Last season, I provoked a bit of controversy amongst the Liverpool fanbase by saying that Luis Suarez was the type of player who could create a chance from nothing only to miss it. Happily for Liverpool fans, and happily for those who enjoying watching magisterial players, he has put this knack behind him and become one of the most feared strikers in the league.
Today it is Rodgers that we need to question. He seems to have the ability to turn around a poor performance either by changing tactics or by substituting players. He has done this against Everton, Wigan, Udinese and - today - against Manchester United.
It takes a talented manager to spot mistakes and change appropriately. It takes a brave man to admit his mistakes and to acknowledge that he has been bested when the world is watching. He should get some credit for this.
He should, in equal measure, be criticised for consistently requiring to rectify those situations.
RCM
3 comments:
Nah, not having that. Today's lineup looked fine based on recent form, with the possible exception of Henderson starting in place of Allen. As it was, Allen & Sterling were poor, and everyone was off-colour in the first half. With that lineup and that setup we've bossed games this season. Who would have guessed we wouldn't have one shot on target in the first half? So he changed it and we finished playing with 3 strikers, because his mentality is that he'd rather lose the game 3-0 than not try at all.
JPShar,
I see your point but surely you acknowledge that he's had to rejig matters to counter issues of his own creation. If it keeps happening it is legitimate to ask why.
It doesn't matter if a system has worked previously - Manchester United away are a different proposition and we needed, perhaps, to consider that.
The way we were set-up was his fault and bizarre. Sitting deep against United is crazy. Not pressing them until they get into our half is crazy. The last thing we want to do against United is give Cleverley and Carrick time on the ball - which is what we did by our midfield sitting so deep.
I genuinely don't know what Henderson has to do to start consistently. He's been in great form recently and Allen, bluntly, hasn't been. Henderson's energy was just what we needed today.
I'm a fan of Rodgers and there is a lot to credit him for (particularly, as I say, his nerve and ability to change games when behind). We've got to ask why he needs to use that ability though.
Thanks for commenting.
He has had to rejig things - but I can't think of a time when the starting lineup made me think "There's no way we're going to get something from this game" - with the exception of some of the Europa games, ironically enough!
I don't think he planned to sit deep against United. I think Lucas was supposed to be deep as usual, but I think Allen was supposed to be much more advanced - but Allen being Allen, he ended up tracking back when he didn't really need to.
He corrected this at half time, which is fair enough (although I thought Allen should come off). I totally agree with you that Henderson should be starting, he's a heck of a talent and I think a run of games will see him push on very quickly with his development.
I think Rodgers is still getting to know the players - how they react at a ground like Old Trafford in a big game, for instance - and I think today he should have given Sterling a rest, I think he's looked jaded for about a month now. BR is still having to put squarish pegs in roundish holes, and for the first time since Benitez we've got a manager who is able to see tactical things going on in a game that aren't working out and change them.
Bottom line today in the first half was not enough of our players showed up - I'd argue that none of them really did - and he shook things up at halftime to counter that.
Cheers mate.
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