anyone I can’t stand wums but is that not a little dismissive of the quality of those goals ? The second one had 18 touches in the build up ffs
But more than that he comes across as if he had the perfect plan and all that happened was his players just failed him utterly.
I think he should take a little more responsibility for that loss. And while he is at it give credit where it is due but that’s less important.
At 0-3 down at home on 50 minutes and even up until the 87th min would it not have been a little obvious to deploy something resembling a plan b?
When I try to put myself in a Liverpool fans shoes
He has to take more if the blame for that loss for me.
At the end I the day it’s just one game and I still think he is the man to get you back on track. Things were going well until the villa game but still I wanted to see what pool fans thought about his efforts on Saturday
Rodgers IS arrogant . He has the arrogance of a man who has won everything in the game , but he doesnt have the ability to back it up
how refreshing to see fans are at last seeing the limitations of rodgers.not up to premiership managment was fortunate to inherit all the good work done at swansea by martineze.he should return to the championship to learn more about management and also talk less.it is becoming obvious certain players are becoming disillutioned.finally his signing have been very poor and expensive for player of that standard.
Dont be too refreshed ! – The clowns will be on here soon slagging us for not being real fans , saying bull like “have faith” , “in BR we trust” , “we are building ” , “it takes time” or some such nonsense
And next week after we beat Fulham at home , it will be tactical genius Brendans plan is coming together
Gerrard still our best midfielder? I dont think so!
But the truth is if Rodgers remains at anfield by January ending, Liverpool fc should forget about being in top 8, and should start fighting off relegation, ’cause that’s the only skill rodgers has got, battling relegation. I dont see how he can possibly give what he doesnt have.
Gerrard still our best midfielder? I dont think so!
But the truth is if Rodgers remains at anfield by January ending, Liverpool fc should forget about being in top 8, and should start fighting off relegation, ’cause that’s the only skill rodgers has got, battling relegation. I dont see how he can possibly give what he doesnt have.
‘Dare
FSG better dismiss rodgers before he completely ruins liverpool
The owners need to back B Rodgers with some serious investment in January with £75M to bring in 6 Class,Quality attacking players of Gerrard and Suarez’s Calibre and 3 Strong Defensive players.
B Rodgers needs to ship out : J Cole AM to Qpr for £3-£5M, J Henderson CM to Fulham, QPR, Reading, Norwich Or Southampton for £8-£12M and S Downing should be sold for £9-£12M LW
And as Adams, Aquilani, Bellamy, Carroll,Kuyt, Rodriguez, Spearing were all shipped out in summer. The lack of creativity and goals at club are there for everyone to see and we struggled to score goals with tose players at club last season. Yet 40% of our goals came from those players and our club needs a huge overhaul with correct players to get our club back amongst the elite.
The owners need to give B Rodgers £75M and whatever he can get from selling J Cole, S Downing and J Henderson.
These are the 9 players needed to change dimension of Squad:
Three Defensive Players:
1: GK: J Butland Of Birmingham should be brought to club for £5-£7M to compete with Jones and Reina.
2: DM: B Matuidi Of PSG Or M Diame Of West Ham, one of these DM Enforcers should be brought for £6-£12M to compete and Cover LUCAS.
3: LB: D Rose Of Tottenham( Currently on loan at Sunderland) Should be signed for £3-£5M to compete and Cover Enrique.
Six class Quality Attacking players:
1:RWF/LWF:Willian Of Shakhtar Donesk should be brought to club for £21-£25M as a Marquee signinig.
2: AM: I Munian Of A Bilbao should be brought to club for £12-£16M
3:RW: Nolitto Of Benfica should be brought for £8-£15M
4:FD: D Villa Of Barcelona should be brought for £9-£12M
5:FD: G Rossi Of Villareal FD( Out Injured until March) But when back fully fit and injury free, Rossi is an out and out finisher who can operate in any position amongst front Three for £6-£8M
6:LW/LWF: B Arfa Of Newcastle should be brought to club in swap deal with A Carroll and £10M.
Those are the players that would get club back competing for trophies again year in and year out.
