NEIL ATKINSON welcomes Rob Gutmann, Mike Nevin and Mike Girling for this week’s Anfield Wrap on CityTalk show.
Can Liverpool respond to a pitiful FA Cup exit against Aston Villa against Tony Pulis’ West Bromwich Albion on Saturday? Is Brendan Rodgers’ neck on the line or is everyone getting a bit carried away?
The lads discuss all this, and Rodgers’ recent press conference which caused such a stir, before focusing on how the manager could set up at at The Hawthorns.
Don’t really understand Neil’s point about defining targets.
Neil, we know what the aims were. We know what the purpose of the exercise was. It was to finish top 4, qualify from the champions league group & win a trophy. Rodgers has said so himself publicly. I would imagine they were in that order to.
And guess what? Rodgers failed every target, even with an amazing easy passage to what should have been an FA Cup final. But even against shit teams we needed replay after replay.
You say we aren’t equipped to compete on 4 fronts. Why did we buy 7/8 players and spend 120 million to build a squad then? We are equipped. This is a decent squad, but an imbalaced one. Far too many midfielders. The manager is at the very least partly to blame for that and he’s solely to blame for constantly playing players in the wrong positions. But theres still enough depth to go on 4 fronts.
Leaving aside imbalance stemming from the summers transfer activities, the problem is the manager didnt do what a manager is supposed to do, namely get the best out of the players at his disposal.
Does anyone believe Markovic isnt better than this? How about Balotelli? How about Sterling? How about Henderson? They are all better than what they’ve shown. The latter 2 were better last season yet are a year further/closer to their prime. If it was one player not coming up to scratch you blame the player, if its a lot more than one you blame the boss.
On the press conference, as someone who has felt since November Rodgers is too craven and makes too many mistakes/doesnt learn from his mistakes to lead us to what we want to do, I don’t see what the fuss is about. The reaction was ridiculous.
Yes he contradicted himself and made himself look like a tit, but whats new? He’s said a million worse things in the last 9 months never mind the last 3 years. Quotes about Spurs spending 100 mill and not challenging for the league, throwing Balotelli under the bus after a lot of bad results whether he was playing or not, snide remarks about a defensive coach etc were when this reaction should have came.
But hey ho. Not sure theres anything worse supporting LFC and theres 6 games to go with absolutely nothing on the line. Anyone thinking City will collapse & we’ll nick 4th needs their head testing.
Pulis away?
… Draw. Obvs.
I don’t get this business of announcing your policy for the cups upfront. Leaving aside the fact that fielding a weakened side breaks rules and will result in the club being fined, any LFC manager effectively announcing that they were sacrificing the opportunity to win a trophy to blood youngsters would be excoriated in the press and by the fanbase. We all know some clubs do it and we could follow suit, but you don’t announce it as a policy – at least not externally.
Agree with Rob that there’s absolutely no contradiction between announcing your intention to get second when you’re in the midst of a great run that makes that possible, and recognizing the reality of 5th after results turn against you. Anyone criticizing those two position is implicitly suggesting one or both of the following:
1 – you shouldn’t show ambition in the good times
2 – you should refuse to acknowledge reality in the bad
Neither makes any sense to me.
Good listen, still. All these pods…the dog is totally confused and wondering why she’s getting two 60min walks a day.
Ha, and just discovered this evening that Rob G and I have a mutual friend (DavidT).
As Woody Allen once said, it’s a small world…but I wouldn’t want to paint it.
I didn’t enjoy this week’s show. It just sounded like a load of waffle. I seemed to be disagreeing with everything that was said and getting myself wound-up.
I was actually quite pleased when it came to an end. I can give no good reason as to why I didn’t just turn it off, much earlier.
I have an awful hangover, which may well explain everything. I’m now going to the shop to buy loads of pop and crisps.
The crucial question is why does Rodgers do the ultimate smalltime thing of going on Taksport when he is doing well?
I guess when you have no trophies to back you up you need to talk yourself up via any channel possible.
Rodgers has had 3 years and by rights should b sacked but oddly enough the owners lack of ambition will keep him in situ. i.e. a manger who knows he is lucky to be here and will work under their conditions.
This podcast wasn’t so damning of him. No trophies, 5th, humiliated in CL, battered by other top clubs, beaten by shit teams all season too.
Rodgers wants experienced proven players, great. Why can’t the fans want a proven manager?
I think one very good point was made during this pod, that a significant portion of the support have or or are in the process of turning against Rodgers.
The problem being of course is that really isnt reflected by the pods make up. Rob, bless him, will broach no words against Rodgers and so it all gets a bit chippy when points are brought up against him, meaning that realities are never hugely touched upon. It’s not the pod’s fault of course because if the regular contributors are all pro Rodgers or if they are wavering get talked down by others on the pod then its difficult to go near the questions that maybe some listeners want discussed. I don’t know, I don’t run a pod and i’m just a keyboard warrior on a distant continent!! :)
There’s that many podcasts and articles at the min in not sure I’m commenting under the right one. Great work though lads, keep it up!
I don’t get all this, “we’ll finish about par for the year” as if it’s ok. If we’re gonna finish where we’re meant to then what’s the point of a manager etc then???? Are these people not meant to get the maximum out of the squad???