Brendan Rodgers is a big fan of Tiki-Taka possession football, and the 'rest with the ball' approach is a cornerstone of his own football philosophy. Despite putting on a scintillating masterclass of football technique, tactics and stamina during Euro 2012, the Spanish national team received criticism for being 'boring' by quite a few Pundits, and this is something that clearly irritated Liverpool's new manager.
In an interview yesterday, Rodgers made a special point of highlighting the criticism, and made his feelings on the matter very clear. He said:
"Listening to pundits during the tournament, I found it a little bit disrespectful to hear them talking about Spain being boring.
"It was absolutely incredible to watch. Spain are an magnificent team, and it's just the courage and the work that goes into getting players to play that way".
Given that Rodgers aspires to Spain's style of football, it's no surprise he took exception to the criticism of their approach. Rodgers also provided a hint of what fans can expect at Anfield next season, though he seemed a little worried that football fans in general don't really understand certain aspects of his approach:
"At Swansea, we used to defend with the ball, and people in this country don't quite understand that. You rest with the ball, not without it. You can't press and score every minute of the game".
If Rodgers' plan is to implement a similar approach at Liverpool, then bring on the boring!
Jaimie Kanwar
In an interview yesterday, Rodgers made a special point of highlighting the criticism, and made his feelings on the matter very clear. He said:
"Listening to pundits during the tournament, I found it a little bit disrespectful to hear them talking about Spain being boring.
"It was absolutely incredible to watch. Spain are an magnificent team, and it's just the courage and the work that goes into getting players to play that way".
Given that Rodgers aspires to Spain's style of football, it's no surprise he took exception to the criticism of their approach. Rodgers also provided a hint of what fans can expect at Anfield next season, though he seemed a little worried that football fans in general don't really understand certain aspects of his approach:
"At Swansea, we used to defend with the ball, and people in this country don't quite understand that. You rest with the ball, not without it. You can't press and score every minute of the game".
If Rodgers' plan is to implement a similar approach at Liverpool, then bring on the boring!
Jaimie Kanwar
Agree! bring on the boring
ReplyDeleteabsolutely. It must be awful to be spain supporters having to watch their "boring" team destroy every nation in world competition football for over 6 years, I of course love watching attacking free flowing football and the eventual defeat of my team. much better to be a loser and play "exciting" football
ReplyDeleteif producing elegance and control into penetration football is a boring formula we might as well adapt stokes philosophy and the scintillating football they produce.lol
ReplyDeleteThe only reason Spain were labelled boring is of the cautious approach adapted in the group games right into the semis. All hell broke loose in the Finals. And they showed their mettle with a devastating display of pure class.
ReplyDeletespain are superior at football then any other nation, they have engrained a footballing philosophy in their kids and culture, i was in spain not last month watchin a local team train, they had a mens and kids team training at each end of the pitch and not once did i see anyone during the practise match try and kick it long (carra hoof) their 1st touch was excellent, i saw players try and beat a man rather than kick it off play or boot it up the pitvh, they had no keepers and i couldnt tell who was a defender and who an attcker as everone played everywhere when neede. it was only 8 a side tho but the quality was there, only donwside i can say is that they were all small players i didnt see any pub men or fat kids, no tall kids/men also and this is an amature team. let br do what he feels, the best style of play is the style that wins...
ReplyDeleteJaimie K do u actullay think that LFC have or will buy the right players to play this style??? I read that u dont think big AC can do a job, but what about the others r they even fit enough?? my main concern is when players get injured and we cant replace them then what, BR needs to becarefull not to run out ideas when thing r going wrong, This is anfield and we expect more than swansea.. i will never accept being a mid table team not with our trophy room.