The likes of Ince, Sturridge, Walcott are all good players but are either of these of Gerrard Or Suarez’s calibre or Class? No, But in Arfa, Munian, Nolitto, Rossi, Villa and Rossi there are 6 Class players with pace, speed, class,creativity and plenty of Goals amongst them who would change dimension of side and get club back within Champions leagues and these 6 players would have B Rodgers philosophy winning many trophies. But B rodgers needs classy, quality players in attack for his philosophy to prosper.
Rogers doesn’t have a clue and can’t be trusted with signings. We will buy a Chelsea reserve and probably Ince from the championship for a cool 20 million!
Wake up guys. Wake up. Two main signings both came or played for Swansea . That sums up BR. Couldn’t figure the man out at first but now the joke is on the rest of you!!
YNWA
Rodgers is an arrogant spoofer. fgs are too tight to sack him. God help us.
dude , I wouldn’t trust Rodgers with my beer money . Look at what he wasted in the summer – Over 31 million on total crap + he nearly bought more average rubbish in Dempsey n Sigurdson
No -We must sack Rodgers before Jan , then get top manager and let him buy players
We must remove this championship manager quickly . Even Reading sacked him quicker than us
Last year . played 17 won 8 drew 6 lost 3 points 30
we were 5th , 3 points behind chelsea , its was tough last year with spurs , arsenal and newcastle all doing well
This year . played 17 won 5 drew 7 lost 5 points 22
we are 12th , it should be easy to get 4th , spurs are poor , arsenal are having a disaster , newcastle are gone
In just a few months Rodgers has changed us into a mid table team with rubbish signings , inept man management , stupid idiotic team selections and negative football
And there are STILL morons out there who will support him !
Rogers has turned us into a mid table side??? News flash Einstein. We were a mid table side when he took over. The question marks are mounting with each loss but patience is required. I can’t think of many great coaches who have walked into a mid table side at the beginning of their careers and had instant success.
Play out the year and hold the course. I’m still confident of finishing top 6 which would be an improvement on the dalgliesh disaster.
WHAT KIND OF FOOL ARE YOU ? under kenny we had a bad run at the end to pull us back to 8th , we were in contention for top 4 until that poor run , plus we got to 2 finals . 8th is not mid table 12th is
8th is mid table. Deal with it.
With all that money and 18 months he finished mid table.
Rogers is 12th now which I’m shattered about. But after 3 months the sPate of scoring options who left at the end of the year through no fault of Rogers, I can either piss and moan like a little child or get on with following my team. Judgements will be made in the fullness of time.
we were WAY better last year , maybe watching the highlights doesn’t give u the full picture , but only a total bell end would think we are better now
Yes Bob , there are still morons who will support him
No u fool. I support Liverpool. I couldn’t give a * who manages them provided we are winning.
So I can either spend the next 6 months complaining about a bloke who’s been in the job 5 minutes or get on with supporting the club.
If Rogers turns out to be no good, he will be moved on and we will start the entire expensive, 1 step backward coaching lottery all over.
well we are not winning you moron , so i will not support a loser who is harming my football club . thats stupid .
why would anybody support a guy detrimental to the club ? every month , every transfer window , every rubbish signing , every game he is taking us backwards
if u love liverpool , grow some balls and help get the goit out
While I will agree in BR changing formations when needed, he looked dumb founded and confused. What annoyed me more is before the match he came out saying ‘we are aiming higher than 4th’ and then after the loss he says ‘we have a long way to go to be 4th’. Too much talk and I’m getting tired of him saying ‘ the players were fantastic but we need be more clinical’. I would like to hear him be a little more harsh on the players instead of sympathy. I still believe in him because I do like the style we are playing but I am starting to get a bit annoyed as well.
You like sideways negative passing , possesion football ????? You should watch south american football . It bores me
yeah , even if we were doing ok , i couldn’t sit and watch 3 or 4 more years of his coma inducing boring rubbish
Rodgers is too arrogant too adapt .W We must sack him
Sack the fool before things get worse
Shelvey is Not good enough for our team. Shelvey is not good for us.