BRENDAN Official

[Guest SO1]

3 hours ago, yorkie1999 said:

Just watched a couple of interviews and i must say, it makes a refreshing change to listen to someone that you can actually understand what he's talking about.  One thing i can't quite understand though is, why was eden hazard at the game last night?

Looks like his son Anton next to him. Maybe?

[MC Prussian]

18 minutes ago, SO1 said:

Looks like his son Anton next to him. Maybe?

Anton is proper meme material. 

 

(Sorry, Anton - just saying)

[Guest SO1]

11 minutes ago, MC Prussian said:

Anton is proper meme material. 

 

(Sorry, Anton - just saying)

My God! Your right. I didn't even know what that word meant. Now all I can see are balloons galore.

[KingsX]

Please re-fasten your seat belts, ladies and gentlemen.

 

[Koke]

5 hours ago, Swan Lesta said:

https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/why-brendan-rodgers-needs-his-shiny-new-leicester-project-human-beings-need-oxygen

 

I quite liked this balanced read....

 

Tbh I always thought he was an obnoxious cvnt who was full of himself. Unbearable and insufferable. He's one of us now though so all the above is null and void for the foreseeable future.

[GreenBrigade67]

On the whole he done well at celtic. But this season the football was terrible ....passing about the back 4 and midfield with zero creativity. Rodgers is obsessed with retaining the ball so if there is a chance of losing the ball going forwards it will be a back pass all day.

 

The biggest flaw is his stubborness to change the system like when we played PSG and Barcelona he played the same system as he would vs our domestic rivals and ended up on the end of some right hammerings. 

 

He tends to play 4-2-3-1 formation so you will play one striker every week a huge gripe celtic supporters had in regards to his style.

 

But i think he might do well who knows.

 

All the best 

Edited 28 February 2019 by GreenBrigade67

[StriderHiryu]

19 hours ago, Deeg67 said:

 

I hope he can pull it off, but it's a longshot given our status in the league.  Celtic is about the worst predictor you could look at because he had the competition hopelessly outclassed domestically and he was hopelessly outclassed in Europe - meaningless really.  You have to look at his time in the PL and that's a mixed bag to say the least.

It’s definitely a tough challenge, but that’s why fans are excited. Appointing Rafa would have been the solid choice to make, whereas Rodgers is the ambitious one. The likelihood of it all ending in tears is probably quite high, but it’s an exciting appointment and I’d rather that as a club we dared to dream again rather than play it safe. 

[Nick]

8 minutes ago, GreenBrigade67 said:

On the whole he done well at celtic. But this season the football was terrible ....passing about the back 4 and midfield with zero creativity. Rodgers is obsessed with retaining the ball so if there is a chance of losing the ball going forwards it will be a back pass all day.

 

The biggest flaw is his stubborness to change the system like when we played PSG and Barcelona he played the same system as he would vs our domestic rivals and ended up on the end of some right hammerings. 

 

He tends to play 4-2-3-1 formation so you will play one striker every week a huge gripe celtic supporters had in regards to his style.

 

But i think he might do well who knows.

 

All the best 

Sounds worryingly familiar!

[GreenBrigade67]

1 minute ago, Swan Lesta said:

Sounds worryingly familiar!

Its the only problem the fans had every week was one striker. It may work for you but not at celtic. Not all celtic fans are salty btw some of us actually acknowledge the good he done for celtic in general. But we do have a fair share of idiots like everyone else

[Chocolate Teapot]

Always made me laugh when some on here talked about that the club wanted continuity for the next few years and that was why puel was in charge.

 

Read what was in the programme some said. 

 

Roll onto now, we've just paid 6m for a manager and are talking about major investment into the squad. Exciting times.

[Stevosevic]

1 minute ago, Abrasive fox said:

Always made me laugh when some on here talked about that the club wanted continuity for the next few years and that was why puel was in charge.

 

Read what was in the programme some said. 

 

Roll onto now, we've just paid 6m for a manager and are talking about major investment into the squad. Exciting times.

How big...? 

[Ric Flair]

30 minutes ago, GreenBrigade67 said:

Its the only problem the fans had every week was one striker. It may work for you but not at celtic. Not all celtic fans are salty btw some of us actually acknowledge the good he done for celtic in general. But we do have a fair share of idiots like everyone else

We only have one reliable striker anyway, so it's not really an issue short term. Unless he can get Iheanacho back on planet earth. It is surprising why a dominant team domestic team wouldn't play more than one striker but all depends on resources. Rodgers preferred to play with 2 up top for Liverpool and another close behind.

