BEING a Liverpool FC fan has been a frustrating time over the last 4 seasons; we have finished 6th or lower in all of the seasons since we finished runner’s-up in 2008-2009.
We have had to deal with poor managerial appointments, poor transfer dealings and a change of ownership. While all this has been going on the teams around us have gone from strength to strength.
Tottenham Hotspur have seen their young players develop into top Premier League players and in Gareth Bale’s case a world class player. Manchester City and Chelsea have gone down the sugar daddy route and have bought some of the world’s best players and made themselves into very successful teams both at home and abroad. Arsenal have always been in the top 4 regardless of who they have sold and replaced those players with, and Manchester United just keep churning out title after title. Overall it has been a trying time to be a Red.
However, there are signs of recovery and given time then I believe Brendan Rodgers will turn us back into a top 4 team and eventually a team challenging for the title. Here, however is the compromise, as fans we need to give him and FSG time.
Time nowadays is almost a dirty word in football; fans want players signed yesterday and want them in the team scoring goals for fun or making 80 yard passes every time they get the ball and if they aren’t doing that then they want them shipped out and replaced with new players.
Heaven forbid it takes a young player time to settle in, to deal with injuries or try to adjust to a different style of football and culture. As fans we want success right now and if the players and managers cannot do that, then just change them.
There is of course something fundamentally wrong with that approach: if the Tottenham Hotspur’s management and owners followed that way of thinking then Gareth Bale would be playing for Nottingham Forest right now. If Arsenal had sacked Arsene Wenger after a few years without trophies they wouldn’t have the impressive Emirates Stadium and a Champions League qualification record better than anyone else in the Premier League.
Of course there are exceptions to every rule and Chelsea have proven that by sacking manager after manager they still yet winning trophies. I for one though do not want Liverpool FC to be run like that.
If we go back to August 2010, Rafa Benitez was saying his goodbyes to the Anfield faithful and leaving behind a 7th place team in the Premier League. The great Liverpool FC teams that Rafa built, the money spent and the players bought and sold ultimately left us as the 7th best team in the league.
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We are still the 7th best team in the league.
Even though FSG bankrolled Kenny Dalglish and his transfer dealing to the tune of £100 millon, a figure that flies in the face of the criticism of FSG and their supposed lack of transfer funds. We are still recovering from that summer of spending and trying to get the wage bill down and get rid of the deadwood that has cluttered up Anfield for far too long.
As a lifelong Liverpool FC supporter I know that 7th place is not good enough. More importantly FSG and Brendan Rodgers know that it is not good enough and they are working extremely hard to make us more competitive.
FSG have a plan, the plan is to buy young, well scouted players who will fit into a style of football that the manager wants, they wanted a forward thinking manager, one who would not afraid to use the young players being brought through the club’s excellent academy. The manager who fitted that brief best was Brendan Rodgers. It could have been Frank de Boer or Andre Villas-Boas, but in the end they went for Brendan Rodgers. A brave choice but one that will reap rewards in my opinion.
With young players there is always a risk, they are inconsistent, tactically unaware on occasions and not physically developed. A problem with young players is as they have not yet got a glowing reputation then they seem to be perceived as not good enough for Liverpool FC, yet when Rodgers picked Raheem Sterling out of the U21s last season and put him in the first team it was a great decision.
All players need time when being brought to a club with as rich a history as Liverpool, the same can be said of the managers. Some players bought for a lot more than all the young players Rodgers has brought in have never lived up to their price tags nor did the ones with a lot better reputations than the new players. So transfer fees should never really be used as a indication of success. Look at Andy Carroll and Stewart Downing to name just two.
We have seen Jordan Henderson improve massively in the last 12 months under the guiding hand of Brendan Rodgers and I would expect Joe Allen and Fabio Borini to surprise you all this season and improve on their first season performances. People are quick to forget that Joe Allen was Liverpool’s best player for the first 3 months of the season. 3 months is a long time in football, it was long enough for Gareth Bale to be voted Footballer of the Year after all. We have seen Philippe Coutinho and Daniel Sturridge come in and hit the ground running so who’s to say Iago Aspas and Luis Alberto won’t do the same?
