5 Nov 2013

'It's a crucial factor' - BR reveals 5-point LFC transfer checklist. 70% failure rate...?

What does it take to become a Liverpool FC player? It goes without saying that prospective (senior) signings have to be close to the top of their game, but for Reds Brendan Rodgers, there are several other key qualities he looks for in new players, and he's has laid out those out in a new interview this week.

Speaking to the official LFC website today, Rodgers was asked the following question: "What are the qualities you're most looking for in an aspiring professional"?

Rodgers proceeded to outline a list non-negotiable qualities required of LFC players:

* Technically gifted.
* Courage in possession.
* Brave on the pitch (i.e. looking to play in areas others wouldn't)
* Willingness to learn.
* Personal character.

Rodgers explained:

"I would say you can't divorce the two - ability and personality. It all comes as part of the package. A player's character is a crucial factor I look into before committing to signing them. They also need to show a willingness to learn, regardless of age and experience; that's very important to me"

Rodgers may have a template for signing players, but to be brutally honest, his transfer record so far is arguably underwhelming.

* Rodgers has signed 15 players so far, at a cost of approx £108m.

* Only FOUR of those signings could be described as successes: Sturridge, Coutinho, Mignolet, and (possibly) Toure, who arrived for free.

* SEVEN of his buys have made no real impact whatsoever, and could be described as flops: Borini, Allen, Assaidi, Sahin, Yesil, Aspas, Cissokho.

* The jury is still out on the other four buys, though none of them are pulling up trees: Sakho, Alberto, Moses, Ilori.

* Of those 15 signings, I only see Sturridge, Coutinho, Mignolet, and (possibly) Sakho having long-term futures at Anfield.

So far, Rodgers has a transfer success rate of approximately 30%, which (IMO) is not nearly good enough. All of which begs the question: is the manager's recruitment checklist in need of updating? Willingness to learn and 'courage' in possession is one thing, but what about other qualities like leadership? Proven ability to perform under pressure? Genuine pace? Skill, and the ability to take players on/create something out of nothing?

Could the likes of Cissokho, Assaidi, Borini et al really be described as 'technically gifted'? If Rodgers' recruitment checklist is so effective, why do only five of his fifteen signings play regularly for the club?

How do Rodgers' first 15 signings compare to those of Gerard Houllier and Rafa Benitez? Is a 30% hit-rate about right?

RODGERS: Borini, Allen, Yesil, Assaidi, Sahin, Sturridge, Coutinho, Alberto, Aspas, Mignolet, Toure, Cissokho, Sakho, Ilori, Moses

BENITEZ: Josemi, Nunez, Alonso, Garcia, Pellegrino, Morientes, Barragan, Carson, Zenden, Reina, Sissoko, Crouch, Hobbs, Gonzalez, Agger

HOULLIER: Ferri, Kippe, Song, Traore, Hyypia, Smicer, Camara, Henchoz, Westerveld, Meijer, Hamann, Heskey, McAllister, Babbel, Barmby

When it comes to first 15 signings, Houllier clearly has the edge when it comes to overall transfer success...

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52 comments:

  1. Technically gifted? Sakho?!

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  2. Hey .... where is Lori....forgot about him . Is he injured?

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  3. Appreciate what you are doing - but you can't really compare Rodgers' signings to Rafa or Houllier yet. With the latter two we have the power of hindsight and can fully judge whether players ended their stint at the club as a success or failure.
    Yesil, Alberto and Ilori haven't yet had a proper chance, so could easily be looked back on in ten years time as successes - as could Sakho and potentially (although granted more unlikely) even Allen, Borini, Cissokho or Moses.

    If half of these are even a moderate success (clearly your criterea if you include Barmby, Westerveld and Sissoko in this category) - then it would be equal to Houllier.