[Manini]

I’ve seen the photos of him at training today, I know, in reality it means very little, and I’m sure Puel did the same but it was probably never captured, but it’s so refreshing to see him having conversations with the players and seemingly making an effort to get to know them properly. 

[baldeagle]

17 minutes ago, Manini said:

I’ve seen the photos of him at training today, I know, in reality it means very little, and I’m sure Puel did the same but it was probably never captured, but it’s so refreshing to see him having conversations with the players and seemingly making an effort to get to know them properly. 

I watched a video of them training and you could really here him and the staff clapping the players and encouraging them can’t say a recall seeing Puel doing anything similar then again I may have just missed it . 

[Robin JD Popley]

I really liked the video they made of his first training session.

 

It gave the impression he is the sort of bloke who will try to get to know his players on a purely human level (a bit like Nigel did, as the squad all said). Scott Brown's comments earlier today also indicate that is what we've got in our new manager and that will only be of a benefit.

 

Still seems surreal how much more positive our club feels in just a few days, due to him coming in. 

 

I sincerely believe though that he will establish our club as a really top tier Premier League club on the pitch as well as it is off it.

Edited 28 February 2019 by Robin JD Popley

[Deeg67]

1 hour ago, StriderHiryu said:

It’s definitely a tough challenge, but that’s why fans are excited. Appointing Rafa would have been the solid choice to make, whereas Rodgers is the ambitious one. The likelihood of it all ending in tears is probably quite high, but it’s an exciting appointment and I’d rather that as a club we dared to dream again rather than play it safe. 

I agree about that.  Rafa really would have been a bad fit IMHO.

[GreenBrigade67]

1 hour ago, Ric Flair said:

We only have one reliable striker anyway, so it's not really an issue short term. Unless he can get Iheanacho back on planet earth. It is surprising why a dominant team domestic team wouldn't play more than one striker but all depends on resources. Rodgers preferred to play with 2 up top for Liverpool and another close behind.

If it works for you then cant complain but for celtic 2 strikers is a must. We play against a jose mourinhoesque bus every week

[Guest SO1]

2 hours ago, Swan Lesta said:

Sounds worryingly familiar!

Why? You think Liverpool 13/14 was a fluke? If Rodgers hadn't lost his two best strikers(55goals) to transfer and injury the next season we wouldn't be here today. PS They weren't playing hoofball.

I love Celtic fans spouting their know all. The bottom line for Rodgers is that he plays with what he's got and what you give him. Sounds like any manager. Celtics record signing was 9 million last year. Try and play PSG with that.

You better buckle up. There will be backwards passing as we need to keep possession and create space. In that space we will have the ability to Attack. Again and again. Sorry for responding to the other posts above you.

[weller54]

1 hour ago, Robin JD Popley said:

I really liked the video they made of his first training session.

 

It gave the impression he is the sort of bloke who will try to get to know his players on a purely human level (a bit like Nigel did, as the squad all said). Scott Brown's comments earlier today also indicate that is what we've got in our new manager and that will only be of a benefit.

 

Still seems surreal how much more positive our club feels in just a few days, due to him coming in. 

 

I sincerely believe though that he will establish our club as a really top tier Premier League club on the pitch as well as it is off it.

A breath of fresh air? 

Puel was like a fart in a lift! 

[Robin JD Popley]

11 minutes ago, weller54 said:

A breath of fresh air? 

Puel was like a fart in a lift! 

Agreed. Tuesday night's match was the first time in months I've felt any sense of anticipation before kick off. The whole place felt like a weight had been lifted and it was nice. 

[Guest SO1]

2 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

We only have one reliable striker anyway, so it's not really an issue short term. Unless he can get Iheanacho back on planet earth. It is surprising why a dominant team domestic team wouldn't play more than one striker but all depends on resources. Rodgers preferred to play with 2 up top for Liverpool and another close behind.

In a Rodgers team numbers don't mean much. At Liverpool it was a front three that constantly changed positions roaming freely to create space. At Celtic it was different with a lone striker. The thing with Rodgers is that you never know what you are going to get.

