The Rise of Brendan Rodgers

Rodgers prominently started his managerial career when he was invited by Jose Mourinho to join the Chelsea academy as their head youth coach in 2004. Two years later he was promoted to reserve team manager and retained that position under Chelsea managers Avram grant and Luiz Scholari. On 24^th November 2008, Rodgers left Chelsea to become the manager of championship side Watford. Rodgers had a dreadful start to the season winning only two of his first ten games, leaving Watford in the relegation zone by January. However watford’s form drastically improved and they finished the season 13^th avoiding relegation. Weeks after watford’s survival on june 5^th 2009 Rodgers joined Reading F.C. After a string of disappointing results Rodgers left Reading on mutual consent on 16^th December 2009. Rodgers accepted the offer to manage the championship side Swansea on 16^th July 2010. His beginning at Swansea was so successful that he was awarded the championship manager of the month award. Rodgers led Swansea to championship play offs and after beating the favorites Nottingham forest in semis and his former clud Reading in finals, Swansea became first ever welsh team to join premier league. Despite many predicting Swansea to be relegated, their debut season in premier league was very impressive, having picked up points against many big clubs and kept well above the relegation zone. In jan 2012 a win over aston villa, arsenal and draw with Chelsea earned Rodgers his first premier league manager of the month award. Swansea’s last game of the season was a 1-0 win over Liverpool which saw them finished 11^th in the league.

 On june 1^st 2012 Brendan Rodgers was unveiled as the new Liverpool manager, following the departure of Kenny Dalglish two weeks ago. Brendan Rodgers had a disappointing start to his career as a Liverpool manager. The frustrating closing days of the summer transfer window, the lack of depth and the inevitable retirement of vice captain Jamie Carragher along with injuries and suspension of Luis Suarez was more than a handful for a young manager with his first year incharge at one of the biggest clubs in the world. But the fact that Rodgers dealt with it in such a mature and cool headed manner tells us everything about his character and leadership abilities. Even after a bad a start to season Rodgers still showed promising stats which were better than the start made by Kenny Dalglish a yaer before. Rodgers is a kind of manager who would give players a chance to prove themselves as well as show the door to those who fail to prove themselves. One by one Rodgers saw out the likes of Joe cole, Charlie adam, stewart downing and andy carroll. At the same time Rodgers gave Henderson plenty of field time and without a doubt has brought out the best in him. In the following summer there were few moments where the boss showed real courage which led to fans discontent. One such scenario was bringing in of simon mignolet and shipping out of kop idol pepe reina. Looking back we can see that Rodgers was right to proceed as he did resolve one of the problems of team. Credit to him, the Irish stood firm by his decision thereby proving his doubters wrong.

 Brendan Rodgers’ footballing doctrine is simple: control possession, and you control the game.Nobody actually predicted lfc to be at the top of league by Christmas, not even Liverpool fans. Thanks to some clinical finishing by sturridge at the start of the season followed by the brilliant form of luis suarez along with good performances from Gerrard, coutinho, Henderson, lucas and our summer signings mignolet and toure have propelled the club forward in such a way that only few could imagine. We should give a massive credit to Brendan Rodgers who came with a dream to make lfc a top club again and is working in right direction.

Since taking the control of the club in summer 2012, the 40 year old has made smooth and steady alterations at the club. Since his arrival he is in search of a perfect formation which will allow his players to continue their fluid passing football without compromising their creativity or defensive organization. Rodgers started the season with 4-2-3-1 formation with sturridge as the lone striker up front with Henderson coutinho and aspas behind him and gerrard and lucas playing as double pivot at centre of field. However this double pivot was different than the one seen last year, Lucas was given much more freedom leaving gerrard as the last midfielder for most of the time. Home defeat to southampton coupled with the much awaited return of luis suarez promted Rodgers to change his formation to an unusual 3-4-1-2 shape which surprisingly provoked an impressive reaction from the players. Liverpool did struggle to dominate the ball in first 5 matches boasting an average of 49.3 % but with the new system in place the average possession has rose to 53%.

