The Rodgers Regime

Brendan Rodgers was appointed as Liverpool manager on the 1st June. This means he has been in charge of the club for over 5 months, but what has he achieved?

The key thing that Brendan Rodgers has changed at Liverpool is the style of play. We were never a team totally reliant on long balls, but under Dalglish’s management possession was never exactly a priority. Rodgers has changed that. He has shifted the team’s focus, implementing a tiki-taka style of play that worked so well for him at Swansea. This has taken a while to bring in to the team, as even for the most seasoned professionals changing to a new style is hard, but it seems we are getting there. LFC have now gone 7 Premier League games in a row undefeated, so it is clear that after a shaky start, the results are starting to come.

However, it isn’t just the style of play Brendan Rodgers has changed. He has also altered the formation. Whereas before Liverpool normally played 4 at the back, Rodgers has modified it so there are three main defenders, with two more defenders slightly further up the pitch, sort of like wing backs. Then there are three in midfield, who’s role it is to pull the strings and control the play. Finally, there are three strikers, two of them (usually Sterling and Suso) playing wider with the other (almost invariably Suarez) playing down the middle. This formation switch has worked well, particularly the introduction of the wing backs. Jose Enrique and Glen Johnson, who were both attack-minded full backs in the first place, can now play with a lot more freedom. This allows them to contribute a lot more to attacks, without constantly worrying about tracking back. The success of this was highlighted in the Wigan game on 17th November, where Liverpool were able to get three goals, with Enrique scoring one of them and assisting another.

Finally, Rodgers has also made some significant personnel changes. For me, Joe Allen has been the best summer signing. He passes brilliantly, and is the perfect candidate for controlling the play from the heart of the team. Nuri Sahin, who was brought in on loan from Real Madrid, has also been moderately successful, with a few solid games in midfield. However, where Rodgers has really disappointed me was the purchase of Fabio Borini. To be fair to Borini, he hasn’t had much chance to prove himself, as after only a few games for the club he broke his foot. However, in the small amount of games he did play, he looked really poor, and I can certainly think of better ways the 11 million pounds could have been spent. Hopefully Borini will come back from his injury refreshed and I will be proved wrong, but at the moment it does look like he was a waste of money.

Overall though, I think Rodgers has had a generally very positive effect on the club. He has retained the club’s brilliant work ethic, whilst also bringing in some new ideas of his own. Admittedly his first few results were very poor, but implementing new ideas always takes a while, and given enough funds and time I can see Brendan Rodgers guiding us back into the top 4, maybe not this season but certainly in the near future.