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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it breaks my heart that we dont yet have a replacement for the politician in charge of our team
We will all happily get behind our manager , when we get a manager worthy of thus great club. Not the championship standard del-boy we have now. I keep picturing Rodgers leaning over to his brother-in-law every game saying “dont worry Rodney , this time next year we wI’ll be champions league”
A lot of plastic flag fans here, it’s quite laughable but then I guess everybody has an opinion. Our first game which was brilliant to watch and everybody is complaining about Rodgers and FSG again. All of u just need a fart in the face coz u stink! Bwahahahahaha. For the mature readers, all I can say is that we looked fit and inventive for a team playing it’s first game of the season, that’s already a good sign. Compared to the pre season matches over the last three yrs it’s looking good to me. Coutinho was brilliant, Raheem looked real sharp and the vision of Aspas and Alberto were magnificent at times. The lads are only gonna get fitter and sharper and with Sturridge, Gerrard, Suarez? all to return with a few more additions I say we looking really good for a top four push.
Lol .listen to this fool !
IT WAS A FRIENDLY YOU DOPE …NOT THE FA CUP.FINAL. against a rubbish team too
ChukwuEmeka,if you fit coach like Rodgers,come coach Kano Pillars cause you de talk like say na youde pay am. Most ofyou just talk what’s on your mind without sense,Rodgers was chosen by FSG!the same people who freed Lfc from gillet and friend,the same people who brought Dalglish,same people who bankrolled 100million quids (lots of money) only talk non sense here if you have a club like Tranmere rovers,only talk non sense if you are as good as Rodgers…Put your faith in him,he’s the saviour…Rome wasn’t built in a day and ifyou want miracles,Citeh needs people like you buh if you re a kopite …then patience is a virtue and we all need it. Whoever he’s brought to the club is of utmost importance to him. YNWA
You talk rubbish. Rodgers is a fool…so are you
rome wasnt built in a day same as liverpool nd fans like me wont fold our hands nd close our eyes to reality while our club is rapidly being degraded by an average manager. am not too far behind rodgers when you talk of qualifying for the job. (neither of us should be but he got it) talking about patience, i wld always be a kop but ignorance isnt part of patience. kano pillars is not a team to compare with enyimba when it comes to pedigree, thats where my sights are.
LFC fans must be some of the most loyal and patient fans out there, as an AFC fan I thought we were patient but you guys seem to beat us hands down judging by this article.
As an Arsenal fan I can see the light at the end of the tunnel for us but I don’t share the writers same optimism for LFC, you guys have been the 3rd highest spenders over the last 5 years but are still no closer to the top 4, especially if you sell Saurez.
With the revenue that MCFC, CFC, MU and us will have I can’t see how LFC get back in especially if you end up getting a new stadium.
We won’t . Not under our current regime …it’s never going to.happen. Unfortunately we have a lot of dreamers who think it will.
Glad to see this piece has got you talking and I appreciate all the comments. The fact is we were the 7th best team when Rafa left, the the 8th best team when Kenny left and last season back to the 7th best. Personally I think Rodgers deserves another season and financial backing. If we don’t improve again this year then he should be criticised and question need to be asked. But its far too soon to be giving him a hard time already.
Couldn’t agree less. Rodgers has been poor , any other big club would have sacked him months ago . We should have sacked him months ago . Simply a poor experiment that will never work
Idiots everywhere. Which top club will spend that amount and will expect you to win the EPL with only one senior striker? Don’t people think? Why are some people so retarded? I’m sick of all these comments and if you can’t support LFC, go support Arsenal or any other team. Don’t blame Rodgers, blame Kenny who squandered over a hudred million on scraps.
Blah blah blah
. Idiotic comment
Rodgers has spent MORE net than Kenny did. Get your facts right before spouting nonsense
the damage had been done under parry & moore..sell lfc to the clowns.now even fulham gona be richer and overtaking lfc.we just poor now
i dont some of us knows wot coaching z all about,and for cfc,mcfc,mu and afc fans watch and see lfc dis season.
i dont tink some of us knows wot coaching z all about,and for cfc,mcfc,mu and afc fans watch and see lfc dis season.
