Following an abysmal end to an underwhelming season, Liverpool Football Club are doing a bit of soul searching at the moment, with manager Brendan Rodgers firmly in the spotlight.
The 42-year-old has become the fall guy for everything that’s gone wrong at Anfield this season, ranging from wayward signings to poor results to Steven Gerrard’s bosman move to the MLS.
That’s nothing unusual in the Premier League – placing collective blame on the man in the dugout is common practice. It’s why they get paid by the bucket load and all their contracts include insidiously large compensation fees.
But it can’t all be Rodgers’ fault… can it? With Liverpudlian opinion seemingly swaying against the Ulsterman after the Reds’ 6-1 defeat to Stoke City last Sunday, we at Football Fancast hope to restore the balance with our FIVE reasons Rodgers shouldn’t take sole blame.
Do you think the Liverpool boss deserves another season in the Anfield hot seat?
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He’s lost his four best players
Although many blame Brendan Rodgers for Liverpool’s underwhelming campaign, fate has certainly conspired against him.
This season, the Ulsterman has lost four key members of his starting Xi; Luis Suarez to Barcelona, Daniel Sturridge to injury, Steven Gerrard to age and Raheem Sterling to the insidious rumour-mongering of his renegade agent Aidy Ward.
Those four were the key component of the Reds’ unexpected title bid last season, directly responsible for 74 of the club’s 101 Premier League goals. Regardless of the Anfield outfit’s questionable summer recruitment, which we’ll come onto in a moment, the goalscoring void was always going to be near impossible to fill.
Furthermore, although Suarez’ move to the Nou Camp had clearly been discussed behind the scenes for some time, few could have anticipated Sturridge’s injury-stricken campaign, Gerrard’s sudden decline after the 2014 World Cup and the fallout of Sterling’s ongoing contract saga at the start of the season.
Considering Liverpool reached the semi-finals of both the Capital One Cup and the FA Cup, things could’ve been very different this year if all three had maintained their fitness and form from 2013/14.
The transfer committee
Premier League managers will be forever compelled to live and die by their signings. The only problem at Liverpool is that Brendan Rodgers doesn’t necessarily make them.
The Anfield outfit’s much debated transfer committee, which includes chief executive Ian Ayre, the head of analysis Michael Edwards and the head of recruitment Dave Fallows, remains ever-shrouded in ambiguity. Although Rodgers allegedly gets the final say on all signings, how strongly he’s advised to do so by the committee is unclear.
But either way, the model clearly isn’t working. Liverpool have spent £220million since Rodgers took the Reds hot-seat three years ago and have very little to show for it. The only signings that have truly exceeded expectations are Philippe Coutinho and Daniel Sturridge; the rest have been comparatively underwhelming to say the least.
Once again, many will attribute that to the Liverpool gaffer himself. But Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville views the lack of obvious accountability within the committee – particularly, who should be blamed for Liverpool’s shortcomings last summer – as a major concern.
Until a more direct and coherent recruitment strategy is in place that’s responsive to the needs of the first team, Liverpool’s signings will always struggle to be fit for purpose.
Marquee signings just aren’t interested in a move to Liverpool
It’s a problem that many will prescribe to Brendan Rodgers, once again, but it seems implausible so many major names have turned down moves to Liverpool – still one of the largest clubs in world football – purely because of the man in the dugout.
Since the Ulsterman’s appointment in 2012, countless marquee signings have been caught in the club’s transfer cross hairs, only to later join one of their divisional or continental rivals.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan rejected the Reds in favour of Borussia Dortmund in summer 2013, Diego Costa and Willian both snubbed the Anfield outfit before eventually ending up at Chelsea, Radamel Falcao proved to be out of the club’s reach last summer and Alexis Sanchez opted for London over Merseyside, joining Arsenal instead. Even Toby Alderweireld, by no means a star-studded name but certainly a talented defender, resisted the Reds to join Atletico Madrid.
Rodgers has declared the club needs to work ‘harder and smarter’ in the transfer market to land well-proven, high profile players. But after six transfer windows in which the same issue has continually re-emerged, clearly changes need to be made to the club’s wage structure to entice football’s best to Merseyside once again.
His Changes actually worked
Time to give some credit where it’s due. Although Brendan Rodgers perhaps took too long to stop the rot at the start of the season, as Liverpool endured six defeats in their first twelve Premier League fixtures, the tactical changes he made soon after drastically improved the Reds’ results.
A 3-1 defeat to Crystal Palace in November obliged Rodgers to sure up his starting Xi with the reintroductions of Kolo Toure and Lucas Leiva, heralding bitter-fought wins against Stoke City and Leicester City.
That was followed by an abrupt change to an unusual 3-4-2-1 formation and the selection of Raheem Sterling as an out-and-out centre-forward. Although the Merseysiders looked chaotic and dishevelled as they lost 3-0 to Manchester United during their first outing in the new system, it instigated a run of 13 league fixtures undefeated – including ten wins.
Only recently, as Rodgers has been forced to rotate his squad due to injuries and form, have Premier League opposition been able to unravel Liverpool’s exotic formation.
It was a bold, risky and unexpected move – but also a huge testament to Rodgers’ ability to envisage and implement a working system.
THE INEVITABLE SLUMP AFTER LAST SEASON
The overriding and arguably most pivotal factor, Liverpool were always due an inevitable slump after the unassailable highs of last season.
Not only did the Reds’ 2013/14 campaign place unrealistic expectations on predominantly young shoulders at the start of this season, but the manner in which it ended has undoubtedly had a significant effect on the club’s psyche.
For the likes of Steven Gerrard and Martin Skrtel, the disappointment of last year – drawing to Crystal Palace and losing to Chelsea – will take a long time to get over, whilst the absence of Luis Suarez – not only as a world-class player but as the leader of the dressing room – cannot be overstated. Tottenham struggled to replace Gareth Bale in 2013 and it’s no surprise Liverpool have endured the same issues twelve months later.
Regardless of the mistakes Rodgers may have made this season, coming anywhere close to replicating the form of last year was always going to be an impossible task.