Why we should all want Brendan Rodgers to succeed at Liverpool

Man with a plan: But Rodgers' is struggling to find a winning formula at Liverpool
John Dillon16 September 2015

Whatever happened to the Liverpool team which played so well at Arsenal in August? The BBC’s match report that night said: “This team can offer a different type of threat this season.” Another report commented: “It was a good night for a side who have built solid foundations to their campaign.”

Petr Cech had to pull off a couple of, quite brilliant, saves for the home team. Phillipe Coutinho hit the bar.

More than that, Brendan Rodgers’ side seemed to have found an energy and an assurance which produced some enthralling, counter-attacking football, particularly in the first-half at the Emirates.

Was it all really so long ago?

Now we have this – a side which was moribundly becalmed in the 3-1 defeat at Old Trafford. And can’t have its creative fulcrum, Coutinho, back quick enough against Bordeaux in the Europa League and at home to Norwich on Sunday.

A team which was ripped apart at home by a West Ham line-up playing the same kind of muscular, quick, transitional attacking football Liverpool had delivered in north London.

Here, I think, is the unique essence of the frustration with Rodgers among the supporters.

Far from establishing a new Liverpool way, which was the vision in sight in the fabulous season of 2013-14, inconsistency seems to be the dominant factor in the club’s DNA just now.

In its way, this type of uncertainty bewilders supporters more than anything else, which is why Rodgers style attracts such intense debate. Even now, with new signings requiring time to settle, it adds to the sense that this is an endless waiting game.

It hurts in particular at Anfield because Rodgers has offered tantalising glimpses of what he can achieve.

This season, however, is already repeating the erratic patterns of last season.

In November last year, there were four straight defeats, for example.

Then, after Rodgers made some changes in December, the team went on a run of 23 games in which they lost only once, in a penalty shoot-out against Besiktas. But, conversely, there were only two wins in the final nine games.

This August, the side found some defensive solidity and didn’t concede in the opening three games. They found some real attacking dynamism at Arsenal. Then they let in six in the next two matches and switched off completely going forward.

It's very confused. Extreme, almost. And give Rodgers his due, he’s not been afraid in the past to admit that this waywardness in form could cost him job.

His personal frustration must be particularly profound because every time he gets close to achieving his goals and ideals, they come apart.

The burden of reponsibility for this lies with the manager, of course.

At nowhere more than Anfield have both the ownership and the boss talked more often of creating something fresh - on and off the pitch - by virtue of system, method, business planning and tactical insight.

And in essence, Liverpool are still to be applauded for what they are trying to do.

The owners have stood by the manager and provided major investment, even if the club has lost Luis Suarez and Raheem Sterling for massive fees.

The coach has attempted to do something new and attractive and modern.

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He has aimed high and in the season in which the team finished second, he was hailed as the saviour of British coaching – the man who can match the clever foreigners.

These are the kind of standards of which fans approve. If you have a philosophy, the whole point is that you stick with it.

The trouble is that plain, old-fashioned bad results can’t half do some damage to such high ideals.

And the painful irony is that Rodgers comes under the most pressure of all because of his failure to maintain the very identity and the clearly-defined philosophy he has spoken about so articulately .

It could be argued that there is a kind of British anti-intellectualism at work against him. If so, it's a shame. But if you don’t win trophies and you lose as poorly as Liverpool have in their last two matches, that debate settles itself. The fine words sound hollow.

Rodgers deserves better, though, than to be dismissed merely as a someone who is too clever by half, as many insist.

He is actually a British coach, attempting to work in the same way as the foreign coaches who have dominated the biggest jobs in English football in recent times.

At times a couple of seasons back, he produced more thrilling football than all of them, too.

It isn’t working just now, though. And if Rodgers fails, it will be because he lost sight of his master plan and allowed it to be replaced by confusion and a lack of direction.

Of course, that will be his responsibility. But it will be a shame for the domestic game.

It will mean Liverpool tried to be bold, fresh and new and to back a British, Northern-Irish born boss. And their willingness to gamble on that has been thwarted. There will be a particular sadness for our home grown game about that.

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