Brendan Rodgers took a club that was treading water, had no direction and was showing no signs of improvement. The second half of last season saw Liverpool FC play some of the best football we as fans have seen for a long time. I am certain we will see that improvement continue this season and that come the 1st of September we will have a team and squad capable of challenging for the top 4.
All we need is a little patience.
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Spot on mate,patience is the golden word but i’ve been hearing that for the last 20 + years. YNWA
Has Rodgers been there for 20years? Is he now guilty for all the disasters that took us down (Heysel and Hillsborough)? This man has just arrived and we should judge him on what he has done. 50% pass mark at worst considering what he’s had at his disposal. He has brought several youth players through and they really wanna run through the barbed wire for him. That says it all. Fans of today will obviously have called for Shankly’s sack when he went on a trophiless run when the team became too old and he had to rebuild.
Idiotic comment. You dont know what your talking about.
Rodgers just gave us our worst season in 60 years you plum. Shanks improved our fortunes immediately.. 50% pass mark ??? WTF ? Who cares . It was awful season
We have been waiting for this moment for so long now and that with so much patience, seeing the mancs taking the league under our nose and everton getting ahead of us, chelsea destroyed and contructed back with money, city splashing cahs to win the league at the 94th minute of the last match of the league, Arsen’s Arsenal is just playing around , picking and choosing amongst players (one of whom is suarez). Hope we can keep suarez next season.
These teams are reinforcing their team with referenced names at each position.
NEVERTHERLESS WE STILL HOPE TO EDGE AT LEAST IN THE TOP FOUR THE COMING SEASON, BECAUSE WE TRUST BR AND AT LAST AFTER FOUR SEASON WE ARE GETTING THAT STABILITY THAT IS OF PRIME IMPORTANCE TO KEEP THE TEMPO UP AND TO GET THE TRUST OF THE PLAYERS AND THE FANS.
listen very carefully I shall say this only once – WE DO NOT TRUST BR
I do
We all know your not very smart Matt
And I do not trust your sanity. Say YOU and speak for yourself. I TRUST BR
Only a fool trusts a fool . Not very clever , are you ?
Stop saying idiotic baseless things like “In BR we trust” it sounds deluded and the kind of thing some deluded cult member would come out with.
Rodgers is poor manager , he will never take us 2 d top 4 . Out b4 xmas
we have no choice mate because of the policy imposed by the owners and he has improved the team significantly wrt the last three seasons.
You joke ? This is the worst liverpool squad since the 50s . The great squad built by rafa is made more average by these dumb yanks every year
you’re a moron and you don’t sound like a reasonable fan, so shut the hell up!
Grow up Tom . Quit your childish insults
And if we make top-four and Rodgers is there by Christmas, do you promise to jump into Mersey River?
Nonsense article . Wake up man .when I read things like ‘allen was great for three months’ I know you are clueless.
This squad has not improved , Kenny delivered a trophy and restored pride. Rodgers is a joke . Only a total deluded fan would think we will get top 4 with this average squad and useless manager.
Correct . We will finish 6th . There are only 6 teams in contention every year anyway
Restore pride? Finishing 7th in the league after spending 100m, beating a championship side on penalties to win the milk cup and the worst performance display I have ever seen from a Liverpool side in a final is restoring pride?
BR might not be the best manager but that 2nd half of last season was the best football I have ever seen. If the season started in December we would’ve finished 3rd it’s enough to convince me he deserves another chance. I might not like all this youth either but my duty as a fan is to support the players the manager and the owners, I’m not the one making executive decisions that’s their I’m here to support the club. YNWA
“br might not be the best manager but the second half of last season was the best football i ve ever seen” that statement beggars the question: when did you start watching football? or is that an irony?
