Andy Hunter/The Guardian
On stage at London’s Old Billingsgate on 13 May, LMA manager of the year award in hand, Brendan Rodgers thanked his peers for their recognition but admitted: “I was hoping I’d be on the open-top bus tonight.” On Sunday, drenched and despondent after another calamity at Crystal Palace, he openly admitted being vulnerable to the sack. From bus parades to talk of a taxi for Rodgers in 195 days; his fortunes reflect the speed of Liverpool’s disintegration with alarming precision.
First things first, Rodgers’ position as Liverpool manager is not in jeopardy or currently up for review by the club’s owner, Fenway Sports Group, despite the team languishing in 12th in the Premier League and in danger of elimination from the Champions League after the most expensive transfer spree in the club’s history.
The word from Boston is FSG is firm in its support for Rodgers, the man who fitted its grand design for a rising young coach to polish inexpensive gems after sacking Kenny Dalglish in 2012, and that he remains the appointment for the long term. Nerve and common sense are holding.
However, as Rodgers conceded after the 3-1 loss at Selhurst Park, 18 months’ progress does not buy a manager immunity from a P45 should his team slip into sustained reverse. Four successive defeats for the first time since October 2009, during Rafael Benítez’s final season in charge, as many league defeats as in the whole of last season and one anaemic display after another provide disturbing signposts.
Fourteen points from 12 matches represents their worst start to a league campaign since taking 13 from 12 under Graeme Souness in 1992-93. Alarmingly for Rodgers, the performances are just as poor as a time Anfield would rather forget.
The Liverpool manager had not even got back to Merseyside before reports linking Jürgen Klopp with his job appeared on Sunday. Both Rodgers and FSG have long championed Borussia Dortmund as the template for Liverpool to follow and the man from Carnlough is realistic enough to know only he can silence speculation over a successor. Equally, given its track record, FSG is unlikely to ignore Klopp’s overtures about wanting to coach in England should Liverpool’s decline continue – and this is a club that will be out of the Champions League tomorrow should Rodgers’ team fail to beat Ludogorets Razgrad in Sofia.
Causes for Liverpool’s dramatic fall since blitzing their way to the brink of the title last season have been well-documented. That does not diminish their significance. The sale of Luis Suárez and Daniel Sturridge’s persistent injury woes have deprived Rodgers of a strike force that scored 52 of Liverpool’s 101 league goals last term.
The near £120m spent on squad strengthening and filling the Suárez void so far resembles another example of Liverpool investing unwisely from a position of strength. It defies belief that the club never signed a suitable replacement for the Uruguay international when they must have known he was leaving once he signed a contract containing a clear exit route last December. Sturridge’s poor injury record has not suddenly appeared.
As part of a transfer committee at Anfield, albeit the only member who confronts the wrath of supporters directly, Rodgers shares responsibility for the club’s dreadful record on signings.
Sturridge’s absence until the new year is unfortunate but the manager is also culpable for being in a position where his tenure is openly debated on the Kop as well as in post-match press conferences.
The citation for the LMA manager of the year award that Rodgers collected in May, the first Liverpool manager to be given the honour by the association, explains that it “is voted by all LMA members, including every manager from the top four professional leagues in English football and goes to the manager, who, in their opinion and regardless of the status of his club, has made the greatest use of the resources available to him in the current season”. Injury problems and eight new arrivals do not adequately explain Rodgers’ use of resources since.
Last season’s flexibility has been replaced by intransigence in terms of team selection; persisting with Mario Balotelli as a lone striker, persisting with him at all before injury, restoring the struggling Dejan Lovren to the heart of defence despite Kolo Touré’s impressive showing at Real Madrid, and marginalising Lucas Leiva despite Steven Gerrard’s trials in a defensive-midfield role.
Gerrard’s longevity is scrutinised after every defeat when a more pressing issue is why Liverpool have not acquired his long-term successor, or at least a player they can develop while utilising the captain more sparingly as the midfielder approaches his 35th birthday? The ageing process cannot have come as a surprise.
Jamie Carragher’s enraged analysis on Sky of the performance against Palace, when he accused a Liverpool team captained by his friend of lacking leadership, of being weak and easily bullied, will have stung Gerrard but was not a criticism of one player. The vice-captain Jordan Henderson’s form has deteriorated in the absence of Suárez, Philippe Coutinho is still searching for an end-product and the £20m summer signing, Lazar Markovic, has not featured in the Premier League since September. The list could go on.
Players that can still call on the services of Dr Steve Peters were evidently lacking confidence at Palace, according to the home captain, Mile Jedinak. The title collapse, Suárez’s departure, Sturridge’s injuries and the elusive quest for leaders and defensive resilience under Rodgers has left Liverpool brittle. Restoring belief among his charges, supporters and possibly employer alike is only part of the task now confronting the reigning LMA manager of the year.
Brendan Rodgers’ (centre) position as Liverpool manager is not in jeopardy or currently up for review by the club’s owner despite the team languishing
