Brendan Rodgers

[STUHILL]

Realistic outcome will be an interim manager like Appleton or even Big Sam come in for the next 11 games - with Rodgers all but agreed for taking over in the summer. 

 

I just can't see Rodgers walking away now from his boyhood club and another treble winning season so close. I am sure he wants this job but ideally in the summer. 

 

 

[CloudFox]

8 minutes ago, murphy said:

I disagree.  The trouble is that because of the slow build up the opposition defence and midfield is set and in shape and the space is squeezed.  There is no space to make runs or get in behind.  We are so easy to defend against.  The final third is a bottleneck.

 

Regarding tempo, yes, improving that would help and many of us have been saying that for ages but for whatever reason, we have been totally unable to play possession at high tempo.  Looking at how animated  Puel is on the touchline, he wanted the same thing but we can't execute it. 

 

 

 

 

 

There's always space to make runs...it's a bloody great football pitch! Joking aside, I understand what you're saying - I think we've just been too static up front at times. Vardy especially.

 

It's funny to think that if we had a target man up front we might actually be doing better now with all those crosses coming in...but as Vardy is our main striker it has to be about all forward players constantly looking at ways to stretch play.

Edited 25 February 2019 by CloudFox

[Captain...]

1 hour ago, Ricey said:

The slow football is my only concern with him, only because it's a bugbear that is so much at the forefront in our fans minds. Anybody coming in needs to add some intensity to our play to get a positive reaction from the fans.

Patient football isn’t necessarily bad football, we are just bad at Puel’s version of it.

 

It wouldn’t take a lot to turn it around, even if all he does is pick Puel’s team and just gets them fired up and full of confidence. The issue has been the mistakes made by players short on confidence and not comfortable in their game. So much of sport is mental and we look mentally shot so many games we are undone by stupid mistakes. If Rodgers or whoever can get the players to believe in themselves and the system you will see an instant turn around.

[Babylon]

Just now, murphy said:

I disagree.  The trouble is that because of the slow build up the opposition defence and midfield is set and in shape and the space is squeezed.  There is no space to make runs or get in behind.  We are so easy to defend against.

 

Regarding tempo, yes, improving that would help many of us have been saying that for ages but for whatever reason, we have been totally unable to play possession at high tempo.

It's slow because there is nobody to pass to half the time, all the forward players are stood like statues and don't even attempt to pull defenders about. For that style to work they all need to be moving, I'm not saying running in behind, I'm saying someone comes to the ball, someone makes a move across the line to drag players out of position for someone to move into. Nobody even attempts to create a bloody triangle, it's one man on the ball and 5 or 6 stood in front of him, marked and not moving. Where's he going to go? Backwards or sideways.

 

Watching Palace most of their attacks they didn't even commit more than two or a max of three forward, so no matter how quickly we attacked they had numbers back to cover and with some to spare.

[murphy]

8 minutes ago, st albans fox said:

presumably he was coaching them to do it ?????

 

i have my doubts on that score …...

I think he wanted us to keep possession hence the sideways, backwards, easy potions passing, so maybe.  Perhaps he just wanted us to be better at it and quicker?

 

Rodgers is the same though.  If we can't do it for Puel, what makes us think we can do it for him.

 

 

 

[MPH]

1 hour ago, Foxy_Bear said:

I'm personally not against it. I just feel people on here have completely the wrong idea about him. 

 

Having watched him in Scotland for the last few years with easily the best squad in the country and many times the recourse than every other club.... I just don't understand why some seem to think he plays this attractive brand of football.

 

HE DOES NOT. 

 

Celtic fans love him but their only criticism of him is that he often plays a slow,possession based type game with far to many sideways and backwards passing. 

 

My other concern with him is his track record on the transfer market. Every club he's been at seems to have spent a decent amount of money with not a lot of his players making much of an impact for the club. 

 

He's a decent option but he's not gonna come here and install an attacking style. It'll be much like Puels only hopefully more successful. 

Doesn’t really have any other option at Celtic though  does he?

