Brendan Rodgers Discussion Thread

He's rattled Voldermort.

 

Come on mate.. it has been painful at times.. Ange had to totally rebuild the club by the scruff of the neck and drag us into contention..

The fact Rodgers side has scored less goals than Ange at this stage is more of an indictment, rather than to be proud of.

We have put a consistent run in which he deserves credit for, even before the last Hearts defeat, we were pretty good. But, for long periods of the season its definitely been below par..

I'm all supporting him and the team, but it doesn't need be as polar..

 

I’m not knocking what Ange done when he come here by the way. It was an incredible turnaround. I just think that the way some of our fans go on about how pish the football is under Rodgers, if we go on to score as many as we did in Ange’s first season, which I think is a fairer comparison given the amount of injuries we’ve had this season along with losing our best player and others, we have done pretty well. The football has improved tenfold which has coincided with our better players getting fit and us being able to get them all on the park together.

 

I honestly don't think you can compare them..

Ange inherited an absolute * show and yes Rodgers has been unlucky with injuries and recruitment has been poor but we had just won a treble. Rodgers was reluctant to change much and we ended up playing a hybrid of Ange's system with his possession based game. It didn't really work.

Only now are we seeing any sort of fluency. Is this more to do with the players quality rather than anything Rodgers is doing?

Don't get me wrong ill love it and him if gets us a double and there has been a degree of transition but the danger is we fall into the trap of thinking everything is good, especially off the park. And whether Rodgers has it in him to influence the changes that are needed.

I don't mean to be negative or shoot down your positivity either mate..

Let's get the league won and celebrate.

 

I honestly don't think it's as clear cut as that, mate. The "we" that played in most of our season was a very different thing to the one that won the treble. No Starfelt, no Jota, no Mooy, no Hatate. no Abada. For about half of it no CCV either. No Giakoumakis or Juranovic either if we count the first half of that season.

It's true that Rodgers didn't inherit quite as big a **** show as Ange did; but he didn't really inherit a treble-winning team except in a technical sense (I know you didn't say he did, but I've seen a few make that claim on here).

I'm not letting Rodgers off the hook completely as there was a period after the break where our performances were utterly unacceptable and if that does end up costing us the league, that's on Rodgers. But for the rest of the season before and after, I think he's done about as well as he could have been expected to under the circumstances.

I think we all need to judge him in the light of the last 3 transfer windows. In those 3 windows, we lost JJ, Jota, Mooy and Starfelt (all first-team players) and GG. Every single one of them was replaced by someone less able or not replaced at all.

Most damning of all, not one single player we signed in the last 2 windows actually gets in our best team at the moment. That blows my mind.

 

Giakoumakis and Juranovic were sold by Ange in his last window. So, that part is on Ange who made zero effort to keep them really..

Recruitment has been poor absolutely, but why does Rodgers always seem to get a free pass on that, he says he signs off on every signing.. being unable to effect transfer policy is an issue, especially with the way we're structured, the manager has even more influence with no DoF.

But, for me it's definitely not comparable. The way we were as a club, how low we were after losing the 10. Ange overcame a much stronger Hun side too, who got to a European final, by sheer will and good knowledge of the Japanese market. Yes he was backed but he also had to deal with the likes of Ajer, Edouard and Christie exiting. And he did it playing an enthralling style of football too.

Think its easy to dismiss or forget how much of job Ange did in his first season. Yes, he was backed better, but that's part of it, he demanded what he needed.

Rodgers allowed the board to inflict mediocrity on him and he thought it would be a canter, again.. only recently have we seen more fight from him. PL being back definitely doesn't help, but let's not go there.

@murphy88 was saying being 7 goals worse off than we were under Ange, was good but for me it isn't anything to boast about, that's what started the debate.

And just to reiterate its not comparable.

Ange's first squad v Hearts- Celtic (4-1-4-1): Bain; Ralston, Starfelt, Bitton, Taylor; Soro (Rogic 90); Forrest, Turnbull (Christie 78), McGregor, Abada (Furuhashi 78); Edouard. Subs – Barkas, Welsh, Montgomery, Ajeti.

 

I’m more getting at the fact we are in with a real chance of scoring the same number of goals as Ange did in his first season, yet we have a large section of our support who only ever go on about how boring the football is. I can’t recall that ever getting aimed at Ange, yet we could end up scoring the same amount. I think it just highlights personal feelings from some fans towards both managers.

 

Because the football was alot better under Ange and he barely had a squad

 

We scored 114 last season, that shows the drop of both, recruitment and performance.

 

He's also alot more cautious in his approach than Ange

 

We’ve barely had a squad for most of this season either though.

 

From last season undoubtedly there’s been a big drop off. Not really surprised though, as if you took Hatate, CCV, Maeda, Abada, Jota, Starfelt and Mooy out of Ange’s squad there would have been a big drop off as well.

 

Again, not comparable mate..

Look what Ange had to work with for the start of the season.

Celtic (4-1-4-1): Bain; Ralston, Starfelt, Bitton, Taylor; Soro (Rogic 90); Forrest, Turnbull (Christie 78), McGregor, Abada (Furuhashi 78); Edouard. Subs – Barkas, Welsh, Montgomery, Ajeti.

 

They weren't all not available tho..

 

That team would probably beat some of the starting elevens we had earlier in the season.

 

I think, at this point, we just need to get the title over the line before any arguments over past seasons can be made.

If he wins the title, I'd be willing to let go a lot of the past season's troubles, and fully back him.

If he loses the title? He can't stay, no doubts about it.

 

What about this starting 11?



Remember what it was like when we used to win at Rugby Park??

 

Hatate and CCV have missed a lot of games at the same time. Abada also for various reasons.

 

Kyogo was just off the plane.. Edouard and Christie would exit soon after..

Look at the bench ffs.