“if the season started in december, we wld ve finished 3rd”……lol… the season didnt start in december we wldnt ve finished 3rd (its 38games a season nd nothing less)
“its enough to convince me that he(br) deserves another chance” its enough to convince me that you ve got no clue nd cant see through the smoke screen.
What a stupid stupid stupid comment ..once again proving you haven’t a clueless going on matt
” best football you have ever seen ” lol. Thats just idiotic . You must have never seen Kenny s late nineties team or Evans team .
….and why are you making stuff up ?
Are you totally stupid ? Or making stuff up to suit your arguments ?
if the league started in December ….LIVERPOOL WOULD HAVE FINISHED 6th
6th NOT 3rd ….THATS A FACT
so get a clue matt . You have no idea about football and that comment proves it !!!
I Think Matt must be 8 years old if this is the best football hes ever seen!
8 months old !!!
Astonishingly silly comment matt .
???? WTF ? Best football ??? Your stupid matt . Total lemon
“it’s my duty to support the club ” lol . Duty ? Ha ha ha idiota
Best football you have ever seen” lol, when did you start watching football?. A seriously ridiculous comment, where do these people come from?. Rodgers has divided the fans, where Kenny united them. Sorry to say this but I would rather go to Wembley, win a cup (nearly two) rather than win the *poor teams in the league (as long as they don’t pressure us too much, we win), and struggle against the top teams (unlike Kenny who won more than he last against the big boys). what kind of “Fan” (not business man) wouldn’t?.
I think rather we are fans with lots of patience and hope.
For sure if we fans love our club lets give fsg & Rogers time, our club’s issue is a like disease which comes very fast but goes so slowly ,we shall be back to where we belong only if we a patient & believe in wat the manager & owners a doing.
Having patience and belief has nothing to do with it . Having a good manager and plenty of top players does
moreover Rodgers has taken comittment to take the team to top four next league, he is no more talking like last time ‘…expect more of such defeats’ (when we lost to westbrom in the opening match), ‘…we need time…’ he is now talikng about a team ready to challenge by end of august.
yes he is not ‘de la trempe de Rafa’ but lets stick to his philosophy for once and give him a chance because he did give us some glimpse of hope and this could be seen clearly during the last matches near the end of the preceding season.
Dream on . He had his chance . He is out of his depth . Liverpools worst manage ever . The end of last season we had a pitifully easy run in with no pressure . And he still couldn’t beat reading or west ham at home. We have had enough of Bodgers and his constant stream of bulls hit !!!!
Flynn, u p’ple should not mine of top 4 only building strong competitive club & enjoying continous success is better, or u go better manager & leave dat poor one for us instead of criticising
But which club is developing top players to buy so cheaply, rather talk about change of ownership if u think fsg a poor or have bad policy of buying young players not the manager
I dont like BR and I dont believe in him, but we must get behind the team , we have no choice really. He either brings success or he is sacked this season
A new season , a new start . While I think Brendan was poor in his first season , we should get behind him for now , lets hope he has learned from his mistakes
He hasn’t . He will continue to play his little pets Allen and Borini and continues to buy average players.
Have you ever thought that fsg are running the club as a business and not throwing their money away buying a team like citeh have done? What did you expect them to do…..empty their bank accounts just to buy the league? And top players do not want to come because we are not in the cl. The club will buy promising players and promote the talented young players like sterling and ibe. If you cannot get your head around that then go and support citeh
Duh . Cop on u dope . FSG are here to make money not make us great. So now we are a selling club – great !
What owner isn’t out to make money? I am so sick of that saying…. You think o
Glazers or Roman or just owning the club because they have nothing better to do? Grow up guy
Grow up and get a clue you fool . That is one of the dumbest comments ever.