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  4. An experienced jouranlist like yourself Jamie, will no doubt read back through this and cringe. For a start, 3 of your so called flops were only loan deals, 8 of your so called flops were U23's, and 6 of your so called flops have only been here for 10 games. Allen, Yesil, Borini and Assaidi all had fitness issues and can still look to improve. Sahin was on loan and just about every top manager in Europe wanted him. It's not Rodgers fault he put in 20% effort. Alberto, Sakho and Ilori all have the potential to be very good players. Cissokho and Moses were cheap loans to fill out the thin squad and provide cover for a season. The only player out of the 15 mentioned who is in danger of becoming a flop is the 26 year old Aspas who should be in his prime, was signed on a permanent deal, and is currently under performing. Still though, He's played what, 6 games? Jesus christ Jamie. You will come to regret this article because some of these 'flops' will turn out to be very good players indeed. You've been incredibly harsh and this article represents everything wrong with modern fans. Players are not given any time to adjust or settle. I'm a little dissapointed tbh, because although I don't always agree with your stuff, at least it's usually a balanced and well constructed argument. This is the worst article of yours I've read.

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  5. Houllier had not even heard of Hyppia and if it wasnt for a cameraman i am led to believe Liverpool may never had got him.
    Its a bit early yet to judge as many of Houlliers successes or so called were ok and the younger signings really dont need to step up much to match some of those.
    By this Jamie u are admitting i guess Allen is a failure then.

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  6. I don't think Allen is a failure as a player - he's clearly very good. He's a failure because of Rodgers. LFC didn't need Allen, but BR brought him in anyway, and now, he's rotting on the bench. He doesn't fit at LFC, and I can't see how he'll fit in the future.

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  7. Rodgers is a good manager but he does mistakes in transfers as well, and I dont think hes good enough to take us to CL either, because hes never even played there, with him I reckon we will always be the side who fights for that top four sometimes reaching it sometimes not and thats it, but if we dont reach it this year being out of europe out of capital one cup and probably out of fa cup later as well, we will never reach it, top teams are not as strong as we thought and we should take this opportunity but Rodgers always seems to be scared when we play a big team trying to score a goal then defending all the time this is so negative, the key of reaching CL again is beating the teams who are fighting for it, but even if we go there we certainly dont have the team to succeed there, the whole problem seems to be the untouchable lucas gerrard partnership, the weakest link in the team so far, they should be dropped and replaced asap.

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  8. You deleted Alan's coment?!? It was a perfectly normal post from somebody who disagrees and does not insult..

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  9. You deleted Alan's coment?!? It was a perfectly normal post from somebody who disagrees and does not insult.. Unbelieveble..

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  10. Awaiting moderation? No bad words, no hatric in my post, but still awaiting moderation...

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  11. Yes. It was snide and attacked the person rather than the argument. Whether the article is the 'worst' or not has nothing to do with the argument presented. Remain civil, or don't post at all.

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  12. This is completely irrelevant, 6 of the players mentioned have only been in the current squad for 3months (Sakho, Ilori, Aspas,Alberto, Moses, Cissokho) of which 5 came from different leagues so potentially after 1 full season could you make a relevant claim. I recall Agger wasn't even consistently in the first team for the first 2 seasons.

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  13. Your worst means other were better and that he thinks you made a mistake, nothing more. he did not attack you he, even said that you are well balanced and that he respects your articles even when he disagrees..

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  14. So are you saying Gerrard is going to be in the first eleven forever? I have said before that time is on Allen's side.

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  15. Sahin is doing just fine at Dortmund. First choice every match with a goal and 2 assists to show for it. Maybe he felt he was better than either Lucas or Henderson and left because he wasn't going to get the playing time. Can't blame him. If so, then that is a managerial failing to not see the quality.

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  16. Called you an experienced journalist who is well balanced in preety much all of his articles. And said you made a mistake. overreacting mate...

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  17. Spot on Jaimie, not a bad player, fantastic at Swansea, but never what Liverpool needed, not then, not ever. We now need players who will make an impact.

