MancFox24

Still slightly nervous about a midfield pairing of Tielemans and Soumare but you can't say he hasn't been brave in his selections. Hopefully Maddison will give us more control than we had in the first half against Wolves

He's really annoying. Nobody made Sky choose this game for TV. We could have all told him it would be a shit one sided game. Instead of whinging about it being like a training session, maybe give some context by saying how one team has been put together using the billions of a human rights abusing country

Nope. If you ain't happy with Maddison's performance in that first half then can only imagine what you think of the rest

Let's look at the positive, Maddison has been really good and I like the position he's playing. Has to give him this free role for the rest of the season

Not so much Rodgers in until the end but I definitely supported him more than others. I would have been annoyed at the club if they let him go at the start of the season but that doesn't mean it was the wrong decision. And you're right that once the season started I was largely supportive throughout. I thought there was one opportunity after the Brighton away defeat where they could have got rid cus it looked like the players had stopped playing for him. Apart from that I sort of kept faith that he would pull us out of trouble and I didn't see who would be a better replacement- we'll never know for sure but there's pretty strong evidence I got that wrong. Either way it doesn't change my view that the underlying issues aren't of Rodgers making. To say 'the finances were what they were' is giving a pretty big pass to those responsible.

I don't think that's the way a football club runs. Rodgers was given alot of power at the club and I agree that was a mistake but I find it really hard to believe he had anything to do with the finances. And this is where I disagree alot with those who are mainly blaming Rodgers. He would have had had nothing to do with the price we paid for a player or the contract negotiations. I agree there were some dud signings in there and he needs to take some of the blame for that, but show me a club who doesn't make a few bad signings. The difference is that the contracts reflect the value of the player so if they do turn out to be poor signings you can cut your losses and get rid. We haven't been able to do that because we were handing out contracts as if we were paying them with monopoly money. And from what Rodgers said it was very much the case that he'd identified target areas and players (maybe not De Bruyne) and was fully expecting to be able to make those changes, only to be told when he got back for pre season there was no money available.

This is an example of where people had it in for Rodgers no matter what he did. We all heard those press conferences after a crap performance where he would defend the players and say we were the better team and fans would call him out for it. But pretty much the only occasion where he went to town on the players and gave some much needed home truths after the forest game and he's called out for that as well. I agree to a certain extent that he let his ego get in the way and his demeanour had definitely changed at the start of this season. But players aren't stupid. If they know that there aren't any new players coming in to challenge in their positions then their performance levels will drop, even if it's only subconsciously. It won't make any difference what the manager is saying. So if we had no money to refresh the squad the only way to shake things up would have been to bring in a new manager. And it needed someone strong enough to have that honest conversation with Rodgers well before pre season so we could have gone our separate ways. Maybe a lesson out of all of this is to recognise that you don't always have to wait for things to turn to shit before moving on from a manager.

I've said this loads of times on this forum, but Rodgers was asked early in the season when he was told there was no money available for new transfers and he said not until he got back for pre season. Nobody from the club has ever disputed this as far as I'm aware. The fact that wasn't communicated earlier was ridiculous. I think he may have walked or at least looked for other opportunities had he known. Instead the negativity was allowed to set in and it's carried on throughout the season.

Fair enough, might be being a bit harsh on him because I do like him. I think that goal against Villa was so good and shows the talent he has. I don't expect him to be a world beater every game but the difference between his good games and bad games is massive. I also think you can tell within 10 minutes if he's going to have a good game or not. If someone gets into him early then he seems to go into his shell a bit.

So if they would walk into squads below 10th then they would have also been in a relegation threatened team this year? Maddison and Youri aside, I'm not sure I share your confidence in these players' abilities. Barnes has 1 good game in 4- might be enough to get him a move but the price will put teams off. We were looking for buyers for Kel and Cags in the summer and none came. If ricky, castagne, and ndidi get moves then it will be purely based on performances 2 years ago rather than the last 2 years

From Everton I would take Pickford over Ward/Iverson, Tarkowski over Faes, Coady over Souttar, Onana over KDH, Doucoure or Gueye over Ndidi. Don't think there's much between Mykolenko/Coleman full backs and Castagne/Kristiansen's. Don't think it's nearly as categorical as you're making out.

So by that logic the other half of our squad doesn't stroll into their sides and half of their squads also stroll into ours?

I don't think it's inconsistent at all to say we had a really strong squad a couple of years ago and now it looks as weak as anything in the PL. Schmeichel and Fofana have gone, JJ and Ricky have had long term injuries, Evans is a couple of years older, and Soyuncu's form fell off a cliff well before he was dropped. And that's just the back line. Football changes very quickly. Just look at Delli Ali's career. I think the attitude that we finished 5th a couple if seasons ago with a similar squad so should be good enough now is exactly the one that the board had. And it's left us with a stale squad and players running down their contracts. In the meantime, all the clubs around us have strengthened. We finished 8th last year but anyone who watched us would know that was a false position- we played like a lower half team. I don't think it can be any surprise that after the lack of investment in the summer we've found ourselves in the position we're in.