 

 

Becsuse celtic are indeed the best team in the country by a mile, every other team gets EVERYONE behind the ball. breaking them down methodically is sometimes the only option. He certainly wasn’t that way at Liverpool.

 

 

Besides, we don’t command the same respect celtic do from the teams in their division

[moore_94]

What was his playing style like at Swansea and Liverpool?

 

I feel like at Celtic when it comes to the playing style of possession football he has no choice but to play that way because 99% of their matches are going to be against teams who will be sitting back and setting up to try and get a draw from them.

[KrefelderFox666]

22 minutes ago, murphy said:

I think he wanted us to keep possession hence the sideways, backwards, easy potions passing, so maybe.  Perhaps he just wanted us to be better at it and quicker?

 

Rodgers is the same though.  If we can't do it for Puel, what makes us think we can do it for him.

 

 

 

The only thing I hope is that someone like Rodgers would have a plan B and a plan C. I think that was Puel's downfall, reluctance to change. He had good ideas but they didn't seem to work here.

[KrefelderFox666]

13 minutes ago, moore_94 said:

What was his playing style like at Swansea and Liverpool?

 

I feel like at Celtic when it comes to the playing style of possession football he has no choice but to play that way because 99% of their matches are going to be against teams who will be sitting back and setting up to try and get a draw from them.

I think generally possession based and pressing. However, he plays a variety of formations not just 4-2-3-1.

[Gerard]

27 minutes ago, moore_94 said:

What was his playing style like at Swansea and Liverpool?

 

I feel like at Celtic when it comes to the playing style of possession football he has no choice but to play that way because 99% of their matches are going to be against teams who will be sitting back and setting up to try and get a draw from them.

 

He is known for his possession football but good managers are always pragmatists. If Pep inherited the Brian Little Leicester side I'm sure he would have played to our strengths before changing gradually.  

 

 

[nnfox]

I'm not convinced by Rodgers at all.

 

Let's forget about the mixed bag of results he had at Watford and Reading for a minute and look at him from his Swansea days...

 

Swansea were a Championship team when he took over and they went up via the play-offs.  He managed them for one season in the Premier league.  As is the case with newly promoted teams, there are times when they ride their wave of confidence and pick up decent results.  Look at Huddersfield last season, Wolves this season etc. Rodgers did well.

 

Then he went to Liverpool.  During his first season they finished 7th and were knocked out of the cup by League One Oldham.

 

People obviously remember the 2014 season where Liverpool bottled it at the end. It was a great season to be fair, but I'd argue that any team with Gerard, Suarez and Coutiho in is in with a chance of winning multiple games of football.

 

The following season was a let down. Dumped out of the Champions League in the group stage and dumped out of the Europa Cup by Basel. They finished 6th in the league and lost 6-1 to Stoke.

 

The 2015/16 season (the greatest season of all time) saw Rodgers sacked in October after one win in 9 games.  With Liverpool. After spending hundreds of millions on players.

 

He then moves north of the border where he inherits the best team in what is essentially a one team league and, following in the footsteps of Ronny Deila winning back to back league titles, Rodgers wins... back to back titles (ok, he won more cups).

 

The point is, I just don't think he's that good and if he did come here, I can't see that we'd really progress.  In 6 months it'll be "Rodgers out" and in 18 months (if that) he'll be gone.

 

This is going to be a really tricky appointment.

[Realist Guy In The Room]

Brenny would be money well spent.  He’s take us up a level no doubt.  Plus we’d see nuff good players sign.

 

 

[DerbyshireFox]

1 hour ago, murphy said:

I disagree.  The trouble is that because of the slow build up the opposition defence and midfield is set and in shape and the space is squeezed.  There is no space to make runs or get in behind.  We are so easy to defend against.  The final third is a bottleneck.

 

Regarding tempo, yes, improving that would help and many of us have been saying that for ages but for whatever reason, we have been totally unable to play possession at high tempo.  Looking at how animated  Puel is on the touchline, he wanted the same thing but we can't execute it. 