    There's been much discussion regarding the cost of players. I would say that on the whole you get what you pay for - if you scout correctly. Spreading in excess of £100M on lots of players obviously hasn't paid off. Whilst the stakes may be higher, spending the same amount on fewer, top-class players would have improved the quality of the team more effectively.

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  18. Why are you deleting mine now?

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  19. When Gerrard retires, you really think that Joe Allen will be his replacement? That is never going to happen (IMO). It's clear that LFC need a complete midfield overhaul, and whatever happens, Allen does not - and will not - fit into this LFC side. He's not an attacking mid; he's not a defensive mid; he's superb at keeping possession with short-passing, but there's no room for a player who does just that.

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  20. Sometimes, it's easy to see the writing on the wall. I said the same things about Borini, Allen, Assaidi etc a year ago, and people said the same as you. Where are those players now? You don't need a full season to see that some players just aren't going to make it long-term.

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  21. Fair enough but the headline of 70 percent is a bit premature Cissoko Aspas Borini and Moses are yet to really get a decent go in their preferred positions Llori and Alberto and Yesil have plenty of time.
    The article should be more aimed at Rodgers not buying the type of players that are needed in certain positions.

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  22. To be fair, I poses it as a question: '70% failure rate"?

    I don't think Moses, Cissokho, Aspas et all will be utter failures, just not players who will have 'long-term' futures at LFC.

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  23. What position does Gerrard currently hold in our team?

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  24. You are right Banoog but what top quality players are going to come 3 strikes last window.
    This is why rebuilding with youth is the best way because the is no C.L he doesnt have the luxury Benitez and Houllier had.

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  25. It was not snide in any way. I constructively pulled your article to shreds and merely told you it wasn't one of your best. As is obvious by the fact not one of the comments has been positive feedback yet. There is not much point in you putting that question mark in your title because its very clear now for everybody to see that this article is not open for debate, as the mighty Jamie can never be wrong. I am not bothered, you've just embarassed yourself in front of a lot of your followers. If you want to accuse me of something I didn't do, then you'll get what you initially accused me of.

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  26. Deep-lying midfield playmaker (allegedly). What's your point?

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  27. Do you even watch the games?

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  28. A pretty unfair article imho, The club was in a far better position to attract players when Houllier and Benitez were here and there was a lot less competition in the PL! Also as Leo points out you have the benefit of hindsight looking at their teams. Alberto Yesil and Ilori are ones for the future ie, players with lots of potential which can be groomed into the club with little pressure. Sakho may not be a success yet but he is in no way a failure. Borini, Allen and Yesil have all endured bad injuries so they deserve a bit of slack.

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  29. It wasn't a question though was it. Because every single person who gave 'the wrong answer' had their comment deleted. You can't escape this Jamie. You've lost a lot of credibility with this article, and even more with your deletion of negative comments. Perhaps you should edit the note at the bottom of your page to "don't disagree with what I say, or you are not welcome". Delete this comment again by all means, I'm not doing this for likes or for attention. You need to be told. Constructive criticism was how I started. You deleting my comment purely because more people agreed with it than agreed with your article is just childish though. Each to their own, I'll leave you in peace now.

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  30. I agree, we have struggled in that respect. However, I think many would have considered Sakho a top quality signing. He's yet to fully prove his worth, but unlike some of Rodger's other buys, I think he will. I would endorse rebuilding with youth, as long as it's top quality youth we're talking about.


    Another reason to remain positive is that if teams like Swansea can attract the likes of Bony, Van Wolfswinkel at Norwich, Mirallas and Lukaku at Everton etc, then we can afford to continue to set our sights high. Those players aren't top, top class, but at some point highly coveted and they arrived at teams not challenging for top honours. So we should remain hopeful despite our lack of success in the last window.