“Roman is in it to make money ” ha ha haha ha ha ha ha ha
Dumbest comment of the year from you heard
Ha ha ha …I can’t stop laughing
Ha ha h h ha ho ho ho ho ho ho
…..ha ha ha
…and sheikh mansour too ????
Ha ha ha ha ha ….funny as flick
Why do I get the feeling there are “Liverpool supporters”who pray for rodgers to faill ? did you watch aspas today quick feet great passes, you Will end in disappointment,sorry for you in rodgers we trust .
Stop being totally stupid all the time.
Firstly no one wants Rodgers to fail , but most people are realistic and can see he is not good
Secondly , aspas ? Kop on .it was against Preston in a friendly and he will not get in out first 11 . No way
Thirdly , only fools trust a manager who gave us our worst season in years , who spends 15m on Allen , who has never won a trophy in his life. Wake up to reality dude
Our worst start yes but not our worst season, at least not in the prem. We totally dominated preston third tier or not, utd lost to a thai xi that weren’t miles better than preston so cheer up lad! At least we saw some mouth watering football and as the writer is pointing out is that we need to be patient. Fans like u don’t get the full picture of the direction in which the club is heading. You want the quick fix solution that’s why u best supporting chelsea or city. We are trying to run a debt free business, one that can be self reliant and operate on that basis, that is the vision of FSG. Rodgers has a vision for the team and it looks exciting so far to me.
Preston ha ha ha ha . Kop on kid . Friendlies are irrelevant
How did he give us our worst season? We finished a rank higher than with King Kenny… And we scored more goals. That is reality guy
You really are stupid
8th place + 2 cup finals +A TROPHY + beating all the top teams at least once
V
7th place + 3 embarrassing early cup exits + more goals (so what ?) + season over in February + just one win v a top 7 side
You yanks just don’t get soccer
I wonder if you are a fan or just on our website to stir * up. I know plenty of soccer guy and you say 2 league finals and minus the FA cup who gives a *. The reality is you are a bitter fan and unless we sign Ronaldo and win the treble – odds are you will always be a negative. Why not just try and be positive? I’ve been a fan for over 15 years and never had I had such negative outlook on my beloved Reds. Sure I’ve been angry with their performances but I get over it and look towards the next match. You do not represent the Reds – your a fair weather fan.
What a shame….
YNWA – You Heard
Talking rubbish you heard. Fans have a right to be pis*ed off . Some of us live and breath it…not just armchair fans like yourself
how come you only noticed aspas? dont tell me allen nd alberto didnt play the match. did they?
really were they bad according to u ?if u didn’t notice there was real competition and not with the other team but against team mates they are looking for being in the first team. open your eyes and watch football don’t follow hearsay u might be able to c how good rodgers is
Don’t be a total childish fool . Anyone with a modicum of intelligence can see Rodgers is a fraud and a useless manager
Stop being a sheep and think for yourself
the good thing is owners are not fools like u rodgers is still there so atleast I have chance to say I told u so at the end of the season for now support the reds or f##c off
F**k off yourself , you spotty little kid char. Ben is right you are dumb
commited? Yes! to his own personal nd selfish course of making us less than average. sincere? definitely not! too many examples to waste my precious time on
If BR wants to take liverpool to the top four then he should maintain SUAREZ to send a message that he is conpetent of taking the team to the top four
I will get behind BR and kick him out of the club
Today we should have been a club reigning over europe and this would have happened four seasons ago.
when the most powerful club of europe was almost sold to the dubai consortium, some people decided to take it back and put it in the hands of TWO CLOWNS and what happened afterwards… everyone knows it.
today we fans are paying for that.
Rodgers is not to be blamed, actually he is someone committed to take the club forward. lets believe in his sincerity.