I'd much rather a permanent appointment cus I think players who are going to be here after the summer will be much more likely to respond to a manager who they know is going to be in charge of them. The place needs a big lift- as poor a squad as I think we've got, it's not as bad as those last 3 performances. Not sure Smith is the man to do it but if that's who the club are going with then we've got no choice but to get behind him

Watched a bit of Watford this year and Choudhary hasn't really stood out. Albrighton has been dropped to the bench for the last few West Brom games. If these are starting for us next year then the rebuild hasn't gone well

That's an optimistic view. Maddison will go for about £30m. If we manage to sell any of the others it will be in the £10-£20m bracket I imagine. I'm hoping the club were smart in putting relegation clauses in contracts but I wouldn't bet on it. You're right that recruitment will be really important but the type of market we'll be looking in is completely different to where we'll have been planning to be looking.

We'll be in a really bad situation. Parachute payments are 55% of what we get in the PL and we already struggle to meet FFP. With no real assets to sell for good money and those who do stay being on PL level wages, it will leave very little room to get in any decent replacements for those leaving. Those suggesting it might be a good thing to go down and reset don't seem to understand how bad a situation we're in

Tete looked a threat when he came on. Faes was OK. I like Kristiansen's attitude (wish he had the ability to go with it). That's all I've got for positives. I always trust managers and coaches who've got all their coaching badges and work day in day out with this players to know far more about tactics than me. I'm just struggling to see any logic to amartey, soumare and vardy starting that game.

Some accused Rodgers of spreading too much negativity around the place. They should try reading this forum some time

But you can't look at the Vestegaard and Bertrand transfers/contracts in isolation. It's the wage structure as a whole. If we're paying £50k a week for a squad player then of course an agent of a potential signing is going to be asking for similar. And that wage structure is entirely the responsibility of the board, it has nothing to do with the manager. Of course those 2 signings were duds, but we can take a hit on those if they're on reasonable contracts. I have no idea how insistent Rodgers was on them, I don't know where you've got the information he was. But even if he was, the moment their agents starts asking for ridiculous contracts, you just move on to other targets. Just look at the losses we're recording year on year. We're in a really bad position financially. This isn't because of transfer fees- like I said earlier, we're one of the lowest net spenders in the league. The financial mismanagement at the club is unbelievable and alot of those responsible will have been happy to use Rodgers as a shield. And I'm afraid alot of our fanbase has played along with that. I hope that at least now he's gone people will start turning their attention to the people who have actually got us in this mess

Agree with most of this. I do think Maddison himself wants to play centrally and while he did a good job playing from the right under Rodgers, I think he respected Rodgers alot and was willing to do it. His body language didn't look great to me on Tuesday. I know one player isn't bigger than the team but I kinda think in our situation he is the team and if he wants to play centrally then we need to accommodate him. In general, I thought our tactics were confused against Villa. We occasionally tried to press but not as a team and that left us open at times. We started out playing from the back and as soon as Villa had a bit of success in the press we started just lumping it forward to an isolated Vardy. I just think we need a clear message about what we're trying to do. I'll give the caretakers the benefit of the doubt for the Villa game but I think there needs to be some evidence of a plan against Bournemouth. If we lose that I think we have to start planning for the championship and that would include bringing in a manager who is willing to stay for a promotion push. The names won't be as attractive as some people want be I think we have to be realistic.

We can all look with hindsight at these signings but I remember listening to people who know alot more about European football than me and they were singing the praises of Daka and Soumare. Bertrand was signed as a squad player, we were forced into signing Vestergaard by Fofana's injury, Perez was overpriced but was playing well for Newcastle. And none of these were bought for ridiculous transfer fees compared to what others have been spending. I think we're the 3rd lowest net spenders in the league since Rodgers came- alot of that is about how much money we were able to get in but we were only able to get that sort of money because we were doing well under Rodgers. Do you think we're getting £80m for Maguire, £70m for Fofana, £50m for Chilwell if we're a lower mid table club? You say contracts wasn't wholly Rodgers fault. That wasn't Rodgers fault at all. He would have had nothing to do with the length or size of contract. The wages we've put some of these players on is ridiculous. Had it been more sensible, Praet, Vestegaard and Soumare wouldn't be at the club any more. So because of those contracts we've been left with an unbalanced and bloated squad and our finances are in a mess. The squad is stale and we've been forced to rely on certain players playing every game which inevitably leads to more injuries. Every club makes bad transfers, but if you are sensible with the contracts you put them on then it allows you to get them out of the club, take a bit of a hit financially but move on. I also completely disagree with you about the quality of the league this year. I think it's as strong as I can remember it which is why you've got 9 clubs battling for survival rather than 4/5. The 3 promoted clubs all spent big and are much stronger than previous years.

Do you honestly think that if we stay up this year that a target next year will be to win a cup? I think you might be underestimating the scale of the problems at the club.

I agree, I think they'll only be able to get somebody who is out of work and has a point to prove

Anyone whose listened to Keane as a pundit will know he's pretty limited tactically. But I'm not sure tactics are gonna save us. We need a good man manager who can give the place a lift. I don't know if Keane is the man to do it but I wouldn't rule him out