The Slippery Demise of Brendan Rodgers
Ah, Mr Rodgers. Where did it all go wrong?
I s’pose if you want an answer to that question, Steven Gerrard’s infamous slip against Chelsea in the 2013-14 season is a good place to start. Up until that point, Liverpool were in a prime position to win their first league title in over 20 years. Brendan Rodgers was on the verge of sainthood for what he’d done with a squad that certainly wasn’t the most talented in England that year (as usual, that was probably Manchester City). Many things clicked for them in that campaign. Daniel Sturridge. Gerrard from 12 yards. The emergence of Raheem Sterling. Jordan Henderson. And, yes, Brendan Rodgers. But most of all: Luis Suarez.
The Toothy One began the season suspended for taking a nibble on Branislav Ivanovic’s arm but the team rallied without him, winning their first three games by scores of 1-0, 1-0 and 1-0, all thanks to first half goals from Daniel Sturridge. The third of those was a victory over Manchester United at Anfield. Suarez made his return in a League Cup loss to Man Utd and immediately began playing at a level greater than we’d ever seen from him. He was untouchable. For one stretch in December he score 10 times in 4 games, all wins. He’d finish with 31 in the Premier League, the first man to score that many since Cristiano Ronaldo’s second-last season in Manchester. Nobody has ever scored more in a 38 game season. He swept the PFA, Writers Association and Premier League Player of the Year awards.
After that 10 in 4 burst, Liverpool lost twice, once to Man City and once to Chelsea. Both games in which they’d held first half leads. They then went on a 16 game unbeaten streak, winning 11 in a row. Convincing wins over Arsenal (5-1 at home), Manchester United (3-0 at Old Trafford) and Spurs (4-0 at home) had given them hope. They were top of the table and on a roll. Next up: Chelsea at Anfield.
It was Brendan Rodgers’ defining match as Liverpool manager. It would’ve been so win, draw or loss. This is the kind of game that Liverpool managers of the past two decades would kill for, the opportunity to play for a title.
Chelsea were only a few days out from a Champions League semi-final clash with Atletico Madrid when that game arrived and Mourinho suggested he may even field a weakened team (a threat he didn’t follow through on). His side were only clinging on in the title race after losing to Sunderland at home the week before – Jose’s first ever PL loss at Stamford Bridge. Liverpool’s win over Norwich had put them 4 points clear with three games remaining. Manchester City were 9 points back from the Reds with 2 games in hand, Liverpool having beaten City 3-2 in a thriller two weeks previous. This Rodgers-branded team was playing the most gorgeously brutal attacking football.
Up against the tactical genius of Jefe Jose, however, Brendan Rodgers was found well short. He had no alternative to the forward-flowing game that had seen them plunder the League over the last couple months. Maybe he didn’t need one, if he’d changed and still lost then he’d have been slaughtered in the press all the same. But after a first half in which Chelsea stacked the midfield and defended stoutly as Liverpool pressed in vain for those early goals that had been helping them so much… this happened:
The second half was a mess of panic from Liverpool as they completely dominated yet couldn’t break through. Stevie G took it upon himself to dig them out of their deficit, launching long shot after long shot but none found the net. Willian added some 90th minute confirmation, set up by former-Red Fernando Torres.
The thing is, Liverpool only needed a draw. In losing this game they opened the title up to City if they could win their remaining four games (which they did), as their superior goal difference would easily trump Liverpool’s. Pool scored 101 goals that season but conceded 50. City scored 102 and conceded 37. It didn’t matter in the end, Liverpool drew 3-3 with Crystal Palace a week later – having led 3-0 with 78 minutes played.
Brendan Rodgers took a fairly boring team and turned them into the most exciting one in England for a season. He got the best out of Suarez, he developed Sterling and Sturridge into top choice internationals. He gave Stevie G his late resurgence. But in the biggest game of his career, he was thoroughly out-managed by Jose Mourinho. Liverpool could have settled for a quiet game and a draw. When Chelsea set up to take away their usual style of play, they had no alternative. Rodgers was right when he said afterwards that: “just putting 10 players right on your 18-yard box is not difficult to coach.” Not at all. Except that up against a more versatile team, Chelsea wouldn’t have been able to get away with it.
Tactical naivety let him down and in a lot of ways he’s never been the same since. Constant tinkering and formation changes. Fall outs with players. Increasingly delusional quotes (and a brilliant twitter parody). It’s only a theory, but in the same way that Steven Gerrard was never the same player after that, Rodgers always seemed a little bit heartbroken from then on. Or maybe that’s just hindsight playing tricks.