No . Rodgers is FSG s yes man . Their lackey. Their monkey. Of course he is committed. Every manager is committed that doesnt mean they are any good
commited? Yes! to his own personal nd selfish course of making us less than average. sincere? definitely not! too many examples to waste my precious time on
Your article is stupid . Tottenham knew Bale had world class talent ( everyone in football knew) and Wenger had already proves himself a world class manager
Dalglish put sterling in the first team squad not Rodgers. And fsg s stupid plan will never work , it’s the same plan arsenal have had and even with a top manager like Wenger it doesnt work
This whole article is factually wrong and inaccurate , and the Joe Allen comment ? Don’t make me laugh.
Hi ben, thanks for your comment. Bale was on the verge of joining Nottingham Forest, that’s a fact. Nobody knew back when they first signed him that he was World Class as last season he just about hit those heights. As for Wenger, he is a world class manager, was he a world class manager when he came from Japan? I don’t think so, he grew into the role. FSG arent multi bilionaires so they are doing it this way, as for Arsenal they have been in the Champions League poitions for over 10 years straight now. Im sure every Liverpool fan would take that right now rather than finishing 8th and winning the League Cup. As for Allen then you’re entitled to your opinion on him of course, thats what makes football and these forums great.
James I watched baleat Southampton and I prayed Liverpool would sign him EVERYONE knew hewas going to be great . Bale struggled at first in spurs team , he was18 for fksake , he was never going to be sold only loaned
Yes Wenger was world class manager and he won the double in his first full season after both league and cup in France
Heguided arsenal to 3rd the season he was appointed and won the double after. So how is that growing into job ? Your talking nonsense and you don’t know the facts , so reallyyou shouldnt bewriting factually inaccuratearticles
And anyone who thinks Allen was better than Suarez the first 3 months is not only wrong …but they are also a total idiot
Wayne Lynch, you should go find another club to support. I hear City is recruiting
#Plastic
Top 4????
Dream on!
6th at best again, but probably 8th.
those people who sold the club to the two clowns are to be blamed
The clowns in charge now are no better .
Jim prove to us fsg are clowns?they gave daglish 100m.wat did he use with that money.@ben how many games did sterling play under daglish jst 1 last game jst to please fans after his disaster how about br 18 games get your facts right.you think like a retarded moanfest
I think you are the retarded moanfest, the two clowns I am talking about are the predecessors of fsg.
Sterling played 3 times for Kenny. Because of his age that is no surprise
….and please fsg did NOT give Kenny 100m . Kenny spent only 30m net . Rodgers has in fact spent more money NET than Kenny
The Rogers appologists truly amaze me. If the season had started in feb, we would be 4’th… Shows progress–honestly, how can you possibly argue against? Hmmm, 38 games in a season. Sorry, writting to the pl to shorten the season or start it in January might not work! You guys should try it. After all, fairytales are what you believe in.
Sturridge and Coutinho shows the kind of signings he can make. Sturridge has an injury record and arrogance in abundance but hey, success so far. Except, Rogers signed Allen, Borrini, asaidi, sahin as well. All failures that cost the club a cool 30 plus million pounds.
I am in awe at BR and his ability to manipulate, cast a spell on some of you and make you believe you have seen the light. And his handling of the media? Wow, he is THE King. Forget Harry houdini redknapp , Rogers makes him look average and doesn’t even write in the sun! Imagine if he did. Rogers for England would be the headline of the day.
We had the worst start to the season since the foundation if the club. Failed to win against any team above us bar spurs. Crushed out of all cups by January. His win ratio is pathetic (at liverpool, if you add career total looks terrible ).
I hear things like , people like me just want BR to fail/pray for that. THE opposite is true. I prayed that he would turn good.
You can fool some people some time but not all people all the time. It took months to figure out who he is.
This season, I hope the rest of you will open your eyes. You can pray God as much as you like. He won’t grant your wish and make BR a great manager. He is lucky enough to be a football manager. Good is not that generous
YNWA
Erin . Good comment . All very true
One thing , don’t believe the stuff these fools make up …if the league started in February we would have finished joint 5 th , not 4th. And considering the easy run in we had that’s not good
No CL with rogers . He is not top