Brendan Rodgers love affair to cost him his job at Liverpool?

22 September 2014 10:08

It's easy to blame individual players, and as it is evident our problem is a system using the quarterback or deep holding mid-field role currently occupied by Gerard, sometimes it’s inevitable the player is in the firing line.

Last year we fooled ourselves into thinking it was OK by outscoring opponents. As we all know this was exposed, painfully a number of times.

The simple truth remains the team set-up was adopted to prolong Stevie's legs which were showing signs of being gone at the end of 2012/13. Yet this term the manager plays him in more games and when he gets completely overran or caught out of position, BR masks it by dropping another midfielder in beside him, Hendo or worse still Lucas. The result? We are slow coming out of defence; everything goes across the back pairing and through Gerard slowing us to a crawl there is no more Hollywood 60 yard pass or fats counter attacks. Worse still he gets closed down immediately as per Stewart Downing yesterday and Agbonlahor last week creating pressure on the defence he is supposed to be protecting.

The opposite occurs in attack, Gerard being naturally offensive, follows the ball, but gets caught out of position up field leaving us wide pen to quick countering. Wherein the diamond is useless, offering no protection between the opposing 18 yard box and ours. The manager must step up here and take full blame.

To mask this BR tried to reformat the team with a disastrous 4-3-3 which with Gerard now permanently deep, drags the other two midfielders back deep also leaving the front three detached and isolated. In turn this causes Balotelli, Sterling, Coutinho or even Borini to come deep to get the ball leaving nothing up front.

We are getting overrun in midfield and have lost creativity to accommodate Gerard in this holding role that in truth never worked, as he simply cannot defend.

His distribution was excellent last year yes but his defending at times woefully inadequate. This term his distribution has gone so we need to ask what is his current role? And what is he contributing to the team?

This problem is further compounded when the gaffer uses players out of position, Coutinho on the left, Markovic on the right, Johnson on the Left, Sterling as a wing back yesterday, Balotelli as a lone striker. Young players give you great energy and when a team are rampaging forward, like last year, this is great however they are hugely reliant on confidence. Playing youth out of position then dropping them is damaging.

Take Markovic a devastating left winger who loves to come in on his right foot or play off the main striker. Yes he can play on the right but is less effective and certainly not in his debut season in the fastest league in the world.

We have the personnel for a solid 4-4-2 type formation which could be well balanced, however I feel the manager sees 4-4-2 as ancient and is hell bent on accommodating Gerard.

Finally Lambert was signed and Borini told to go, yet BR subsequently starts Borini so what does this say to our transfer policy? At the start I said I hate to point the finger at individuals but Gerard is finished at the top level on a week on week, his legs have simply gone. He would however make an outstanding impact player coming on for a half or off the bench and could still contribute significantly. Or could be deployed in the 4-1-3-2 diamond in Champions league games where the pace can sometimes be slower away from home.

I feel the manager however is in awe of the legend that is Stevie G and can’t make the hard call. This love affair may be to the detriment of the club, the player and ultimately Brendan Rodgers.

Source: DSG