Rogers is no good , so we wait till end of season and start again , let’s hope he doesnt waste more money before he is gone. Next time fsg no more trainee managers plze , Liverpool deserves betta
You are a waste of space. Is your brain just there for decoration? Have we not improved? He made Suarez a better player and the team. Remove the first half of the season and we’d be top three. He’s starting strong hopefully this season so what stops us from being up there? You need to start using your mental faculty seriously.
Childish moronic comment. If you see imaginary improvements see a doctor.
And once again…ANOTHER IDIOT RODGERS FANBOY WITH HIS FSCTS WRONG
second half of season WE FINISHED 6th ……6th MORON….GET IT ??? NOT 3RD
Go back and cry to your mom because once again you are clueless
he made suarez a better player??? lol…… lmao………lwkmd…….thats the most rediculous statement of the century………check your facts on suarez? you realy dont want me to say why suarez wants to leave.
I checked this stat and it’s true , second half of last season Liverpool would have finished 6th . Not veryiimpressive
Slim ? Suarez has been a world class player for many years…if anything because of the Vera affair his form dropped season before last
In fact Rodgers made many of our players a lot lot worse last season
We need not to deceive ourselves and for Lfc to revive its past glory, FSG must invest more funds for signing ready made players not kids. YNWA
Infact. Lfc needs its owners to invest crazy money, like what Man city owner did. Otherwise, talk about top four is a mirage,
BR is really working to bring LFC back to the top. If you can’t see that, pls do quit watching soccer.
Lol. People are working for world peace right now ….that doesnt mean it’s going to happen
Those yanking aroung y dont u do yourself a favour chelsht and their josephine maureen are there for you and they are spending money.y dnt jst ride another boat.all the truthful and commited fans thumbs up and big up to urself
This is LFC. Where managers applied their trade and not learnt their trade. I have seen many positives in terms of our style of play. This season is key for Rodgers to ensure that LFC are seriously in contention for top 4 and not in mid-table mediocracy. If not in a top 4 spot or in serious contention, then sadly the experiment has to stop maybe and need to look elsewhere.
I agree, the biggest disaster for LFC in recent times was when the Dubai International Capital deal was all but done and the clowns Moore and Parry sold the club down the toilet to the other clowns Laurel and Hardy in America. Awful decision. We would have been in with the big boyz had DIC taken over. LFC is a huge club, if FSG cannot finance the club to compete with the City, Chelsea and Man Utd’s of this world then they need to sell to a wealthier owner.
Sooner we get Rodger out , the sooner we can get back to being a top club
Rodgers is more of a backroom technical coach like he was at Chelsea and not an out and out manager, he lacks leadership, inspiration, Mkhitarayan clearly wanted to play under the charasmatic Klopp rather than the dull Rodgers so he chose Klopp.
Im pretty sure Mkhitaryan wanted Champions League football more than to play for a “charismatic” manager. Interestingly enough though Klopp was manager of a 1st division club when he was appointed Dortmund manager in 2008. They finished 6th then 5th in his first two seasons. Funnily enough the club didnt sack him, but let him bring through young players and purchase successfully. That resulted in them winning back to back league titles in 2010-2012. So he had two full seasons in charge prior to winning anything significant. I’m not suggesting we’ll win the league in 2 seasons time but we will have improved significantly from the last 4 years of 7th, 6th, 8th and 7th.
Klopp performed miracles at Mainz , getting promoted and guiding to European qualification which is like Crewe getting into Europe
Also there was / is only one rich club to beat in Germany ….so not the same challenge as premier league
Klopp had proved himself before getting Dortmund job .Rodgers has done nothing to suggest he is capable of success…in fact due to his woeful first season I’d say he had proved himself incapable
Didn’t he then get them relegated then though? If Big Sam gets West Ham into the Europa League would you want him in charge next season? Rodgers brought a team up and kept them up, then moved to us. Improved our league position and our style of football.
Rodgers team was inherited . All Swansea fans will tell you that Martinez deserves all the credit
…and didn’t laudrup improve Swansea much further ?
And Rodgers certainly did NOT improve Liverpool. Last year was disgraceful and embarrassing
Yeah Mkhitarayan wanted CL football as well as playing for Klopp.
CL football that Rodgers was Unable to deliver having spent over 50m net in his first calendar year.