 

 

 

 

 

The frustration is in some of the away games (particularly against the ‘big’ sides), we can pass the ball quickly and accurately. It’s one of the bug bears of the home performances, there was no reason we couldn’t do that at home, even facing ten behind the ball. Moving the ball quicker would have helped greatly, but they just can’t do it consistently. Many a game Claude would be going made on the touchline. Whoever comes in needs to find a way of mixing the possession we are capable of with playing at a higher tempo. We have to have more strings to our bow than counter attacks

[Babylon]

30 minutes ago, nnfox said:

I'm not convinced by Rodgers at all.

 

Let's forget about the mixed bag of results he had at Watford and Reading for a minute and look at him from his Swansea days...

 

Swansea were a Championship team when he took over and they went up via the play-offs.  He managed them for one season in the Premier league.  As is the case with newly promoted teams, there are times when they ride their wave of confidence and pick up decent results.  Look at Huddersfield last season, Wolves this season etc. Rodgers did well.

 

Then he went to Liverpool.  During his first season they finished 7th and were knocked out of the cup by League One Oldham.

 

People obviously remember the 2014 season where Liverpool bottled it at the end. It was a great season to be fair, but I'd argue that any team with Gerard, Suarez and Coutiho in is in with a chance of winning multiple games of football.

 

The following season was a let down. Dumped out of the Champions League in the group stage and dumped out of the Europa Cup by Basel. They finished 6th in the league and lost 6-1 to Stoke.

 

The 2015/16 season (the greatest season of all time) saw Rodgers sacked in October after one win in 9 games.  With Liverpool. After spending hundreds of millions on players.

 

He then moves north of the border where he inherits the best team in what is essentially a one team league and, following in the footsteps of Ronny Deila winning back to back league titles, Rodgers wins... back to back titles (ok, he won more cups).

 

The point is, I just don't think he's that good and if he did come here, I can't see that we'd really progress.  In 6 months it'll be "Rodgers out" and in 18 months (if that) he'll be gone.

 

This is going to be a really tricky appointment.

I'm not sure there is a manager we could hope to attract that doesn't have question marks over them or sketchy patches in their careers, presuming they are more than a year or two in management.

[murphy]

1 hour ago, Babylon said:

It's slow because there is nobody to pass to half the time, all the forward players are stood like statues and don't even attempt to pull defenders about. For that style to work they all need to be moving, I'm not saying running in behind, I'm saying someone comes to the ball, someone makes a move across the line to drag players out of position for someone to move into. Nobody even attempts to create a bloody triangle, it's one man on the ball and 5 or 6 stood in front of him, marked and not moving. Where's he going to go? Backwards or sideways.

 

Watching Palace most of their attacks they didn't even commit more than two or a max of three forward, so no matter how quickly we attacked they had numbers back to cover and with some to spare.

I think that if a side sets up like Palace did and as most of the lesser clubs do, then by not committing players forwards it follows that there is no space for the movement that we may be lacking.  All they have to do is keep shape and not follow runners in front of them.  As long as we play in front of them, they are quite happy.

 

One of our biggest problems is that we have conceded the first goal 19 times out of 27 games.  That is ridiculous.  If we were able to score first it would make teams have to be more adventurous at the KP and allow us to play.

[foxes21]

He would fit our youth policy perfectly. 

 

He promotes youth regularly at Celtic and even in Liverpool’s 13/14 title run he put faith in youngsters like Coutinho, Flanagan, Sterling, Sturridge and Henderson.

[lifted*fox]

[murphy]

1 hour ago, CloudFox said:

There's always space to make runs...it's a bloody great football pitch! Joking aside, I understand what you're saying - I think we've just been too static up front at times. Vardy especially.

 

It's funny to think that if we had a target man up front we might actually be doing better now with all those crosses coming in...but as Vardy is our main striker it has to be about all forward players constantly looking at ways to stretch play.

Not when all the players are concentrated in the final third it's not.  That's what I'm saying, teams sit deep and create a bottleneck that we can't play through.

 

I agree with you that a target man would be a good option off the bench though.

