THE Redmen slumped to a disappointing defeat on Saturday and in all honesty, disappointing is a polite way to put it; it was a shambles from start to finish.
Paul Machin the host of the Redmen.tv shows said Rodgers should have made the team walk home.
Yet I can’t help feel in saying that to his team, Rodgers would have felt he should walk home too.
It was a huge mistake starting Allen before Lucas. There’s no hiding from it, however according to some journalists Lucas told Rodgers he wasn’t fit to start.
Still, there’s Henderson on the bench, with a half-fit Allen, he’s the obvious choice.
I won’t hear of any negativity towards Joe Allen. His dip in form has coincided with his injury, yet last week he came on and made a positive impact. Let’s not forget in his first two months in a red shirt, he was arguably the best player if you leave out Luis Suarez
Other players as well as Joe Allen have struggled in their first season with the Reds: Jan Molby, Ian Rush, Lucas Leiva – all came good. Molby is now one of the most decorated players in our history. Indeed Rush was actually told by the great Bob Paisley that he was off in the summer. One goal turned around his fortunes.
In my mind, you can’t blame Joe Allen for the performance of Skrtel, Agger, Johnson, Enrique, Downing and Sturridge.
All were poor on Saturday, all of them bar Enrique are fully fledged experienced internationals. Yes, they had more work to do, but all failed to do their jobs, all failed to turn up to the party that would have been four Premier League wins on the bounce.
Indeed Martin Skrtel seems to be etching his signature slowly onto a transfer out of Anfield with every appalling performance at a time.
As I pointed out last week, Liverpool haven’t put that type of run together since 2009 under Rafa.
Some people have pointed out that having a poor midfield didn’t allow the team to play, yet the stats show that we sat deep allowing Southampton to smother us, and when the ball did come towards the back four, they panicked and looked slow to react. Too much defending happened inside the box.
In the recent performances we’ve pressed high and dispossessed the opposition in the midfield. Our final third passing has also been better than at St Mary’s.
If you compare this set of stats to the match against Spurs, we won the midfield battle yet poor defending almost cost us the game; you can see the difference is clear
If you compare this to the last time we beat Southampton you’ll see we attacked them in midfield and won the game through some good defending and a moment of genius from Agger.
Compare again to the perfect game against Swansea. Beautiful direct passing, tackles won in the centre of the park with both fullbacks pressing and cutting inside.
No amount of tactical analysis can ratify what happened on Saturday, but something needs to be done to prevent the same mistakes happening again and again.
I’ve wrote many times on this site about mentality and Saturday showed this again.
Players should always give 100% in a Liverpool shirt, and when they don’t play well effort should cancel out the form. That’s a winning mentality which is something I thought we might have been starting to build.
Players like Dirk Kuyt, Jamie Carragher, Sami Hyypia and Mascherano were all brilliant for Liverpool FC and all had bad days. But they always gave 100% and always put their bodies on the line for the cause. That’s why they’re legends at our club.
Liverpool missed a true leader on the pitch on Saturday; Gerrard whilst being club captain is less influential than Jamie Carragher. And when Carra leaves there will be a hole bigger than his mere position on the pitch to fill.
I know most of you who read these articles believe Rodgers should go. The fact of the matter is now is not the time for that. We need to see what next year brings. Personally I think he’ll prove you wrong and seeing our form this year I believe this is just another blip on the rocky road back to success.
One thing is for certain, Rodgers has some more thinking to do both tactically and in the transfer market; a good defensive coach wouldn’t go amiss either!
Follow me on twitter @JohnRitcie84
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Rodgers is firmly to blame . Rodgers must be sacked . we cant give this inept fool any more time .
Picking Allen was one of the stupidest selections ive ever seen , in fact every time he selects Allen its stupid
Allen is fully fit , so there is no need to make up stupid excuses . Lots of players play with slight niggles or discomfort – its not a problem
Rodgers is out of his depth . If you defend Rodgers then shame on you .
Perfectly summed up
I agree with the above rodgers is clueless…but then again so are the owners giving him the job,its embarassing watching him standing on the line fingers to his mouth like he’s on the common walking his dogs,i can never get that picture during the being liverpool tv series out of my head how narcacissitic is that?…and i also feel
we have players who lack both bottle and skill,johnson has skill attacking but is like a little girl defending,he wont put his foot in,never jumps for crosses,skirtel i have never rated he’s crap full stop! then there’s the aussie
goal keeper not good enough,joe allen what a criminal waste of money by rodgers! borini?i thought italians were tough? i wont carry on with
other players because i am to weary and tired,we need a real manager who can walk the talk and knows what it takes to make liverpool fc great again,because i can only see this man slowly taking us from a top end team to a mid table team
like the fulhams and villa’s of the prem,why wasnt
kenny given more time?i fear for our future i really do.