Fair enough Geoff, I can tell you arent a Rodgers fan, Would you have preferred to have stayed with Kenny? The team won more league matches, scored more goals and finished a place higher. He also lowered the age and wage bill of the club aswell as played a whole host of young players. In my eyes that’s an improvement. With regards to the spending, 50million was never going to get us back in the Champions League after a 4 year absence and a team full of over payed players who should never have been at Liverpool in the first place. One last point on Swansea is for all the credit Maritnez deserves, did he ever actually get them into the Premier League? So Rodgers gets credit for that and for keeping them in the league, as does Laudrup for doing so well with them last season. Cheers gents
Anyone would have been better than Rodgers. All this more points , more goals got us nowhere. We were much more of a force under Kenny….as in case you didn’t notice – there are 4 competitions every season not just one …so what we finished 7th …big deal . No cup runs makes it a worse season.
As for playing youth …he only did that in first 5 months because Rodgers himself left the squad so woefully short..once January came all.the youth were dropped
You talk about over priced , over paid players under Kenny. Maybe so . But Rodgers hasn’t helped . Allen Borini Assaidi Sahin were all shocking wastes of money and average players who should never wear our jersey
i wld except assaidi from the list. we ve seen glimpses of him to know that playing time wld do him good. he might not be world class but he wld make a good squad player
Totally disagree . Don’t think the guy would get in ANY premier team
Sorry Geoff but we won 3 games after Christmas in Kennys full season in charge, winning the League cup doesn’t make us a force any longer not does it make up for that. As for the youth, I’m sure Henderson, wisdom, sterling, ibe and Coutinho all played after January. All of those are young players. Assiaidi cost 2-3 million, I’d not call him a waste of money as he’ll be sold for a similar amount this summer if not more. I doubt anyone could convince you on Allen or Borini or Rodgers in fact so I’ll admit defeat and hope that I’m proven right as the season goes on. Cheers Geoff
You keep making up stuff to suit your arguments. You don’t seem to know the facts
Henderson and Coutinho are 10 million plus players NOT YOUTH . Stop being ridiculous.
Ibe played once . Wisdom once or twice max and sterling played very little after coutinho arrival
Your arguments are childish. Kenny got us to 2 finals and beat utd Chelsea and Everton on the way . If that’s not being a force , what is ? Rodgers had no major injuries and no cup runs to worry about after February . Stop making pathetic excuses for a pathetic manager …it’s embarrassing !
Winning a cup also qualified us for Europe…something else Rodgers failed to do
Yes good point, Rodgers didnt even qualify for The Europa League yet this has gone completely un-noticed by the media and Rodgers fanboys. Other top six club managers would get sacked for non-qualification of Europe.
isnt that how low we ve sunk under rodgers that non qualification to europe now seems normal????? hoping this farce doesnt repeat itself
If you want to support a club that goes around sacking managers fair enough gents, fortunately the owners don’t agree with that course of action. Surely, youth is determined by age and not price tag? Wisdom played 12 times last season, a third of a league season. That’s a decent amount of games for a 20 year old. Sterling is 18 and if you expect a young lad to play every game in a season then you are expecting a bit much. Winning the league cup and finishing 8th is not going to take the club forward in my opinion. Would you both think differently of Rodgers if we had won the league or FA cup last season? I doubt it.
“a club that goes around sacking mansgers” WTF ? If we have a good manager …dont sack him .If we have a rubbish manager …sack him
Thats common sense…something you don’t seem to have
Winning the league cup and finishing 8th takes the club a lot further forward than 7th and early cup exits ….
Isn’t winning trophies the aim of a club like Liverpool ? ….or do people like you and Rodgers just target 4th place as our goal ? Nonsense
With your lack of football understanding and lack of understanding of our football club , you really are not in a position to write about it.
Wrong again james, Hodgson was sacked by FSG after 3 months and Dalglish sacked after 18 months yet you say these aren’t the sort of owners that sack managers. You don’t know much or have a selective memory.
James . Get a clue you clown . Your supposed to know stuff if you write.here.
Your article is full of wrong info and incorrect fact
*We won 5 since xmas in Kenny full season not 3 . Wake up*
“would you both think differently of rodgers if we had won the league or fa cup. I doubt it?” you dont understand the implications of wining the league nd fa cup. do you? your quote makes it sound like u think its the same thing with where rodgers has placed us. another sign/evidence of brenda rodger syndrome. Fortunately or unfortunately am not infected. had we won the above, we wont be the only ones thinking differently, suarez, henrick, real madrid, arsenal, the english fa, brenda rodgers etc wld also be thinking differently.