After Saturday’s demoralising loss at Old Trafford, many Reds fans, even those normally wholeheartedly optimistic ones, have begun to question if Brendan Rodgers is the right man to lead the club.
A little over a year ago this just wasn’t imaginable. We had a young, vibrant and attacking coach who adapted from game to game, with some ingenious tactical decisions. Yes, mistakes happened, but it seemed like we had potentially the next big name manager to come from the English game.
Although Rodgers doesn’t face the immediate threat of the sack you feel he is one calamitous run away from it. Most surprising of all is the Manchester United defeat demonstrated almost the antithesis of what Rodgers built much of his earlier success on.
The team of 2013-14 wasn’t the best or most complete team by any stretch of the imagination and it relied on some outstanding individual match-winning players like Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge upfront. However these world beaters were aided and provided for by a team that was greater than the sum of its parts, because they all knew the ethos of how we played.
To create a good team you need to all be striving for a collective goal, it is the manager’s job to set that goal and what he sees as how the team should function. The current team seems devoid of any type of style or way of playing, so the players don’t have any connection on the pitch. There is a collective and complete loss of identity and Rodgers is key to that. It is the ultimate sin for a manager to lose sight of his own ideals. It is hard to explain how we play anymore, other than poorly.
Once he is making these mistakes, where before there was quick and decisive action to put it right, now there is a tactical stubbornness which doesn’t bode well for future games. The one glaring example on Saturday evening was the plight of Danny Ings on his full debut. Shifted to almost a left wing-back role when we were crying out for someone alongside the isolated Benteke, to his credit he was still probably our best player.
So what happened when we finally decided to start making changes? Ings off. Another striker Origi on the left-side. There is a refusal to even entertain the use of two forwards, which is so odd given the success we had with it in the past. Yes, I wouldn’t play it all the time but when the match call for it, which it certainly did.
At Old Trafford in 2014 we played a diamond against a very similar Man United side and they couldn’t handle it. We’ll never know if they could have this time because we didn’t even try. Ings is not the only player, big new signings meant to improve us this season like Christian Benteke and Roberto Firmino are all too often not being given roles they can thrive in.
By no means do I want Rodgers out right now. That would be stupid and unlikely as we should beat Norwich and Aston Villa; saying that, I thought we’d beat West Ham. Games such as these have a huge importance now after the Hammers defeat. If Liverpool drop points against the likes of Norwich, added to the tough away fixtures, Rodgers really will be in immediate danger. I expect us to win those, though, and for some pressure to come off, but it’s not looking likely that he has the power to eliminate that pressure for any sustainable period unless he makes drastic changes to his own performances.
We can only improve from the terrible performance on Saturday, you would think. We also have key players like Jordan Henderson and Philippe Coutinho to come back, which would be a massive boost to the quality of the squad. Without those two we really do lack any sort of brains to the team.
By the start of December, after all the toughest away games are out of the way, if Liverpool begin to drift out of reach in that time frame you feel Rodgers’ time may well be up. Successor-wise, that could be enough off time for the only obvious candidate right now, Jürgen Klopp, but we would need to act quickly or someone else will get him. It would be worth sounding him out already. If we don’t, another club’s managerial position could suddenly become available; look at Chelsea right now. If they keep performing like they are you feel even Jose Mourinho could bite the bullet, which would be lovely but at the same time Klopp would be high on their list and you feel and they have more prestige then the Reds right now. One thing is clear: Liverpool need fresh ideas, and if Brendan Rodgers cannot provide them, someone else will.
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