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  31. He is not a solution to replace Gerrard. Plus, he's not a playmaker in the traditional sense. He has great range of passing over 10-20 yards, but he doesn't have the defence-unlocking creativity or set-piece delivery skill of Gerrard. If you think Allen will become a regular for LFC in the future then fair enough. I disagree. He can't get into the team now, and that's because he has nothing really to offer. Is he going to score? Create goals? Dominate midfield physically? His history suggests no, so what exactly would he bring to the team?

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  32. Did you ever see Allen play at Swansea or even for his National side?


    What position did Allen hold under Rodgers at Swansea?

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  33. For Allen to be a success, he would need to be teamed with 2 other midfielders that compensate for his deficiencies. We don't have that right now. I am convinced that playing Henderson ahead of Allen has benefited the team.

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  34. Interesting post. When I first read 108 million I thought no way. But that about correct. The interesting thing is that that group of players are worth more now than when they were bought. Most of that value comes from 2 buys, Sturridge and Coutinho. But more importantly so many of the players are young and have sell on value. A guy like Borini. We may have paid 12 million for him, he hasn't worked out but I am sure we could get 8 million for him. The same applies to Allen. Yes we will lose money on him, but surely no more than 5 million. My feeling is that the club is in good hands, people that are financially prudent and not wasteful. If you look at guys like Yesil, Alberto and Ilori, . I can't see the club loosing a cent on them but I can see us making a mint should things not work out. Not every buy works out, we need to accept that. But, by buying potential and value the financial risk is far lower. So we may have to go through a few ruff diamonds to find the real gems. In the mean time it not really costing us much. A pretty smart strategy I would say.

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  35. He played for the reserves last night.

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  36. I've to agree with JK here. LFC did not really have a manager, starting from RB, that knows how to spend that above-average but non-limitless amount of money from the club, like a typically self-sufficient top club. In the word self-sufficient, I would love to think it is profit making for the club on the balance sheet. Hopefully through this constant profit making trend, one can contribute more positively to the well being of the club, e.g. buying more established stars or chip in to build a bigger stadium.

    Ever so typically, starting from RB to BR, sadly, all of them tried to overhaul the inherited squad by spending extravagantly on many players ranging from cheap to expensive. Only to realize later that those purchases were not good enough for the team or simply didn't even know if they were good enough. More sadly, the money well usually ran dry shortly after that. So managers were forced to keep those players. If they wanted to buy again, they would have to sell first, typically at a loss. A familiar work process of LFC to loyal fans right? To expect every buy to turn out a success, I think it's very silly of anyone that thinks so. But looking at the resources poured into the club by different owners, including the much-hated Hicks and Gillett, I think the managers were to be blamed for the present plight of the club and the constant changing of managers certainly worsen it.



    I'm curious to see where's the next destination for players like JA, FB, Assaidi, Luis Alberto, Aspas and Ilori and how much profit/losses we are going to make. If they are the ones that are going to take the club to a new level, I will slap myself and apologize, with joy.

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  37. Repeatedly answering a question with a question is not the way to debate. Just say what you mean already. I don't see how Allen's past changes the fact that he does not fit in at LFC. If he did, he'd be in the team right now.

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  38. You say that Allen does not fit in so It does not make it fact.


    Did Lucas also not fit in with LFC when Rafa bought him? Lucas only became a regular much later on at Anfield and eventually ended up as a definsive midfielder.

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  39. I try to catch as many Dortmund games as possible. Sahin has been okay but IMO he's just another player on the pitch, he hasn't been a stand out. There are a few injury problems in the squad at the moment and if Gundogan is fit then Sahin is most likely to be on the bench.


    At the time Sahin was brought in BR was quite ignorant. He shunted Henderson and purchased Allen, as well as favouring Sahin and Shelvey in his team. I think it was the right idea to bring Sahin in, someone with a larger reputation and quality.


    However, Sahin didn't do himself any favours. He looked incredibly slow and out of depth. I know he mentioned something about not playing in a position promised by Rodgers but go have a cry, you're on 80K a week or something. Rodgers shouldn't take the blame for the Sahin deal failure.

