I'm sure this post will be seen both as popular and unpopular amongst fans on here. I don't believe Brendan Rodgers would ever have have been offered a job with a top 6 PL club. I believe he was extremely lucky to get the job at Liverpool and subsequent finishes of 7th, 2nd and 6th shows that. He won nothing in his 3 years, limped out of CL group in 2014, limped out of EL in 2012 and again in 2014 and in 2015 FAr Cup Semi final was deservedly and embarrassingly beaten by an Aston Villa side who finished 17th that year. Losing to Stoke 6-1 doesn't help his cause either. He bought in players like Assaidi, Borini, Balotelli, Moreno, Benteke, Alberto, Aspas, Markovic and llori. These players alone cost £120m plus and some will not only go down as worst transfers in PL era but in our whole history. Going for Balotelli because there was no other option and Benteke even though he clearly wouldn't suit or system made no sense whatsoever. He could never organise a defence and it's obvious in Europe(with Liverpool and a Celtic)he was out of his depth. He lost Carragher, Gerrard and Suarez in his time here and never came close to replacing them. I do believe without Suarez we wouldn't have had a title challenge in 2013/2014 but that's just my opinion. Saying all that he did sign Bobby and and Joe Gomez so all's forgiven
Rodgers was possibly out of his depth, he wasn't strong enough when he needed to be to walk away when we lost Suarez et. al. with no adequate replacements lined up, being left with Balotelli or nobody was just crazy and especially with the way the previous season had ended there was little any manager could do to pick the club up, then Sturridge being out that entire season effectively killed us. Everything that followed in his time with us was a direct result of that lack of conviction that summer and it probably happened because he wasn't meant to be Liverpool manager at that point in his career. But the amount of history that has been re-written to diminish his time with us is just ridiculous and it annoys me that lads go running into this thread to have a pop about something so that nobody can challenge them on when they' could just as easily have posted it in the thread where Rodgers was being discussed. To add to the debate about players I'll leave the below as a list of arrivals to counter the poor ones listed above. If we could have hung on to them it's possible that we'd still have 6 Rodgers players around our first 11, not bad for a complete bluffer who's been gone so long. Joe Allen Daniel Sturridge Philippe Coutinho Adam Lallana Emre Can Dejan Lovren Divock Origi Joe Gomez James Milner Nathaniel Clyne Roberto Firmino
I was glad Rodgers left when he did, he should have walked after the defeat to Stoke, however LFC where still going through a major transition while he was manager. King Kenny came in to put some shape on an overpaid bloated squad after FSG took over. He got to two cup finals and most of the fanbase thought it was disgrace the way he was dumped. In hindsight the league form was terrible and it was probably the correct decision. Brendan started off with a lot to prove and many thinking he was a Yes man. The terrible Being Liverpool documentary didn't help either. He was relatively inexperienced for such a big job, however he was hardly going to turn it down. FSG were still looking for their strategy at that stage, they were trying the moneyball approach and it's hard to know who made a lot of the transfers. A lot of the players who were seen as duds from 14/15 transfer window like Lallana, Lovren and Can went on to be reasonable successes. Moreno and Origi are still in match day squad. Rodgers won't go down as a great LFC manager, I put in the same Bracket as Roy Evans. Some great moments and possibly unlucky to win something big.
Rodgers did a good job and it's ok to say we wouldn't have had a title challenge without Suarez because that's how football works,you get the most from your best players and you get rewarded but a manager putting in place a system tbat gets the most from his best players is also just as important a part of football and I'd be hoping Jurgen Klopp has made many of the people who didn't realise that then,realise it now.I think no title challenge and far less productivity from Suarez in his previous seasons with us should have made that obvious at the time but plenty were desperate to ignore the obvious. In the end his downfall was his lack of belief in the transfer model,something most managers would of struggled with because nobody wants to take the blame for anybody else's mistakes,it takes the kind of belief and confidence somebody like Klopp has in himself for it to work properly but there's too much nuance into what he did and what he had to deal with to be worth going into it again. He got the job at a very difficult time when we were getting back on our feet financially and gets credit for putting some of the foundations in place that Klopp benefited from.
Ed so much for amnesty. Anyway I stand by everything I said. Nothing I said above has re-written history. The Rodger's debate has been done to death on here so forgive me if I wanted to air my views without getting into hours of debate. Might aswell close the thread if people can't accept an unpopular view without challenging posts.
He can't and I'd appreciate if you would do the same and try to keep some sort or order in this thread. Anarchy, total anarchy!
Just so it's clear my post was just a random unpopular opinion of mine that just sprung to mind today!
Liverpool fans on social media, fuckin embarassing! No wonder other fans at times think we are a joke. Especially some of those so called Facebook fan pages. Irish Liverpool Reds being the worst.
My mate added me to that Facebook page a year or two ago. I left it after 10 minutes. Just seemed to be lads having a go at each other over nothing and getting properly wound up about it. Embarrassing is right.
I think Michael Owen's personality was much harder for fans to take to. You always got the impression he was playing for Michael Owen first and foremost rather than Liverpool. Torres endeared himself to the fans much better but take personality out of it,and I think Owen was a better player.