Liverpool FC

Martinez created the template for Swansea Rodgers did not take them to the next level but just maintained the work already done. As for Spearing average player at best. This is the same player at Bolton Wanderers who have been for the most part shit for the last two seasons.

Fernandez is just saying what most people are thinking but dont want to say cause he is a young manager who had a good season last year. If he had only bought three or four quality and proven players and still got off to a rocky start I think we would have given him a chance. But he rebuilt a team that was already built and just needed adding to.

As Fernandez also says he hardly plays most of the signings he makes and Gerrard is still our best player!!!! Questions need to be asked and then that way the club can move on.

@sweetsugar
Rodgers led the club to win promotion to the Premier League, the first Welsh team ever to do so, before guiding them to finish 11th the following season.
I think you could call that taking them up to the next level considering the fact that he took them up a division and kept them up. Though it is true that Martinez laid the foundations.
You should change your name to as Fernandez says, If the last post is anything to go by.I have also more than once previously stated that with the money he got for Suarez he should have got three or four established stars rather than get a squads worth of unproven players.
Fernandez like your self has come up with a lot of interesting insightful comments but it does not make him anymore an authority than anyone else. He is Championing AVB case to be the next manager, who though did a great job at Porto has also a proven track record of trying to buy a whole squad instead of getting 3 or 4 proven players at spurs, With the money he got with Gareth Bale.

The difference is at Spurs AVB did not choose the players he wanted, he came out and said that.. I'm also not saying AVB is the only option for us, I just believe if we want a young manager with european experience and who has coached around the world and won trophies he is a good call.

I would also say Frank DeBoer from Ajax would be a good candidate too as he works the same way at Ajax bringing through young players successfully and has the team playing a good brand of football, with Rodgers nobody in the team knows what they are supposed to be doing and watching it looks a mess..

@Fernandez
I know you never said he was the only choice to replace Rodgers. I merely mentioned you championed him. I thought he brought all those players in after selling Bale. If not then I to would consider him a good choice. Though touch and go in regards to him having an immediate impact.

I really don't know what the score is in Regard to replacing Rogers. Times say that the owners are staying put with him, claiming he has enough credit in the bank, to write this season off, as putting it down to experience( after claiming that AVB was being lined up). Other sources saying that Man Utd game is his last chance and others are saying that they are Interviewing a potential replacement as we speak.
Just don't know who to belief.

Usually American owners are patient with managers when it is of their choosing.
Either way he has had a terrible season in more ways than one.

I agree with what your saying, but I just don't see what Rodgers is trying to do, and i don't think the owners can be best pleased with how he has spent the money he has been given every transfer window, he buys players, leaves them on the bench, then they dissappear out on loan and we end up selling them for half the price or unable to sell them..

Originally the owners wanted a director of football but Rodgers only would take the job without one, the only way for now that i would be happy with rodgers is if the owners put thier foot down and tell him if you want to keep your job you will work under a Director of football and bring in an experienced assistant and coaches because Rodgers clearly needs help and isn't up for the job on his own.. if he doesn't want to do that then get rid of him..

(11-12-2014 14:28 )Fernandez Esperenda Wrote:  I agree with what your saying, but I just don't see what Rodgers is trying to do, and i don't think the owners can be best pleased with how he has spent the money he has been given every transfer window, he buys players, leaves them on the bench, then they dissappear out on loan and we end up selling them for half the price or unable to sell them..

Originally the owners wanted a director of football but Rodgers only would take the job without one, the only way for now that i would be happy with rodgers is if the owners put thier foot down and tell him if you want to keep your job you will work under a Director of football and bring in an experienced assistant and coaches because Rodgers clearly needs help and isn't up for the job on his own.. if he doesn't want to do that then get rid of him..

Totally agree with this!!

Just a theory, but hear me out...

Anyone who follows a bit of baseball (or is a Michael Lewis fan) knows that FSG are (after Oakland) the world's biggest proponents of the 'moneyball' philosophy.