Of course, if Gerrard hadn’t slipped, who knows what would have happened? Liverpool would have kept their composure better, surely. Chelsea may have even slipped up (metaphorically) at some point in that second half without a lead to protect and spur them on. It was the goal that changed the game and it was a goal that came as such an anomaly. Gerrard slipped over under minimal pressure, untouched. With that win to play for, Chelsea had already had their negative tactics vindicated (Rodgers said they “parked two buses”), from there it was easy to double down on the defence.
Imagine for a second that Liverpool had won that game. The draw at Palace wouldn’t have mattered, they’d have won the title in the final week with their 2-1 win over Newcastle (though they might not have reacted to going behind in that one as they did with the championship on the line). Maybe Suarez might have stayed. Maybe Sterling would still be there too. The ways in which the culture and atmosphere could have changed with a Premier League title are immense. The fans would still be celebrating today, and just imagine the players they’d have been able to sign with the reputation of being champions. It was only a few months later that they were rejected by Alexis Sanchez in favour of Arsenal.
To be fair, though, Rodgers never had the best relationship with Luis Suarez. Before that season they’d fallen out as Suarez asked to leave. Luis said Brendan had promised him he could leave if they didn’t make the Champions League. Brendan denied saying such a thing and accused him of "total disrespect" to the club. They rejected a bid of £40,000,001 from Arsenal and refused to sell him. Until the next season when he left for Barcelona for £75m.
Might his relationship with Sterling have been better with a title? Sterling was easily his most effective creative player after Suarez left yet he messed him around with his positions and left him out of that Champions League XI that played Real Madrid. Resting players for a game at the Bernabéu? You’ve spent all this time getting there and you’re immediately taking it for granted. Another milestone moment in the journey that’s taken us to where we are now.
It’ll be weird without Rodgers in the League, at least for as long as he’s gone. For an ambitious club like Liverpool, he didn’t get the freedom of a transitional period. Sadly, a team like Swansea seems like a perfect fit for him. Whoops. Potentially a Spurs or a Southampton will come calling someday. Wouldn’t it be poetic if he ended up rebuilding Southampton after raiding all of those players? Unfortunately all three of those teams are doing pretty great at the moment and Everton is out of the question for a man of the undoubted CHARACTER of Mr Rodgers. Celtic would be a fun fit, or perhaps he goes even further abroad. Or he could enjoy being unemployed for a while. He’ll surely get a bunch of media gigs in the meantime, there are few more quote worthy folk out there in the football world.
Three years and four months he was in charge of Liverpool. In that time he went trophy-less and he was headed for another few months of cobwebs in the cabinet by the looks of it. That’s what’s cost him his job, ultimately. Liverpool is one of the proudest clubs out there and the vision of a future still devoid of the success they crave was too much. After all, it was a wise man that uttered these words:
“I’ve always said you can live without water for many days, but you can't live for a second without hope.” – Brendan Rodgers
In 18 matches away from home against the top four and Everton, he won only once. It was that Suarez masterclass against Moyes’ Man United. He initially took the club great lengths in a short amount of time but that soon proved to be a flash in the pan. They’re better now than when they moved on from Roy Hodgson (obviously) and probably better than post-Dalglish (though he did win a League Cup, don’t forget). But they’re worse than in 2013-14 and that means they’re going backwards. He had a couple of months to disprove that and he hasn’t. Getting well beaten by Manchester United in a game where his players looked almost disinterested at times must have been the breaking point. By the time he drew 1-1 with Everton in his final game, it felt like the club were looking for reasons to sack him. Win this game or you’re out. Take seven points from the next three or we’re through, that kind of thing. And, honestly, when you’re already looking for reasons to fire a guy then you may as well nut up and do it now. The international break gives them a bit of breathing room for transitioning.
The club statement included its own statement from Fenway Sports Group (the club’s owners) on behalf of ‘Principal Owner John W Henry, Chairman Tom Werner and President Mike Gordon’:
“We would like to place on record our sincere thanks to Brendan Rodgers for the significant contribution he has made to the club and express our gratitude for his hard work and commitment.
“All of us have experienced some wonderful moments with Brendan as manager and we are confident he will enjoy a long career in the game.
“Although this has been a difficult decision, we believe it provides us with the best opportunity for success on the pitch. Ambition and winning are at the heart of what we want to bring to Liverpool and we believe this change gives us the best opportunity to deliver it.
“The search for a new manager is underway and we hope to make an appointment in a decisive and timely manner.”
