7 Nov 2014

Arsenal hero blasts: BR is under 'severe pressure' after shock LFC 'comment'. Mistake?

The fallout from Liverpool's white-flag surrender against Real Madrid continues! Reds boss Brendan Rodgers is under fire from all sides at the moment for his defeatist approach in the Champions League, and Arsenal legend Paul Merson has now jumped on the bandwagon, and slammed Rodgers for trivialising the Madrid game.

In his post-Madrid press conference, Rodgers made the following claim:

"I didn't see this as a big showcase game where I had to play the so-called names. It might have seemed a gamble but for me it wasn't."

In his column for Sky Sports today, Merson insisted that Rodgers is now under 'severe pressure' as a direct consequence of his ill-advised 'comment'. He barked:

"He said Real Madrid was not a showcase game. Not a showcase game?! How would you feel if you were a Liverpool fan and heard that? Steven Gerrard retired from England to play in games like that, so I couldn’t believe what Rodgers said".

Merson has a point, here. In what universe is a Champions League clash with Real Madrid not a 'showpiece game'? Madrid are the one of the biggest clubs in history (with more European Cup wins than any other team), and playing Los Blancos at the Bernabeu is probably a dream for most footballers. According to Rodgers, though, it's seemingly just another game.

If facing Real Madrid in the World's Premier club competition is not a 'showcase game', then what is?!

Merson also makes a good point about Gerrard - he retired from international duty to focus all his energy on Liverpool, and despite the fact he won't get many more chances to mix it with the likes of Ronaldo and Rodriguez, Rodgers still kept him - and six other first-teamers - on the bench.

One thing seems clear: this real Madrid incident is arguably the most controversial and polarising decision of Rodgers' reign, and if Liverpool lose against Chelsea tomorrow, the fall-out is only going to get worse.

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7 comments:

  1. Stickhwiththeprogramme12:10 am, November 08, 2014

    This been all over the place today so why the need to recycle it here? Merson never, NEVER, had a good word to say about Liverpool or Rodgers, so what's the news? He's caught up in emotional and idealist mumbo jumbo. I don't care a word he has to say. Admittedly he was a decent footballer but he doesn't even make a half-decent analyst of the game. He can f***k off for all I care.

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  2. This season B.R is being found out for what he really is?A manager who is in way over his head with a team like Liverpool.Unfortunetly for LFC,his still learning what it takes to coach a big team,and Liverpool are paying the price for his bad mistakes.Unless he can pull off a miracle,and turn the rest of the season around for the better,then it looks like Liverpool will miss another season of no champions league and all that comes with it.That is, 1,players leaving 2,top players rejecting Liverpool 3,owners not spending anymore big money on the team 4,LFC fans sad & confused again.

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  3. The way are so called big players played against Newcastle, pulling out of tackles in case they got injured for the so called show case game, is what is cheating us fans. You earn the right to play in such games, and just because your supposed to be a big name, if your only going to put the effort in, in the big games they are cheating the supporters. The effort put in by the ones who did play was fantastic, even if it did lack the quality required to win it. Judging by the home game against Real, and the game against Newcastle, if the big names would of played, we would of still got beat, and there is no evidence, considering the way we have been playing, to prove otherwise. And anyway, weather it's Real or Ludergrets, you are still only getting 3 points if you beat them, so in reality, the show case games come in the knockout stage.

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  4. am i the only one who feel the chairman coming down to liverpool could not be a courtesy visit in case of a bad result ?

    from what i saw people seems to think it is...


    on another note although Rodgers is entitled to bench players after a pathetic performance, treating a champions league game against the reigning champion like a cup games against a smaller side when he had the chance to impress the world and gain some credit to get top players is really naive from him.

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  5. sometimes i would like to know what goes through brendan's head when he speaks like that. oh well i gotta wait for the book i guess...

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  6. Both you and Merson are selective quoting Rodgers. He didn't only say "it's not a showcase game". He's disagreeing with the whole concept that big games deserve big names. He's not suggesting that playing Madrid in the CL is not a big game but instead the idea that it's some kind of showcase, some kind of revenue generating spectacular event that is more about the names on the program sheet than the actual football ... and I totally agree with him. He put out a team that played as well or better than other line ups have in recent matches and as manager that's his job. It wasn't a great performance but in light of recent form it was as good as any of us could of hoped for and according to most predictions Liverpool beat the odds.


    It's not up to Rodgers to pander to the people who only think of football in terms of the big names that are always in the papers. Maybe a few plastic fans wouldn't want to watch the game because it doesn't have their favourite players in it. So what? His job was to put out a team to get a result and unfortunately 1-0 is as close as we could get. Perhaps with a bit of luck it could have been 0-0 or 1-1 and we would have gotten a vital point. There is no way that was ever the case during the 3-0 capitulation at Anfield. So I think Rodgers is absolutely right. He is under no obligation to do favours for TV producers or advertisers and if the fans were happier with the 3-0 result at Anfield than they were with the 1-0 result at Madrid because a few "big names" were in the game then frankly they're morons.

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  7. You think it will take a miracle to secure a top 4 spot when we're currently only 3 points adrift?

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