Make Or Break Time For Rodgers

Make Or Break Time For Rodgers

Brendan Rodgers faces the biggest 11 days of his Anfield career with his team playing four home games in that period. The Reds’ boss has come in for severe criticism this season despite a decent start to the season where Liverpool picked up 7 points from a possible 9 in their first three games of the season, but a very poor and disappointing performance against West Ham resulted in a 3-0 defeat, followed by a 3-1 defeat to bitter rivals Manchester United last weekend in what was another poor performance that brought much criticism by supporters of Rodgers’ team selection and tactics. A draw away to Bordeaux last Thursday night in the Europa League did little to raise spirits and with the pressure building on Rodgers he must have a positive run of results in the next four games.

Liverpool start with a home game against Norwich City today, followed by a Capital One Cup clash against Carlisle United before facing Aston Villa next Saturday and then another Europa League tie against FC Sion.

On paper the run of fixtures look kind to Liverpool but with the way they are playing at the moment there is no guarantee that they will win those games. The defence is leaking goals and many supporters are calling for the inclusion of Sakho to shore up the defence after his impressive performance against Bordeaux the other night.

Rodgers has a problem in midfield with a lack of creativity and the injury news to Jordan Henderson is a massive blow as the Liverpool captain is facing a further two months out of action after breaking a bone in his foot in training.

The lack of pace and width in the team is another problem and Rodgers tactics of playing a lone striker is resulting in the forward being left isolated too often in games.

The return to fitness of Daniel Sturridge could see Rodgers switching to two up front and the England striker could be a timely boost for Rodgers and he will be hoping the striekr’s return will end his team’s struggles in front of goal.

But Rodgers future won’t be decided by playing attractive football, he must get his team winning, even if it is ugly because football is a results based business and Liverpool need to win games if Rodgers is to keep his job.