At its simplest it is the idea that by better mining player statistics, it is possible to build a better team. But a more precise definition would be the idea that the individual's performance matters less than the aggregate performance of the team. So it doesn't matter if you lose Alex Rodriguez and his squillion dollar salary, IF you can replace everything that Alex Rodriguez does with 3 players that cost less. A corollary to this theory is the idea that the on-field manager has an influence at most. His job is to implement strategies devised by the back office performance analysts and sport scientists. He certainly has NO role in setting transfer targets.

I get that football is not the same as baseball and Brendan Rodgers certainly talks about each signing as if it was his decision. But it really does feel like something moneyball-ish is going on.

Sell a star player for a king's ransom - check. Replace him with a small army of new players - check. Manager who seemingly has no confidence in players that the club signed - check.

Is it possible that none of these signings were actually down to Rodgers at all? Is the whole strategy being dictated by the back office?

Like I said... Just a theory. But if anyone was going to try this approach in football, it would be Fenway Sports Group. And that is not necessarily a bad thing. It took a few years, but it eventually paid off big time for the Boston Red Sox. Maybe it is all a part of some brilliant experiment. Maybe they know something that none of us have figured out yet.

Then again, maybe it IS all down to Brendan Rodgers. And maybe he is just ... y'know ... rubbish.

@goodfella
A very interesting insightful post.

I read money ball a brilliant book but there were some creative licence I belief. Michael Lewis is a brilliant sports writer but he does tend to exaggerate. I read blind side about the importance of left tackle in American football. It basically stated that Michael Oher was going to be every ones undisputed pick 3 years in advance. He ended up going around 19 I think and was about number 8 ranked left tackle. Oakland have never won a Playoff series despite qualifying quite regularly. Maybe due to fact don't have money to get big time players who can perform their best when it matters. Though the principles did help red socks break the curse of the bambino, who had considerably more money, without it's main exponent Billy Beane.

If they were to apply money ball principles above Brendan Rogers Head they would have an equivalent of a general manager ie a director of football. At the moment they do not. Rodgers refused to work with one. Though they might have scouted a list of Players along principles of money ball with Rodgers maybe given the final say so. Apparently in the past before Rodgers Downing and Carroll were brought in due to money ball principles. They have been let go and now applying their trade at the high flying hammers. Maybe Karen Brady is an exponent of moneyball with big Sam as her disciple.

From this BBC article - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/30407344

' The "committee" consists of Rodgers, scouts Dave Fallows and Barry Hunter, the man in charge of analysis Michael Edwards, owners Fenway Sports Group's (FSG) Anfield representative Michael Gordon and chief executive Ian Ayre. '

And another very good point :

Light in the darkness

All is not lost this season and Liverpool could yet turn matters around. For all their struggles this season they remain only six points off fourth place and victory at Bournemouth this time next week would put them in the semi-finals of the Capital One Cup.
The key to so much of Liverpool's fortunes this season hinges of the return to fitness of Sturridge - and then how long he actually stays fit when he is back.
And, ironically, for the 15 minutes he was on the pitch against Basel until he unwisely threw his hand in the direction of Behrang Safari, who was only too happy to hit the turf in farcical fashion, £20m summer signing Markovic looked in his finest shape yet - fast, direct and a threat.
The January transfer window may offer other options, but with Liverpool's erratic transfer record and the risks involved in spending money during that month, those sales might be best avoided.

Also according to this Lallana didn't play midweek because of 2 broken ribs - http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/n...en-4792325

Quote:Brendan Rodgers will be sacked unless 'rudderless' Liverpool improve, says Anfield legend Steve Nicol

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footbal...z3Le4gL2DZ
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Quote:Liverpool: Brendan Rodgers' selections mystify Mark Lawrenson

By Chris Bevan
BBC Sport
Liverpool are "rudderless" and "going backwards just as fast as they went forwards last season", according to former player Mark Lawrenson.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/30434299

Quote:Liverpool ‘in talks with managers to replace Brendan Rodgers’
Jamie Sanderson for Metro.co.ukThursday 11 Dec 2014 7:53 am

http://metro.co.uk/2014/12/11/liverpool-...s-4982761/