A consummate artist who if he sees things aren't working will change them at moments notice. Adapting to what's in front of him. Changing positioning on the pitch. Perhaps a player if necessary. It will be absolutely fascinating to see how he puts this squad together, especially for LCFC fans who have been watching the club on a regular basis. I'm chomping at the bit!

[StriderHiryu]

7 hours ago, KingsX said:

Please re-fasten your seat belts, ladies and gentlemen.

 

Missing Shakespeare but still

[StriderHiryu]

From Four Four Two:

https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/why-brendan-rodgers-needs-his-shiny-new-leicester-project-human-beings-need-oxygen

 

Why Brendan Rodgers needs his shiny new Leicester project like human beings need oxygen
 

He’s the man with a thousand lines and a smile like a New York office block at night. The chilled-out entertainer with a dedicated parody Twitter account. An inspiration to meme creators everywhere.

But at his core, there’s something far more meaningful in the man who brought us such classics as “I’ve always said that you can live without water for many days, but you can’t live for a second without hope”; something much more visceral than that boombox-touting bravado he brings to his press conferences and ill-advised fly-on-the-wall documentaries.

Although he may never admit it so plainly, Rodgers needs more than stature at a football club to feel fulfilled. Understandably, Celtic fans have been quick to leap on their former manager’s comments declaring that, at various times, managing the Glasgow club was “the ultimate”, “the best job in the world” and certainly “not a stepping stone”. “There’s not a place I could be in this world right now where I’d be happier in my football life and personal life,” he’d chimed in April 2017.

But perhaps they just didn’t understand the 46-year-old like they thought they did.

 

Tell us what we want

Rodgers has long thrived on the adulation of huge clubs’ fan bases, and is equally expert in telling them what they want to hear – at Liverpool, he fancifully parped to author Michael Calvin that he ran the streets “seeing people go about our business… our people… when the doors are open and you can smell the mince cooking”. For a while, that might be enough for this man of the people.

But eventually it dissipates. When you’ve taken a club as far as you think it can go – as the Northern Irishman claims he has at Celtic, not without good reason after a domestic double-treble and failure to progress beyond a first knockout round in Europe – that’s where Project Rodgers comes to its abrupt conclusion.   

 

To feed his ego, the Carnlough native finds fulfillment in fixing things – or, more specifically, fixing others. At a club that has won its domestic division by an average of 19 points for the last seven seasons, it’s possible that Rodgers simply ran out of projects to keep his fire burning at Parkhead.
 

There is, you see, something of a messiah complex to the former Liverpool boss; the state of mind, according to Wikipedia, “in which an individual holds a belief that they are destined to become a savior”. That’s not a criticism as such – Rodgers’ motives are ultimately for good, and there is a genuine warmth in the way he discusses working with human beings, rather than players – but it does help to make more sense of his latest career move.

He won’t get the unmatchable roars on wind-swept afternoons in Glasgow at Leicester, and arrives at a club where seventh place feels like genuine achievement in spite of recent history, but there’s more to the East Midlanders than that. In reality, they’re the perfect club ready to be built in his image: a faltering but talented team in need of revitalisation, a clutch of exciting young players ready to drink in his wisdom, sensible ownership to work under, a Europe-leading new training ground in the pipeline and promise of finance to make dreams come true. Or at least something like that, anyway.

Leicester’s fans were already taken in before Tuesday’s win over Brighton when Rodgers was unveiled from the directors’ box, waving to all four sides of the ground like a Colgate-powered Julius Caesar. It was also more telling, though, when stand-in boss Mike Stowell revealed after the game that a “bouncing” Rodgers had left with a buzzing dressing room giving him a rapturous round of applause. “He spoke and the lads were in awe listening to him,” revealed Stowell. “He said, ‘I’ve only left to come here for one reason and that’s to work with this group of players’.”

Hook him up and inject that in his veins immediately. Rodgers needs this. "I don't see myself as a coach, or as a manager,” he proudly told Calvin in his 2015 book Living On The Volcano. “I see myself as a welfare officer.”

Mario bothers

Never was that more obvious than with his risky signing of Mario Balotelli at Liverpool, in the wake of Luis Suarez’s summer 2014 departure to Barcelona. “When I lost Luis,” he recalled, “I lost a wee bit of what I've had all my life, people who were written off. I felt like I needed some of that, for me.”

He tried harder with Balotelli than most players, talking to his striker daily, ever-mindful of a difficult childhood in which the Italian had been given up for foster care aged three. And yet it didn’t stop the player later calling their relationship “a disaster” after a troubled spell on Merseyside.

