Rodgers paranoia making LFC a laughing stock

“Judge me after 3 years” is the Brendan Rodgers quote often used against him.  The final game of season three saw us hammered 6-1 away to Stoke.  A calamitous end to an inglorious season and as much as one would like to see a British manager succeed at Anfield I expect him to be relieved of his duties in the not to distant future.

Under Rodgers Liverpool came closer to winning the League than at anytime since 1990.  It’s easy to say it was predominately down to Suarez, because Daniel Sturridge was an important member of that strike force and it was Rodgers who took the chance on the injury prone striker having worked with him at Chelsea.

Sterling came to prominence under Rodgers as a member of the triumvirate along with Suarez and Sterling with Coutinho also playing a starring role and Rodgers should be commended for their progress and impact.  But, for it to unravel so spectacularly since Suarez move to Barcelona points for the finger directly at him.

Rodgers complains of a groundswell of negativity against him from ex-Liverpool players in the media.  Make no mistake he is lucky not to have been sacked.

Liverpool were poor for the majority of last season, not just poor in attack and defence, but poor in overall performance.  The debacle in the Champions League, failing to qualify out of a group which barring Real Madrid should have been a relatively simple task ranks among our worst and humiliating European campaigns.

As the Liverpool manager, he doesn’t need me to protect his right to pick whatever starting eleven he wants, especially at the Santiago Bernabeau. But, to drop senior players in one of the club’s biggest games for years and then recall many of those same said players a few days later against Chelsea looks from the outside as if he failed to understand the historical concept of Liverpool in the Champions League and the importance of the match. His treatment of the club captain, arguably the greatest player in it’s history was bordering on a disgrace.

And that treatment didn’t just happen once, but again before the semi-final of the FA Cup which has been well documented.  That brings into question whether Rodgers treatment and understanding of top players lends itself to being the manager of a top club?

Granted we lost Suarez after his World Cup savagery, but the fact that Steven Gerrard and Raheen Sterling are no longer around suggest there is something intrinsically wrong somewhere inside the club’s infrastructure and Rodgers man management skills.

Rodgers always spoke as if he and Sterling had a father son type relationship and yet Sterling’s agent stung Liverpool with verbal put downs and  got the player to do a BBC interview which set in motion his move away from the club.  It suggests that Sterling had very little belief in his manager’s ability to turn things around.

Playing Sterling as a wing-back and striker may have been good for his education long-term, but the debacle in the transfer strategy in having Ballotelli, Borini and Lambert at the club unable to provide  a decent support act for the crocked Daniel Sturridge, it probably hardened his stance.

I believe one can look at Rodgers tenure in two ways.

The first is until this season Brendan Rodgers as part of the transfer committee didn’t have full control over transfers.  Rodgers has always made it known that Coutinho and Sturridge were his transfers, so why those two in particular rather than any other transfers?  Is it because those are the only two transfers over his tenure that are universally viewed as a success?

With the deal almost done he said, “Moreno will be a terrific signing”.

While I’m not saying Moreno won’t be a success it just feels as if Rodgers doesn’t know whether to stick or twist with the Spaniard.  Rodgers brought the player in assured that he could fill the left-back berth and add an extra dimension in attack.  The fact that Joe Gomez played at left-back from the start of the season and we have switched to three at the back with the player deployed at left-wing back has left a big hole in terms of our ability to play a flat back four.

Make no mistake Moreno was Rodgers signing and he has to make it work.

Second, the jury is out on Rodgers the coach.  He likes his teams to play a high pressing game with all outfield players comfortable on the ball and able to interchange (which is probably why Lovren mistakenly started the season ahead of Sakho).  The underlying problem with his teams is fundamentally they have a soft underbelly.  The goals against column has hasn’t made for good reading year on year under a manager who doesn’t sense the need for a strong spine, note the absence of a powerhouse midfielder or a quality ball playing holding midfielder in the 2015-2016 team.

I stated before the start of the season that I was surprised Liverpool hadn’t made a move for Deli Alli as I saw it as no brainer with the young midfielder possessing an all-round game which no Liverpool midfielder gets closed to.  Hence, it’s no surprise to see him already in the England squad barely months into his first season in the Premier League.

It feels as if Rodgers doesn’t realise the size of the club he is managing and the fact that we need to be competing at the sharp end.

Two matches so far in the Europa Cup and no wins and promising to play a first eleven later in the competition.  Given the experiences of last season and they way we are playing at the moment, does he have the right to such arrogance?  Make no mistake Sion were very average and while Brendan can talk about chances made and missed the fact is without Sturridge and Benteke those chances have gone begging.

Brendan just does haven’t have the foresight, kudos and the gravitas in the game to work miracles in the transfer market to put us back among the elite.  He and his committee colleagues make too many mistakes.

The desperate future of Rodgers and Liverpool, after the massive spend of the last few years, is all down to whether the hamstrings of Daniel Sturridge stand up to the rigours of the next few months.

It’s embarrassing for a club with our stature to be over reliant on one player, particularly one so injury prone and to have a manager who makes continuous faux pas by telling the football world that we cannot get by without Sturridge.

Unlike Mourinho at the moment, Rodger’s is supportive of his players to the extreme which is a good thing, but he gives the air of a paranoid man waiting to be shunted out and the feeling of a Liverpool manager being described as a dead man walking is mortifying to the Anfield faithful.

Should he lose at Everton today the mood music is that he will be sacked and in my opinion he should be because there too many things wrong with the squad, although I feel there is enough quality in the squad for it to be playing with more style and operating at a higher level.

I would like nothing better than Brendan Rodgers to prove me wrong from here on in and be that manager that we’d all like him to be, but one feels that that ship has long since sailed.