Allens fully fit is he? Have you seen that his surgery is this week? Did you read the announcement that he was told he would need surgery in October?
Yes that sounds like a fully fit man.
Try not to be a total idiot . Every player plays with slight niggles or has pain killing injections – its not a problem
IF Allen had a injury that was affecting his performance , he would have had a operation … duh !
obviously it is not relevant , Rodgers picked him ahead of a fully fit , and on form Henderson .
… its a smokescreen , to make yet more excuses for the pathetic little wimp . Only a total fool would believe Brendans bulls#it
What a load of bull excuses , obviously from another Rodgers apologiser .
Comparing Allen to Lucas or Molby is just idiotic , Allen is simply one of the worst players ever to have played for LFC . Its just more excuses for Rodgers pathetic management . Rodgers is a clown – sack him before he wastes more of our money on rubbish like Allen , Assaidi and Borini
we really missed Lucas, the first goal the sthptn player ran straight through the middle and no one picked him up.
BR is to blame . His tactics and woeful team line up was amateurish . His continued selection of his lovechild Allen is disgusting too
Steve Nicol is right in saying Lucas is too weak for the midfield!
He was good before Rodgers got his hands on him
Of course the manager is to blame !!!!
anyone who picks that welsh wally is a flipping moron
There too many fans with no idea what football is. That was the best team we could have fielded and we did. Unfortunately, our best was not good enough on d day. Rodgers had no fault whatsoever.
Hahahaha . Delusional fool.
lol . Are there really people out there as stupid as ‘okay’ ?? It’s hard to believe
Liverpool did their best ? Lol
The manager is not to blame ? Lol
That was the best team we could have fielded ? Lol lol lol
‘okay’ must be a 9 year old to be this stupid
That really is an astoundingly silly comment okay
So If Rogers goes, who comes in!
fickle football fans when we win its great soon as we loose lets all stick the boot in to Rogers. He will prove all his doubters wrong it may be up and down at the moment but the football is far better than i can remember in our recent history.
Anyone would be better . Absolutely anyone . And he is doing a great job of proving the doubters RIGHT
Sorry Taff, you are in a minority, we’ve been like the proverbial keystone cops at the back. Shambolic defending. You can’t plan to win every game 4-3 or 5-4.
You could see this coming months back. When teams press LFC this happens every time. Most Liverpool players are not comfortable on the ball when pressed. And this will happen again. There is no
Defensive shape either. When other teams attack our players look clueless. Coaching is to blame. Too much emphasis on going forward hence the goals but none on defence. Who is Pascoe anyway. I support Rogers as he’s young will make mistakes as long as he learns by them. But get in some experienced coaching staff ffs. Pascoe looks like he’s away with the fairies smoking too much weed!
Pascoe is the sidekick . He just does what Rodgers says . Blame the boss not the lackey
The headline itself speaks volumes on the mentality of the modern LFC fan….”a setback? Hurry up, who can we blame?!!”
Also, how can the arrogant, selfrighteous numpties above stating that anyone with a differnet view of football from themself is an idiot find the time to comment here within their schedule as successful Premiership managers?
How do you have time to comment on here with all the ass kissing and excuse making you do for Rodgers?
Get out of Rodgers backside.
So anyone who doesn´t join you in your pool of negativity and knee-jerking is up someone´s backside…tells me alot about where you´re mind´s at most of the time. Your choice of words speaks volumes.
Don’t lecture me on being a fan, this is Liverpool Football Club not Brenda Bodgers Football Club. Kapiche?
Come on guys , it’s time to wake up and smell the coffee . Rodgers is not a good manager. We can waste another season with this guy or get a decent man in the summer .
Suarez won’t stay when we have a amateur like BR in charge
Rafa , mourinho , laudrup , hiddink ,hyypia are just a few who would be better…in fact just about anyone would improve things
Wont hear the writer hear any comments on Allen?? Why was he selected to play injured?
What has happened to our defense? How did Skertel become useless? Why does he shy away from challenges that once he use to relish?
Why is Agger ok now but a couple of weeks ago, his defending was like an amateur?
Why is Reina so poor after being consistently one of the best players in the league?
Who coaches this player? Does he bear any responsibility?
Progress? What progress? We have spent 30 million pounds on Allen, Borrini and Assaidi. How much do you think we can recoup from them?
Sturridge has started to confirm what Chelsea and City coaching staff already knew. One lazy player. A saying goes, ”if he is half as good as he thinks he is, he will be twice the player he is.”