Balotelli infamously scored only one goal in 16 Premier League appearances for the Reds as they finished a disappointing sixth, leaving Rodgers to rue the bad boy he couldn’t turn good. “In all fairness, I just found it very difficult to connect with Mario,” he later sighed. “On the field he tried his best, but it certainly wasn’t something that worked out as everyone would have liked.”

Beyond the general Brentism, that would have hurt Rodgers. He too has been through hardship, losing his mother Christina to a heart attack at 53, and his father Malachy, a hard-working decorator, to throat cancer at just 59 either side of his hiring at Swansea. In 2016, he donated the £100,000 sale of his parents’ house to the Northern Ireland Hospice as a way of honouring his mother’s tireless charity work. “She spent her life trying to help others,” said Rodgers. “I know that she would have been happy that I’ve done this.”

It’s not hard to see why he is the way he is.

 

Let’s get cracking

And so he goes to Leicester. Evidently, Rodgers really wanted this job – according to reports, the Foxes were willing to wait until the summer to get him, only for their No.1 target to up sticks immediately and trouser his old club £6m in the process. He could have stuck around for an unprecedented treble-treble, but chose instead to waste no time on his new project rather than continue thudding his head against a glass ceiling.

His remit is simple: make a team with obvious promise better than it currently is. Contrary to common narrative, Leicester fans haven’t been brainwashed by their team’s heroics of 2015/16. They don’t expect a top-six finish, and nor is seventh accepted as a minimum expectation – they just want to see their team stand a chance of getting in Europe, or winning a trophy, with a brand of football that might make them get excited about their club again.

 

Under Claude Puel, only four teams bemoaned a worst home record. For over a year it had been the same: since February 2018, watching Leicester failing to beat Swansea, Stoke, Bournemouth, Newcastle, Southampton (twice, the second time with a man advantage for over 45 minutes), West Ham (twice), Burnley, Cardiff and Crystal Palace. Losing at Newport in the FA Cup with a drastically weakened team was the sour cherry on top.

For most Foxes supporters, simply being Not Claude Puel was a good start for their new man, although that would be far too harsh an assessment of the Frenchman’s time in charge. If not demonstrated in their league position, Puel did shift Leicester away from the arresting memories of their title win and left the club in a much better way than he found it.

A January 2019 study by BBC Sport found that the ex-Lille boss had given twice as many minutes to players aged 22 and under as the next-highest club on the list alone, and the exciting January signing of Youri Tielemans on loan from Monaco only brought the team’s average age down further. Of the XI that started against Brighton, Tielemans, Harry Maguire, Ben Chilwell, Wilfred Ndidi, Ricardo Pereira, James Maddison, Demarai Gray and Harvey Barnes were all 25 or under.

 

But Leicester do need the personality that Rodgers will bring in Puel’s stead. The stories of squad discontent were too plentiful to be without truth, and that ill feeling was surely the most detrimental aspect of Puel’s fraught time at the helm. Now their new manager effectively has three bonus months to get his house in order, avoid mistakes of the past and prepare for what will be a big summer in this expectant corner of the East Midlands.

A glorious magic carpet ride of development awaits, as someone might say.  

[murphy]

5 hours ago, GreenBrigade67 said:

On the whole he done well at celtic. But this season the football was terrible ....passing about the back 4 and midfield with zero creativity. Rodgers is obsessed with retaining the ball so if there is a chance of losing the ball going forwards it will be a back pass all day.

 

The biggest flaw is his stubborness to change the system like when we played PSG and Barcelona he played the same system as he would vs our domestic rivals and ended up on the end of some right hammerings. 

 

He tends to play 4-2-3-1 formation so you will play one striker every week a huge gripe celtic supporters had in regards to his style.

 

But i think he might do well who knows.

 

All the best 

 

This is what I've been saying since he was announced.  He is Puel MkII.  It is amusing to see all the usual Puel-out brigade wetting themselves about this appointment when he brings with him the very things that they hated about Puel's style.

[GGow]

A lot of Rodgers' reluctance to change the system in Europe, was down to the lack of backing.

 

We have one defensive central midfielder, and had to play central midfielders at centre back and wingers at RB due to the lack of backing.  I'm not sure how some expected us to play defensively when we do not have the personal to do so.