Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers is under-pressure for his teams displays to improve
It seems that Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers is living on borrowed time with the Reds fans after last night’s 1-0 defeat at struggling Hull City at the KC Stadium. The Reds are now major outsiders to make the top four at odds of 25/1.
It was the second game in a row that Liverpool have looked toothless in attack and Rodgers is set to incur the wrath of the Anfield faithful.
Toothless
Liverpool’s attacking display last night was completely toothless. The Reds cannot hide from the fact that Luis Suarez is simply irreplaceable. Daniel Sturridge’s injuries this season have not helped their case in attack.
Liverpool have scored just 47 Premier league goals this season, which is the lowest in the top six of the league. That says it all about how the Reds have performed in front of goal this season.
Forwards
However, Brendan Rodgers had a large chunk of money to spend on attacking reinforcements last summer and spent some of it on veteran England striker Rickie Lambert and the mercurial Mario Balotelli. To keep Italian Fabio Borini was also maybe a mistake by Rodgers.
Lambert did not cost much money, but he was never going to play much of a part for the Reds this season, as Sturridge was always first choice and Balotelli later arrived, supposedly to strengthen their attack.
The signing of Balotelli was always going to be a major gamble for Rodgers. The Italian had a decent goalscoring record wherever he had played, but he also had a record of upsetting applecart’s and causing mayhem wherever he went.
He was never going to be able to fill Suarez’s boots and he was never cut-out to be the saviour of Liverpool’s attack. He just did not have the right attitude to take over from the workaholic Suarez in the Liverpool attack.
Rodgers also decided to sign highly-rated young Belgium international Divock Origi from French club Lille for around £10million and loaned him back to the Ligue One club for this season. The youngster may be promising, but he is very raw. His record of seven goals in 28 games in a struggling Lille side is not exactly inspiring.
Origi is expected to arrive at Liverpool this summer. He will have to perform better than he has done for Lille this season if he is going to be a success on Merseyside.
Awful
In truth, Rodgers had a big opportunity to strengthen his attack and team in general this summer and failed to do so. His record in the transfer market has quite frankly been poor since his arrival at Anfield.
Philippe Coutinho, Daniel Sturridge and Emre Can are probably the only players he has brought to the club that have been successful signings. Sturridge has even missed the majority of this season through injuries.
The former-Swansea boss has had a lot of money to spend and spent it very poorly on players that are either not good enough, or not ready to play Premier League football at this point of their careers. In truth Liverpool fans are right to question Rodgers signing of players.
Difference
Last season’s second place finish was a major achievement for the Reds, but was inspired by the now defunct strike-partnership of Suarez and Sturridge.
It is not a major surprise that the Reds have struggled to replicate last season’s performance, when at times young winger Raheem Sterling has been playing up front instead of actual strikers. That just shows that the natural forwards at the club are not up to the job.
Liverpool have scored nearly half the amount of goals this season, as they did in the last campaign and it has made a major difference.
Questions
Rodgers has always talked about his football philosophy and how he believes in a certain way of playing the game. However all the rhetoric in the world about philosophies and systems means very little when the team are not winning games.
Rodgers does spend a lot of time talking in the press and sometimes I bet Reds fans just wish he would keep quiet and concentrate on the football, rather than talking inanely to the media.
Change
Liverpool fans are demanding a major change in the team’s personnel, style of play and attitude. If the Reds continue to struggle this season then it is not out of the question that there could also be a change of boss at Anfield this summer. The Reds boss would only have himself to blame.
Should Brendan Rodgers be under-pressure at Anfield?
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