Failure helped Liverpool boss Rodgers to become a success

Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers has been a big hit at Anfield, after failing at Championship Reading earlier in his career

Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers has revealed that he believes the secret to his current successful spell with the Reds is failure earlier on in his managerial career.

Rodgers may not yet have claimed any silverware with Liverpool, but the Reds could win the Premier League title in only Rodgers second season at Anfield.

Failure

Rodgers told Sky Sports: “I was sitting in McDonalds with my two children. I got a call saying Swansea were keen to speak to me. On the Friday of that week I became the manager of Swansea.

“People now say what’s the key to success? The word for me is failure, that’s how you succeed. Whatever way you dress it up, something hasn’t worked. For the first time in my life I felt I had failed at Reading. I probably read the script wrong thinking I had three years and instead I had 20 games.

“I either disappear and become an academy director, where I’d been for 14 years, or I show character and perseverance and go again. Thankfully I was able to do that. I found out the hard way. I suppose that fear of failure is what drives me on.”

Failure

The failure the Reds boss is talking about is an ill-fated spell at Reading in the Championship. Rodgers arrived at the Royals as a highly-rated coach, having made a bright start to his managerial career with Watford.

However, Rodgers was in charge of the Royals for just 23 games, winning only six in the process and losing 11. The 41-year-old lost his job and it could have led to Rodgers, as he says himself, returning to coaching or working behind-the-scenes at a club.

Suited

Instead Rodgers found a club who he was ideally suited to in Swansea City. The Welsh side’s football ideology was to play possession based football, first implemented by now-Everton boss Roberto Martinez.

Rodgers had the same sort of football philosophy and continued to play possession based football, something he had tried to implement at previous clubs Watford and Reading. The Swans players bought into Rodgers ideas of how to play football and the club were promoted to the Premier League in his first season in charge at the Liberty Stadium.

Rodgers Swansea team more than held their own in the top-flight, finishing 11^th in the Premier League table. The Swans style of play brought many admirers and Liverpool decided to appoint Rodgers as the successor to Reds legend Kenny Dalglish in the summer of 2012.

The Reds finished seventh in the Premier League in his first season at Anfield, but most fans could see the progress that the Reds were making under the former-Chelsea academy director. This season Liverpool have been fantastic to watch.

The Reds are the highest scoring team in the Premier League and are one of the league’s best footballing teams. Just like at Swansea, the Liverpool players have bought into Rodgers football philosophy and it has paid off.

The Reds are right in the thick of the Premier League title race and host Tottenham at Anfield on Sunday. The game is massive one for Rodgers and his side.

Modern

Brendan Rodgers is a very modern football boss. He is a student of the game and you get the sense that he loves the game. Rodgers has proved at Liverpool that he is tactically astute and for such a young boss has shown great maturity in his handling of the players in his charge.

Future

The former-Swansea boss has done a fantastic job at Anfield. Despite initial doubts about the Northern Irishman, there seems to now be a unanimous opinion amongst Liverpool fans that the team have a bright future under Rodgers.

The Reds are ahead of schedule with their unexpected title challenge this season. If Liverpool continues at their current rate, failure will not be the word for Brendan Rodgers, the word will be success for the Northern Irishman.

Will Liverpool win the Premier League title this season?