In short, Rodgers wasn’t winning trophies.
Which is harsh. To expect this team to be challenging with the financial weight of United, City and Chelsea and the long-established fourth-ness of Arsenal is a lot. Even then, Rodgers still managed it for a season.
And it’s rare that those other teams have to deal with losing their best players at their peak. Cristiano Ronaldo is the main exception. Cesc Fabregas possibly, but now he’s back and at Chelsea. If you want a good glimpse at the gap between the top few teams and Liverpool, who are narrowly but undeniably distanced, look at the (pre-Rodgers) transfer of Fernando Torres to Chelsea. Liverpool outmuscled, looking to Andy Carroll to replace him. They did put their foot down to Arsenal over Suarez, but Arsenal don’t really count. It’s only Chelsea and the Manchesters that can buy almost anyone they want. Look at United, they finished outside Europe the year Liverpool came second and while Liverpool were losing Suarez and Sterling (the latter admittedly through the fault of Liverpool, the former kinda unavoidable), United were signing Angel Di Maria and Bastian Schweinsteiger. Real Madrid and Bayern Munich players. One sucked and the other’s sorta old but that’s not the point. Established great players wanted to play for Manchester United while Liverpool had to gamble on getting the best out of the best players on lower/mid-table teams.
This was no easy job for Rodgers. Yet the club gave him both time and money, which is more than many others have had. Brendan Rodgers speaks like a man with great faith in his ability but he managed like one without a drop of it. He’s never been able to build a defence capable of keeping out goals on par with the teams above them, not even close. He spent hundreds of millions of pounds on new players that mostly haven’t justified that cash, although there are four other members of that Liverpool Transfer Committee that deserve as much of the blame. Unfortunately football is too cutthroat for all of those faults.
So now what? By the looks of it, Jürgen Klopp may even have been unveiled by the time this piece is published. Failing that, Carlo Ancelotti must be an option. Unfortunately Fat Sam Allardyce is probably looking more realistically at Sunderland than Liverpool. Martin O’Neill should be an option too but it’s unlikely they’ll look that way. To be honest, the chances are that Rodgers wouldn’t have been sacked had Klopp not given a verbal agreement already. He’s the best available option and he should be a wonderful fit.
(The only potential hitch is that Klopp is bound to hate the Transfer Committee idea with a burning passion, but he ought to be able to get rid of it if he lays down the ultimatum).
Klopp likes the kind of football that this team had so much success with a couple seasons back but he’s also smarter than Rodgers tactically and more loved by his players. Even as things got bad last year with Borussia Dortmund, when Klopp proved unable to adapt beyond his counter-attacking plan one, when Klopp struggled to win without his main playmaker Marco Reus (sound familiar, Liverpool fans?), it was still with great reluctance and sadness that he eventually resigned. And you’ll never hear his replacement, Thomas Tuchel, talk about the immediate success he’s had there without acknowledging the wonderful foundations that his predecessor left behind.
(Let’s also not ignore that Klopp’s troubles began when Robert Lewandowski – All-World Centre Forward – left for Bayern. Rodgers’ began with Luis Suarez’s departure for Liverpool. Hmm, more in common than you’d think. Except that Klopp won 2 Bundesligas and came second twice, won a German Cup and came second three times, won the German Super-Cup twice and made a Champions League Final, while Brendan Rodgers won… umm, nothing. Hence one departs to cheers and the other to jeers).
Rodgers is leaving plenty behind at Liverpool, not all of it is great. In fairness, his transfer dealing have been much better recently. Players like Christian Benteke, Joe Gomez, Nathaniel Clyne, Roberto Firmino (and maybe even Danny Ings!) look like they can contribute to the Kop for several years to come. But it was all too little too late. Not for Klopp, maybe, he’s gonna love a player like Firmino, but definitely for Rodgers. He swung and missed on players like Dejan Lovren and Adam Lallana (who may well prove much more effective with a new boss, as often players do), never able to integrate them as the first XI players he wanted them to be and let’s not even start on Mario Balotelli. Talk about ‘desperately ill-advised’.
If you want a summation of why he didn’t pull through at Anfield, you could say that Brendan Rodgers didn’t inspire the same stoic confidence in himself amongst the players, fans and pundits that he seemed to exude in interviews. He talked a great game only it wasn’t enough. There had to be more progression. This was death by football.
And yet it still feels harsh. It always feels harsh. Brendan Rodgers had a penchant for weird metaphors and he could never decide between a back three and a back four. He wasn’t the man to take this team further but dammit he was close!
Frankly, it was an outstanding effort.