Time to wake up and smell the coffee. I was one of those who preached patience at the start of the season after the worse season in the history of LFC. Enough is Enough. Rogers is a pretender, a cheat and a man who will always be out of his depth at this level. He wants us to be like Swansea for Crist’s sake. In the first few months, is all he could talk about. Now, after seeing Laudrup on his way to a final, he stopped talking.
When are you going to realize that we are wasting time with this guy.
Come end of the season, he should be made to claim out of the window on his way out.
For crying outloud
Well said lad. I was going to write some ..but u said it for me
RODGERS OUT
Why wait until the end of the season? FSG should sack Rodgers now and get Phil Thompson in.
Why? So the board, if they have balls can ask him to write a 180 page dossier of his own mistakes …. Achieved in record time
Yes that’s right, Rodgers out when this is one bad result after being the 3 rd best side in the country in 2013 on current form and scored more goals than anyone else in the league?
Yes, that’s right. Well done on your logic.
Can you also let me know what brand of coffee you’ve been smelling lately as clearly it’s strong stuff!!
Everyone’s going on about laudrup. But nobody mentioned he was sacked from his last two jobs before Swansea. Rafa is gone, history and also let greats like alonso, Hyypia, mascherano and hamman all go. Liverpool need players like them now but no rafa let them go. Rafa knew best after all. It says something that neither Gerrard or Carra wanted him back at the club hence why he was never interviewed. Ill forever be grateful for what he did, but he wasn’t without fault either.
It’s time to try and build something and personally I can live with a season like this as I can see progress all over the pitch.
As for my article you’ve clearly not read it. Had you bothered you’d have seen that Allens form dipped alongside his injury, he was awesome for us in his first few months. Based in your logic re Borini and Allen then we’d never have seen Rush do the amazing things he did or see Molby boss the midfield in our glory years.
Also it’s a well known fact Rodgers did not sign assaidi, that was the transfer committee from FSG.
I can’t agree that Allen ‘was awesome’ in the first few months. It’s plain nonsense. Complete exaggeration. Get real.
excuses excuses excuses . You must be totally gullible and naive to believe Allens shoulder injury bull.
Your ‘logic’ is that of an 8 year old . So because Molby ( who came from a foreign country) and Rush (who came from 4th division ) because great . Does that mean if we give loads of time to every player ,they will all become great ??? … thats beyond stupid
If that were true , why didnt Traore , Diao , Ngog ,Babel … etc etc become great ???? i could name 100 more . Absolutly stupid logic from you
We have only beaten 1 decent side ALL season , and that was down to ridiculous spurs errors .
You are another blinkered Rodgers apologiser , who is clueless about football . ALL your arguments are illogical and naive
… and not only that but you are so ignorant about football , you write stuff without checking your facts . Laudrup was NOT sacked in his previous 2 jobs , check it out before you write .
and if you really believe Allen was ever awesome , then you are delusional .
kop on lad , try to be honest . Rodgers does enough bulls#itting without you adding to it
so by your reasoning – if we had given Paul konchesky another year – he would have turned into an anfield legend ? That’s incredibly dumb
Or Sean Dundee – if only we had patience he could have been another Ian Rush.
Do you realize yet how stupid that is ??!
Allen and Borini have no excuses – they are rubbish. Good players like Suarez, sturridge or coutinho arrive and they play good from the off …why ? Because they are good.
Allen and Borini are not good enough for any premier side. They are muck.get over it
You learn from mistakes.Not Rogers though.whenever we play a team with a big target man we struggle – oldham case in point – yet what does he do.Play wee allen and defend deep.We were second to almost every ball.Tikka takka ? What tikka takka – southampton played us off the park – they held it up,played a quick passing game and had the confidence to run at our defenders.Beating Spurs just papers over what is abundantly clear.We are 7th for a reason.An average team will give you an outstanding performance now and again but wont give you consistency.Take Suares contribution away and you have a true reflection of where we are.No other player has or is able to influence or change a game for us.It wouldnt matter whether Hendo started in Allens place – yes currently he may be a better option than Allen,but when he plays his contribution is minimal.Just like Downing and a host of others they do ok nothing more (stats dnt lie) – ok is nt good enough – ok will get you 7th.What does Rogers and others do – they advocate progression ,we moving in the right direction. Hogwash – papering over the cracks is all it is. We lack quality,pace,physicallity,creativity, depth and technical ability.Holding and shielding a ball is paramount to possession football.Tikka Takka demands it.Not many players in our squad can do this.Tikka Takka is nt just making 20 lateral or backward passes.There has to be forward momentum with a final pass creating a scoring opportunity.We cant do this.Why ,because we dnt have the squad to do so.Too many lightweights with limited technical ability.Combine this with poor tactics,no homework done on the opposition,poor selection and an inability to adapt to a plan B or timeously make changes is why we are 7th.The sooner Rogers and some of his squad members stop with the ‘we can still challenge for 4th’ the better for us.You cant fix something if you are in denial.All the teams above us deserve to be above us because they have better quality squads than us.All of them have contributions where goals are concerned from various players.We have 1 player scoring. If you really think ,the likes of Jordan,Allen,Sterling,Borini,Wisdom,Shelvey will trump any of the top 6 teams players you living in Lala land.We shld consider ourselves lucky to be 7th and truth be told if there isnt investment in some real quality next season we’ll be even luckier to end 7th again.Judging by Rogers sniffing around a certain Swansea captain and his penchant for poor signings I’m truly concerned that its more of the same.