How did this happen? With the new system in place the players were now able to make the pitch much wider. With two of the three centre backs spreading out wide and the wing backs taking very advance positions the reds are spreading out and creating more space to pass the ball around. The formation is not all rigid as “fluidity” is a word you will hear from Rodgers time and again. With the 4-3-3 formation that Rodgers usually deployed last year, one of either suarez or sturridge had to play in their unnatural position from the left. With the new wing back system however  the pair are both essentially deployed in striker positions. While they are free to roam to the flanks, and occasionally come deep to link up with midfielders.

Since his arrival at Anfield, Rodgers has signed a total of 15 players.

 The list of players can be seen below:

Player	Club	Fee	Date
Fabio Borini	Roma	£10,400,000	13 July 2012
Joe Allen	Swansea City	£15,000,000	10 August 2012
Oussama Assaidi	Heerenveen	£3,000,000	17 August 2012
Nuri Sahin	Real Madrid	Loan	25 August 2012
Samed Yesil	Bayer Leverkusen	£1,000,000	30 August 2012
Daniel Sturridge	Chelsea	£12,000,000	2 January 2013
Philippe Coutinho	Inter Milan	£8,500,000	30 January 2013
Luis Alberto	Sevilla	£6,800,000	22 June 2013
Iago Aspas	Celta Vigo	£7,000,000	23 June 2013
Simon Mignolet	Sunderland	£9,000,000	25 June 2013
Kolo Touré	Free Transfer	Free	2 July 2013
Aly Cissokho	Valencia	On Loan	20 August 2013
Mamadou Sakho	Paris St Germain	£15,000,000	2 September 2013
Tiago Ilori	Sporting Lisbon	£7,000,000	2 September 2013
Victor Moses	Chelsea	On loan	2 September 2013

If we observe closely, every signings made by Rodgers is actually a young prospect which can be groomed properly, except for kolo toure and aly cissokho . Toure was added to bring some experience into the dressing room after Carragher retired while Cissokho was brought on as a back up to left back Jose Enrique. Some of the signings by Rodgers have been cheap and very much effective and will play a prominent role in Liverpool’s top 4 dreams. Signing of Daniel Sturridge for (  £12,000,000 ) from Chelsea and Phillipe Coutinho for (£8,500,000 ) from Inter Milan and Sakho for (£15,000,000) from Paris St Germain.  Have really been worth every penny. Rodgers has been modest enough to accept his mistakes too. After a disappointing first six months he terminated the loan deal for Nuri Sahin and gave up Fabio Borini and Assaidi on loan within premier league to gain some experience. Under current circumstances both the players are doing great at their respective clubs and could easily find their way to liverpool bench. Each of Rodgers signings has a resale value and have contributed to Liverpool’s top 4 pursuit in some way or another.

Some stats for Liverpool F.C under Rodgers

1. In 2013 Only Southampton and West Bromwich Albion have managed to take 3 points from red half of Mersey side.
2. Liverpool have only failed to score in four matches on home turf. The kop has erupted in celebration on 35 occasions in this calendar year – that is more than two every game.
3. The reds have only failed to score four times on their travels in 2013
4. In premier league : Rodgers has Played 66 / W 34/ D 18/ L 14 (51.52% won) (Avg pts per game = 1.82).

“There's a great togetherness in this team". "The spirit in the dressing room is something the manager has created. There is a lot of belief in the team. Games like the win at Southampton, coupled with what we've done at home recently to the likes of Everton and Arsenal , have fuelled that belief. There are other big teams fighting for the title and I wouldn't say we are the favourites. In fact we are the underdogs. But confidence is high and with 10 games to go we're in a great position. We have given ourselves a chance." - Steven Gerrard .

The Golden Sky is in clear view for Liverpool F.C. and looking at current form it seems the Kop shall erupt to European glory soon enough .