[StriderHiryu]

 

Stolen shamelessly from Outside of the Boot:
http://outsideoftheboot.com/2015/07/08/tactical-philosophy-brendan-rodgers/

 

Background

Before dreaming of football philosophies, Brendan Rodgers dreamed of becoming an accomplished footballer himself. He played for Reading as a teenager and even captained the youth team. Unfortunately, the dream of playing senior professional football was cut short by a genetic knee condition, forcing him to retire at the early age of 20.

The Irishman, however, stayed at Reading as a youth coach and would go on to become the Academy Director. In between, he paid frequent visits to Spain and learnt Spanish. More importantly, he began to understand the Spanish language of football.

The path of footballing education soon led him to Jose Mourinho at Chelsea. Mourinho himself had built a career through meticulous study and tactical analysis of football, and perhaps saw a bit of himself in Rodgers. The Portuguese manager made Rodgers in-charge of the youth team and, subsequently, the reserves of the Blues.

The desire of expressing his passion for football after a failed career as a player, accompanied by his fascination for the Spanish way of playing and the experience of working under a tactician as accomplished as Mourinho has made Rodgers the man of football that he is today.

His approach to football is testament to this.

---

Tactical Philosophy

In his early years as manager of Watford and then Reading, Rodgers was unsure of his playing style. There would be frequent experiments with an English 4-4-2 formation, which was clearly at odds with the pass-and-move style he so coveted.

At Reading, however, things did begin to fall into place. Rodgers brought on loan Gylfi Sigurdsson, an attacking midfielder who played behind the striker. The presence of Sigurdsson in midfield as a creative as well as a goal-scoring outlet convinced Rodgers that the key to dominate football lay in midfield, and that is where his team should be the strongest.

His subsequent move to Swansea could not have been better-timed. Swansea had established a tiki-taka style through Roberto Martinez and Paulo Sousa, and Rodgers got the perfect platform to exhibit his philosophy. For this, he brought Sigurdsson on loan once again and assembled his team as seen below-

The result was an unconventional amalgamation of two apparently contrasting styles.

The presence of attacking full-backs (Taylor and Rangel), a holding midfielder (Leon Britton), a playmaker with a metronomic, Xavi-like way of passing and moving (Joe Allen) and inverted wingers (Sinclair) was clearly an off-shoot of tiki-taka and ‘juego de posicion’, whose modern-day model is Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona.

The system of Rodgers at Swansea was, therefore, predominantly based on:-

• Possession (i.e. attacking with the ball and then resting with the ball)
• Moving the ball from side-to-side to open up spaces
• Defending in zones rather than in a fixed formation

Having said that, there were slight tweaks to improve efficiency and goal-scoring, probably made in light of the fact that there was no Lionel Messi in Swansea. Instead of an elusive dribbler in midfield in the ilk of Iniesta, Rodgers had a running, goal-scoring midfielder (Sigurdsson) much like Frank Lampard of Mourinho’s Chelsea. He also had an out-and-out striker in Danny Graham instead of a ‘false nine’.

In doing so, Rodgers added a pinch of Mourinho’s pragmatism to Guardiola’s ideals, thus ensuring he could play possession football without compromising results.

Swansea’s philosophy:

Leon Britton passes to Joe Allen

Allen, finding space behind the opposition marker, runs past him.

Allen passes to Sinclair on the left wing (not in picture)

Sinclair loses the ball and, immediately, Swansea start pressing to get the ball back, starting from their forward, Borini

Allen comes from midfield to cut off passing lanes and apply pressure

Alan Tate, the left back, comes up to press on the wing. Allen stays alive to receive the ball.

Allen finally intercepts and heads the ball out to Sinclair

Sinclair, instead of running at the defender, passes the ball back to Tate, who has now dropped slightly deeper into space.

Tate now switches wings to find Nathan Dyer in potential openings on the right wing.

In 2012, Liverpool came calling. There were lofty expectations at the Kop End, a desire to return to the glory days of Shankly. On the other hand, Rodgers scarcely had the personnel to fit his philosophy- players like Jordan Henderson, Stuart Downing and Andy Carroll were more suited to the traditional 4-4-2 system.