Rodgers is to blame . He is tactically awful and blinded by his infatuation with the welsh wally
i think rodgers should learn hw to buy tall, n fit players , lik, dembele, emenike, or even adebayor not allen, assaidi, borini
I think rodgers tactics were wrong n foolish, n was stupid not 2realise it. Our attack was strong but with have prefered either sturridge or coutinho on da bench n played henderson. Saints are hard workerz n brendon should have known, midfield battle was important. Dats a coaches job, allen was terrible but he’s main attribute passing was pathetic,2much pressure. If lucas was injured, he shud have played, 2sitting midfielders 2compensate. allen,henderson, gerraad. Downing, saurez, sturridge/coutinho. Our bench was very weak aswell, played his best hand but did not have a back up plan. Bad management. Can only hope 4da best YNWA
Joe Allen is the shi*tiest player I have ever seen play for Liverpool
He doesn’t even get stuck in. Fracking wimp !!!
Rodgers deserves to b sacked just for picking his little pet
As soon as Rodgers is gone so will Allen be. No other manager would ever pick him in premier league
Rubbish article . Totally biased and devoid of any understanding of LFC or football in general.
I fell over laughing at the joe allen arguably best player bit . And the whole if he is given time he could be a Lucas bull .lol. Unbelievable. A child would be more knowledgable
It is with great interest that I religiously read everything about my beloved LFC from a sunny South Africa everyday. I try to be as open-minded about all the comments as I can possibly be. Trust me when I say that I want what ALL us long-suffering LFC fans want – our beloved team to return to the top…..and that time is nigh!
As much as I am disappointed with the result on Sat (who wouldn’t be!!), we need to be aware of some glaringly obvious facts. Yes, BR was to blame for starting with that formation (& that team). However, the players have to take responsibility for their player & truth be told, I cringe every time a team attacks against us, because our defence is so poor – and this goes back a few seasons. Yes, the likes of JC (true legend that he is), have put in good shifts over the years, but as a defensive unit, we have always lacked a bit of steel, class, pace and good old-fashioned balls. Add to that Pepe’s obvious decline (Im sure u have all heard that he is now starring in a movie – so much for his commitment), and one can easily see why we concede so easily. Our entire defence is downright shoddy. Our midfield on Saturday was not helped by an injured & out of form Joe Allen (& ultimately BR is the one who selects the starting 11), but Joe Allen is a decent player. He is however, one of many who’s form has been on the decline. However, saying that he, Borini, and BR an others are not good enough is pure bull. Most fans are saying that we were lucky to beat Spurs as they made mistakes. What utter crap!! If no team ever made mistakes, no goals would be scored!!! We have made many mistakes this season – does that mean that in those games our opponents were just lucky to beat us? Fact is, we have played better football this season, and while we have been lucky with injuries, these are the ingredients that go into making an entire football season – and i’m not talking Playstation season!!!
At the end of it all, I am not saying that we should display blind faith & I am also not saying that we should not encourage good debate on all LFC issues, but I strongly urge us all to stand behind our team – irrespective of who walks out on the pitch. Having played sport for many years – both individual & team sport – I can say that having fantastic support works wonders for morale.
To those who suggest sacking BR, please stop living in the past & rather come up with suggestions of replacements (& “anyone” is not available -= he has retired!!!).
Long live LFC – YNWA!!!!
As before . A load of nonsense and excuses. Anyone who thinks Allen is decent doesn’t have a understanding of football
Although fair play to you . I didn’t realize you were 12 years old . You put up a good argument for a 12 year old , but I’m thinking maybe you are too used to mediocrity because of your age.
Liverpool had , and should have again , higher standards than a inexperienced guy who was sacked by reading after 5 months
This author is another Rodgers fanboy . Biased and out of touch with reality. Awful analysis
When will we stop all this *? We just need to bring Rafa back!!!!!!!!! Plain and simple