ReplyDeletepersonally I dont pay to much attention to football 'experts' - at the outset of thre tournament the talk from our esteemed pundits was the need to be able to develop a style of football similar to Spains whereby our players could keep the ball and were comfortable in possession (the consensus being that we had to have a fundamental philosophical switch coz our players were tecnically inferior etc etc) then when Spain played within themselves to ensure qualification they were lablelled as boring with our new role models to be the all mighty German team and the talk then was how we could emulate them - then came Italy, who beat Germany, who, it seems, werent all that after all - oh why ok why dont we have quaterback like Pirlo they all trilled with you Jack Wilshere hailed as our great hope - then they were bladdered in the final by, yes, youve guessed it, Spain, and it was as you were - if only we had a press as good as the Spanish, or is the Germans, Italy? no Spain, I was right in the first place!!
ReplyDeleteA brilliant team with a brilliantly effective style that is technically brilliant too. I do understand why some call it boring at times as it can get repetitive the way they play and expect more from such a wonderful group of players (I see it as a compliment about that team as well as criticism, as they are so good in terms of ability). Considering our mediocrity of recent times, I'd take that playing style all day long.
ReplyDeletethats basically what liverpool was lat year under dalglish
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to be as bored as the Swansea fans were????, I remember Swansea taking the urine out of Liverpool twice last season..................call it what you want but BR knows how to play attractive attacking football..................bring it on!!!!
ReplyDeletetekkaz - I have total faith that Rodgers will buy the right players to implement his vision. He'll be stuck with some unsuitable players in the short-term (Carroll etc), but I'm sure he'll improve some existing players along the way. I haven't been this optimistic about a manager since, well, Dalglish in the 1980s (!)
ReplyDeleteCarroll is absolutely not the right option. He is the weak link, and he needs to go.
To call Spain boring is ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the problem in some of the games they played at Euro 2012 was that they had all the ball but didn't really create a lot of chances and since they always had the ball, the opposition didn't have any chances either, so it was really just watching the ball being passed around without anything exciting happening.
If BR can bring the Spain ethos to Anfield then I'm all for it, but we have to give him time. It's taken Spain years to get to where they are now and we shouldn't expect miracles overnight. He's got to work with Charlie Adam and Jordan Henderson, who are so far away from Iniesta and Xavi that they may as well be playing a different sport.
couldn't agree more
ReplyDeletethe pundits are embarrassing - "bandwagoners", that's all they are.
Keown is the absolute worst, and has no credibility in my eyes whatsoever - he hasn't a clue about football, he was an alright defender but god help any team that has him as their manager
Be that as it may, Pundits - especially ex-footballers - are just as entitled to their views as anyone else. Why should they be derided for simply giving their opinion?
ReplyDeleteUp today i still believe BR will NOT ONLY HAD 1 tactical style in his sleeve...well wait n see...
ReplyDeleteYnwa
I like what I'm hearing.Hes spot on. Now whoever seats on the sofas is an expert at football. If he makes Liverpool play boring football like Spain than I'm looking forward to a new season. Good luck BR.
ReplyDeletethe players we have are arguably better than swansea and they managed fine. Also, they are elite proffesionals. If they don't understand how to fall into the rythm of short quick passes (which they've practised in training all their lives) then they don't really have any excuses to fail.
ReplyDeleteSigurdsson gone. Confirmed :(
ReplyDeletePlease, give me that boring but winning style...
ReplyDeletelol Carroll will shove them words straight back down your throat this season
ReplyDeletenow the only issue i have is that we gave certain players to ample time to adapt (to much time and to many players IMO) and now some fans give those same players player of the season.... should all players be given the same amount of time ie 2-3yrs. if u havent noticed im a bit of an anti lucas supporter i can clearly remeber him costing us sevral points when we was challenging for the title and he only looked good when the rest of the team played rubbish. maybe with carroll things could improve or do you think he just doesnt have what it takes to be a top LFC player. i no he cant play tika taka and neither can a few others and im not sure br style over the short term will be effective, if me you and the whole footballing world can see that some players at our club r not of the standard we require then i hope br can see and do something about it. SPEARING is not a lfc player and barely a champ plyr.