After a difficult first 6 months, Rodgers brought in Coutinho and Sturridge and assembled his team thus:

Recognizing that, in Luis Suarez, he had a forward of extraordinary ability and personality, Rodgers built a team around the Uruguayan’s attacking prowess. From a possession-based team, the Reds turned into a high-pressing, vertically passing group which launched counter-attacks at breakneck speeds.

The skill of Suarez upfront was complemented by the pace of Daniel Sturridge, while Raheem Sterling, with his mazy dribbling, provided channels for the forwards to run into. Steven Gerrard was re-invented as a regista, ably assisted by Coutinho in playmaking duties and Henderson flourished in the box-to-box role.

The Liverpool of 2013/14 turned out to be an efficient counter-attacking unit and showcased Rodgers’ ability to adapt and evolve. When he knew that his Swansea tactics had little chances of success, he turned to man-management and built a system based on the strengths of individual players. The message was clear- when a manager’s ideas do not work, he turns to his players and knowing his players’ strengths and weaknesses needs to be a part of his tactical philosophy as much as any pre-conceived ideal.

He had been hired to make Liverpool the English Barcelona; he ended up making them the English Dortmund. Not that the Anfield faithful were complaining.

Liverpool’s counter attacking moves explained:

Move 1:

Suarez receives the ball deep in his own half and turns into space.

Suarez passes to Henderson

Suarez, in a show of leadership, directs Henderson to switch wings

Sturridge receives the ball, accompanied by fullback Jon Flanagan, to create a potent counter-attack

Move 2:

Here, Henderson is pressing the opposition, a part of his role in the team

Henderson’s pressing induces an erroneous pass by the opposition. Gerrard intercepts and passes to Coutinho

Coutinho immediately turns and looks for Suarez, who begins to make a run

Coutinho lobs a curling aerial ball in the path of Suarez, who is now looking for Sturridge

Suarez makes a first-time pass for Sturridge to release the latter onto goal

Sturridge chips, but misses

Move 3:

Henderson pressing once again. He follows his man to the right wing.

Henderson wins possession to break forward

Henderson passes to Suarez with space already opening up on the opposite side

Suarez, yet again, passes first time to release Sterling and Sturridge. Sterling scores.

Move 4:

Under pressure from Henderson and Flanagan, a pass is made to Wilshere. Coutinho is alive to the situation

Coutinho intercepts and breaks forward

Coutinho threads a curling ball behind Arsenal’s defence for Sturridge (only partially visible)

Sturridge uses his pace to run into the space behind Arsenal’s defence

Sturridge scores

---

Three Career-Defining Games

The 4-2 win against former employers Reading in the Championship Play-off Final(2010/11) with Swansea was an important victory for Rodgers. Not only did he confirm the Welsh club’s Premier League status, but also quelled doubts over the success of possession-based team-play in England, at least at the Championship Level.

His debut season in the Premier League with Swansea dispelled any remaining apprehensions about his philosophy. In a stellar first season, the Swans ended in 11^thposition. On the way, they won against Chelsea and eventual-champions Manchester City at home, and held Liverpool to a 0-0 draw at Anfield, receiving a standing ovation from the Liverpool fans at the end of the match.

Their most significant achievement, however, was beating Arsenal 3-2 at home. Arsenal, in the past decade, has been the team to watch when it comes to playing flowing, attractive, passing football. By winning against the Gunners, Swansea and Rodgers announced their arrival on the English scene as an accomplished possession-based team.

The move to Liverpool brought about a tactical evolution in Rodgers’ philosophy and nowhere was this more evident than in the 5-1 win against Arsenal at Anfield. From beating the Gunners at their own game, Rodgers adopted almost opposite tactics this time and targeted Arsenal’s soft centre. The result- 4 goals scored in the first 20 minutes.

---

Three Key Players Developed

“There comes a time when you have to let them go (and play), because sometimes you never know until they are in the arena, they just want that opportunity.

“I (realised) that I could help young players and prepare them, and if I told them they were going to play they would play. Then they would be given the opportunity.