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  40. Younger players hardly get signed to make an instant impact.


    What is the combined average age of the players signed by Rodgers compared to Rafa and Houlliers signings?

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  41. Jesus, how many times? Do you have some kind of comp[lex or something? It's obviously my *opinion* - I didn't say it was fact, so stop going on about it.

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  42. I quote the bit from post of yours I replied to.

    "I don't see how Allen's past changes the fact that he does not fit in at LFC"



    Did I miss the word fact?

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  43. Just another player on the pitch on a 2nd place team with more goals/assists than anyone in our present mid-field.

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  44. Premature to throw Borini under the bus. He wasn't going to get the playing time and a loan was the right decision. He scored a beautiful game winner from a fluid attack vs Newcastle so he is progressing. He had his shots here but couldn't seem to finish well...nerves maybe...but that goal for Sunderland showed confidence and composure. There's hope there.

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  45. Age has nothing to do with it. Apart from Yesil who should be in the yet to be judged category, JK is spot on and his judgements would match mine.


    Allen was 22 years old and cost 15M. If he is not expected to perform or make some type of impact then your standards are set too low. Liverpool cannot afford to play the waiting game, especially for 15M. Henderson is one of my favourite players and it took him a whole season to get going but that's too long for his price, however even with the managers backing and at times blind faith, Allen still failed to establish himself.

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  46. Gerrard has actually scored more goals than him. However that's irrelevant. He's doing okay for Dortmund but for us he was slow and lethargic. He is also occupying a much deeper position in the Dortmund team but when he had to play there for us he moaned about it. I can't see how Rodgers can be pinpointed for that transfer failure. It's not his fault the player did not show up.

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  47. SG scored 2 PKs (not from free play) and 1 assist was from a free kick...nothing from free play...so you're right, not relevant. I love SG but he doesn't command the field like he used to. I Haven't watched Dortmund and maybe Sahin has finally seen that he isn't as good as he thought he was and he'd better start being happy in his work...or his days are numbered.

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  48. Harsh to put Yesil in the flop category- still very young and suffered a major injury.
    Thoughts on Sakho, JK? I know you were very much in favour of signing him, but the fact you've already downgraded him to only a possible long-term success suggests you may have changed your mind, at least partially- thoughts?

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  49. The only positive in the Arsenal game was the way Sakho intercepted the ball time after time, almost won every aerial duel with Giroud, played the ball forward comfortably, which imo is a great start considering this was his 3rd or 4th game only. Looks a really good buy and will surely overtake Agger.

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  50. Oh so each and every young player we sign will immediately make the senior experienced players sit on the bench? You are having a laugh right?


    If Henderson had injury problems and was out for a long period then i highly doubt he would have established himself as a regular. Both Borini and Allen have not had stumbling blocks whereas Henderson hasn't but it has worked out really well because now the 20 million or so we paid for him is being mentioned less and less.

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  51. Not sure if it's a 70% failure, but maybe closer to 50%. All the competition seems to have improved the defense (maybe 1 too many signings here). Cissokho while not the greatest, does provide back up for Enrique.
    Aspas did provide some cover while Suarez was away. The concern is with players we have that aren't using - either they are good enough or not good enough and should be shipped out (i.e. Allen).
    The buys for the future is a wasted opportunity at this point of time - a better here and now will equal a better future IMO. Spending that money towards players with proven abilities will get the team further and make it more attractive to prospects in the future.
    At this stage, it would be nice to see some changes, fielding some players who haven't played to determine their futures. I think Henderson by now has lost his guaranteed starter status, and should make way for Allen to see if he does any better, maybe give Alberto another chance (seems to meet all 5 "criteria").
    Then make a decision, cut the losses and get some proven players in January.
    Big question, when will the elephants in the room be acknowledged? I don't think Gerrard and Lucas are finished by any means, but the situation needs to be addressed - perhaps not getting any challengers would hurt their egos?

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