ReplyDeleteThe best critic site on the net.
not argueing with anyones right to an opinion Jamie - your thin skin irritated again there lad ? no, my point was (and is) its a question of credibility - to see them constantly swap and change horses in mid race make me lack respect for their opinion - there were some of course (a minority I must say) that stuck to their guns and fair play to them but I believe, and its just my opinion you understand, that the standard of jounalism in this country is crap
ReplyDeleteThere's a few "elite professionals" that can't play a short, quick passing game - Ibrahimovic when he was at Barca and Gervinho at Arsenal being the two that immediately spring to mind.
ReplyDeleteCertain players are suited to certain systems, for example, Messi wouldn't work in a Sam Allardyce team.
I wonder if Rodgers wont need to rethink his strategy a bit to fit with Liverpool. By that I mean his Tika Taka style is great, I love it. BUT is it good enough, and does he have the players to implement that sort of plan in England? Yes he did it with Swansea, but they didn't wine the league. I guess what I am saying is with the type of players we have I reckon you can only go so far. Mid table, maybe pushing for 4th spot. But to really make it work and be successful, winning the league, he going to have to bring in players from overseas to complement British talent. I would say from a PR perspective he needs to drop the talk of Tika Taka asap, and talk about playing the game: The modern Liverpool Way. Pass and move, has always been our style, perhaps tweak that by being a bit more patient, control the possession more and defend with ball as BR says. Under Dalglish we played some great foottie, think Fulham and United. We blow them off the park with old fashioned Liverpool pass and move.
ReplyDeleteOne of the big things for me is the fans. I can't see him bringing instant success. The fans need to be patient. If we score same amount of points next year, but play better football then I will be happy. This is a process and it takes time. We need to give him time to put the blocks in place.
Your writing is terrible. Try writing in sentences people can understand with words that exist in the dictionary. Also there's an automatic spell-check for a reason.
ReplyDeletebit off topic but I`m gutted over sigurdsson - hope this is not indicitive of where we stand in relation to our rivals in terms of our pulling power but fear that this is the case
ReplyDeleteThe panic over siggurdsson isn't worth it, if Rodgers had really needed him he would have persuaded the hierarchy and got him.
ReplyDeleteRodgers looks to me like a pretty hardheaded negotiator who doesn't suffer fools gladly.
He also comes across as someone who knows the art of speaking slowly and measuredly so that he can be understood, in other words 'you got it first time, oh, you wanna fuck around? Ok then, on your bike you go lad!'
On the note of the topic thread----
Seminal Work: something of note that changes things and influences the way things happen in the future.
This tiki-taka football and selling it to the 'tribes' who watch the English premier league; it's a bit like trying to persuade the ugh, ugh brigade of umpteen thousand years ago that fire was a good thing.
'nah, but it'll spoil my meat! If I get to close I might get too warm! If I use it I might be able to see in the dark and I don't want, I prefer my ignorance, let me just stick my head in the sand, that'll do me thanks'
Give everyone time, there is always gonna be resistance, but eventually we all get used to cooking our steaks and buying patio heaters.
the manner in which Swansea 'outplayed' us is massively overstated imo
ReplyDeleteExactly - it looked like the criticism got to Spain tbh, as the approach to the final was totally different from previous games; they were shooting from outside the box and swinging corners into the box and everything, so I don't think the final invalidates criticism that they were overly cautious in previous games.
ReplyDeleteThey have the most technically gifted players, so could win playing almost any system if they really wanted to anyway.
What a rubbish comment. Lucas was our best player in 2010-2011 season as well as last season before he got injured. If Mascherano can play for Barca so can the much improved Lucas.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely agree. Love to be bored this way :)
ReplyDeletewhy does carroll need to go... a journalist who watched england training sessions, when they did a session of 2 teams playing possession within a 30 yard radius it was him and henderson that were the best players.
ReplyDelete