“Each player is different, you look at their pathway and what is going to be best for them but ultimately I want them to play for the first team, to feel that passion, to feel the love of the supporters and to be given the opportunity to show they can be a professional.”

Rodgers acquired considerable experience in developing youth during his time as youth coach at Reading and then Chelsea. That, along with his aforementioned views, has turned him into an ideal manager for youngsters.

Joe Allen is one such player. Under Rodgers’ tutelage, the diminutive yet gifted midfielder became a regular starter at Swansea and followed Rodgers to Liverpool in 2012.

At Liverpool, Rodgers has helped winger Raheem Sterling blossom into one of the most highly-rated youngsters in England. The 22-year old would be ill-advised to leave Rodgers for Manchester City at this stage of his career. For this, he needs to look no further than Scott Sinclair, another talented winger who was prolific at Swansea under Rodgers, but went to City too early and hasn’t played regularly since.

The player for which Rodgers deserves the most credit for, however, is Jordan Henderson. Henderson was one among the several British signings made under Kenny Dalglish and was unfortunately made the scapegoat for Liverpool’s failures. With Rodgers’ arrival, he has developed into a capable box-to-box midfielder. More importantly, he oozes confidence, determination and tactical awareness on the field and is set to be made captain of Liverpool with the departure of Steven Gerrard.

---

Brendan Rodgers’ tactical philosophy is not without fault. The Irishman is occasionally guilty of placing too much faith in youngsters instead of proven footballers. His recruitment policy at Liverpool has not been immaculate either.

Having said that, it is safe to say he has shown enough to be considered one of the most tactically innovative young managers in football. What’s more, he is not afraid of making necessary changes in formation or personnel when even more experienced managers would hesitate.

What Rodgers needs now is a touch of reality to go with his imagination, similar to the Mourinho-like adjustments he made to Swansea’s philosophy. For him, that might well turn out to be the difference between greatness and oblivion.

[Babylon]

1 minute ago, murphy said:

I think that if a side sets up like Palace did and as most of the lesser clubs do, then by not committing players forwards it follows that there is no space for the movement that we may be lacking.  All they have to do is keep shape and not follow runners in front of them.  As long as we play in front of them, they are quite happy.

 

One of our biggest problems is that we have conceded the first goal 19 times out of 27 games.  That is ridiculous.  If we were able to score first it would make teams have to be more adventurous at the KP and allow us to play.

11 players don't take up that much room, there is always room to make runs. if they choose not to follow then it means you will have a pass on. If they follow then it means there is a gap for someone to move into. I was specifically watching it again on Saturday because it's been annoying me so much, and again a complete lack of people showing for the ball or attempting to move players about. Nothing will happen no matter quick you pass it forward if nobody wants to move for it.

[ThaiFox]

39 minutes ago, nnfox said:

I'm not convinced by Rodgers at all.

 

Let's forget about the mixed bag of results he had at Watford and Reading for a minute and look at him from his Swansea days...

 

Swansea were a Championship team when he took over and they went up via the play-offs.  He managed them for one season in the Premier league.  As is the case with newly promoted teams, there are times when they ride their wave of confidence and pick up decent results.  Look at Huddersfield last season, Wolves this season etc. Rodgers did well.

 

Then he went to Liverpool.  During his first season they finished 7th and were knocked out of the cup by League One Oldham.

 

People obviously remember the 2014 season where Liverpool bottled it at the end. It was a great season to be fair, but I'd argue that any team with Gerard, Suarez and Coutiho in is in with a chance of winning multiple games of football.

 

The following season was a let down. Dumped out of the Champions League in the group stage and dumped out of the Europa Cup by Basel. They finished 6th in the league and lost 6-1 to Stoke.

 

The 2015/16 season (the greatest season of all time) saw Rodgers sacked in October after one win in 9 games.  With Liverpool. After spending hundreds of millions on players.

 

He then moves north of the border where he inherits the best team in what is essentially a one team league and, following in the footsteps of Ronny Deila winning back to back league titles, Rodgers wins... back to back titles (ok, he won more cups).

 

The point is, I just don't think he's that good and if he did come here, I can't see that we'd really progress.  In 6 months it'll be "Rodgers out" and in 18 months (if that) he'll be gone.

 

This is going to be a really tricky appointment.

I'm afraid I have to agree. I can see the glamour of managing Celtic, who are a huge club and guaranteed European football every season and maybe winning a few cups. I think it's a good breeding ground for young managers, like Gerrard who can find his management feet without too much pressure.

 

But there really isn't much of a challenge in Scottish football. As Celtic manager, once you beat Rangers you are a hero. Winning the league is going to be either Celtic or Rangers. What motivation is their playing Hamilton Accies, Motherwell, or St Mirren in a very dire P/L, or Albion Rovers or Stenhousemuir in a cup match? Hardly much of a challenge for a truly ambitious manager.

 

Rodgers will be under huge pressure if he comes here. The spotlight will be well and truly on him, because he is coming back from Celtic where basically he's proved he can win the treble twice, maybe three times, with a professional club, in what is basically a semi professional league.

 

Rangers have been out of it for several years but it's only taken a novice manager in Gerrard to almost catch Celtic up.

 

It's a very risky appointment, but then again, which manager isn't? Sacking Puel was the easy part.....now it gets very serious.

 

 

 

 

[ThaiFox]

1 hour ago, STUHILL said:

Realistic outcome will be an interim manager like Appleton or even Big Sam come in for the next 11 games - with Rodgers all but agreed for taking over in the summer. 

 

I just can't see Rodgers walking away now from his boyhood club and another treble winning season so close. I am sure he wants this job but ideally in the summer. 

 

 

I just hope if we appoint an interim manager that it doesn't turn into another permanent manager, like Shakespeare. 

 

I'm sure the players will be fired up for the next 11 games, and an interim manager, like a Moyes, Fat Sam or Hughes, may end up with a team finishing 7th or 8th. 

 

If the managers we are looking at are not available until the summer, I'd prefer us to just get through this season with what we have already in place, and wait for a proper manager, rather than settling for another permanent caretaker.

 

I'm sure Wes, Vardy and Kasper will manager the team through this period. After all, they seem to run the club in all other aspects. 

 

 

[fazzyfox]

9 minutes ago, Babylon said:

11 players don't take up that much room, there is always room to make runs. if they choose not to follow then it means you will have a pass on. If they follow then it means there is a gap for someone to move into. I was specifically watching it again on Saturday because it's been annoying me so much, and again a complete lack of people showing for the ball or attempting to move players about. Nothing will happen no matter quick you pass it forward if nobody wants to move for it.

Agree and I noticed it more than before on Saturday. The amount of times I shouted "Movement!", "Make a run someone", and when the player on the ball comes under pressure "Help him out", "Give him an option", it was that side of things that really wound me up. Part of it comes with confidence, when you're confident you all want the ball and you have the belief in yourself to try to move it quickly in tight areas but so often in the second half a player was being closed down and in front of him were just four or five static marked players. There was a lack of being selfless, making runs that draw people away even though you're unlikely to be the one who gets played in and very little anticipation of things we can all see such as Ndidi holding off a challenge and gesturing for a passing option (that falls within his limitations) but nobody making a decent angle for him. 

[Outfox the Fox]

Rodgers' Assistant Manager at Celtic (and previous clubs) is Chris Davies.  Davies was a City Academy Coach between 2005 and 2007 - under (then) Academy Manager, Jon Rudkin.  I wonder whether his connections with Rudders, might have lead to discussions with Rodgers - and might ease any deal ?!

Edited 25 February 2019 by Outfox the Fox

[Babylon]

1 minute ago, Outfox the Fox said:

Rodgers' Assistant Manager at Celtic (and previous clubs) is Chris Davies.  Davies was a City Academy Coach between 2005 and 2007 - under (then) Academy Manager, Jon Rudkin.  I wonder whether his connections with Rudders, might have lead to discussions with Rodgers- and might ease any deal ?!

Interesting.