11 Nov 2014

'I had to leave': €12m star slams BR for forcing him out of LFC. €20m star next to quit?

In his first season at LFC, Brendan Rodgers did a Rafa Benitez and dumped a player less than six months after joining the club. Nuri Sahin suffered the same ignominious fate as Robbie Keane, and in both instances, Liverpool ended up wasting significant amounts of money. Upon his return to Dortmund, Jurgen Klopp criticised Rodgers for playing Sahin out of position (something highlighted on this site many times), and now, Sahin has finally confirmed that Rodgers' mismanagement basically forced him out of Anfield.

When Sahin joined LFC, he described himself thus:

"I am a central midfielder who loves to have the ball. I'm not the type of player who dribbles past three or four players and then shoots at goal.

"I'm more of a tactical and technical player. I like to organise, I love it when my team is tactically at a very high level, can play one or two-touch and play football"


After witnessing Rodgers' misuse of Sahin, Klopp - a manager who led Dortmund to two Bundesliga titles - told ESPN:

"Nuri is a great player. I don't know what Brendan Rodgers plans to do with him, but fielding him in the number ten position is not the best solution in my opinion"

When asked over the weekend to clarify the reason his move to Liverpool failed, €12m-rated Sahin laid the blame squarely at the feet of Brendan Rodgers. He noted:

"The manager [Rodgers] started playing me behind the striker which does not suit my game. Despite my love for the club and the fans, I had to leave due to the managers insistence on playing me in that role."

At the time, I repeatedly argued that Rodgers was making a mistake by playing Sahin out of position, but as per usual, many fans wouldn't accept it, and made spurious accusations about Sahin's alleged (and totally unsubstantiated) attitude problem/lack of application/failure to adapt/settle etc.

Liverpool had a good record with Sahin in the team: P12 W6 D6 L1. How exactly do these stats reconcile with the fan contention that Sahin couldn't hack it in the Premier League?

It was clear then and it's crystal clear now: Rodgers didn't have the balls to move Gerrard out of the holding midfield position, so he sacrificed Sahin to keep the captain happy. What he should've done is play Gerrard in the number 10 position, and play the German in his favoured role. What was the point of signing Sahin if the intention was to play him out of position?

Rodgers is now making the same mistake with Mario Balotelli. The €20m Italian has specifically stated that he does not enjoy playing as a lone striker, yet the manager stubbornly (and negligently) persists with playing him in that role.

The end result will inevitably be the same: Balotelli probably end up leaving the club early, and Rodgers will add yet another transfer failure to his faltering resume.

Still, despite his comments this week, Sahin seemingly has no regrets about the experience. After re-signing for Dortmund, he told Reporters:

"I have matured as a player after playing alongside the best players in my position. Xabi Alonso when I was at Real Madrid, but especially Steven Gerrard at Liverpool - even though I didn't get to play a lot with him."

Two years later, and Rodgers has finally seen the light. In recent weeks, Can, Allen, and Lucas have all usurped Gerrard in the holding midfielder role, but, Sahin - if given the chance - probably could've done a better job than all three of those players.

Jaimie Kanwar


66 comments:

  1. Sigh. Nothing more to add JK. This is the naked truth and BR's naivety is open to all to see now.

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  2. something I sgree with you on JK!!! and tbh this pandering to steven gerrard's every need makes me sick. I have no proof that that is actually what is happening, but we will never take the step up to the next level until gerrard has either retired or his role has been reduced. We do not need to be centred around gerrard, we do that to our detriment

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  3. It's hard to see which is to blame, the 'tried and tested' system or Rodgers presumption. Is he content to endure present day mediocrity only to say "I told you so" at some unspecified time in the near future when the players he's coerced into different positions finally adapt? Balotelli doesn't fit into a front three unless he has a strike partner, as you say, Rodgers insists on playing him on his own, while he packs the midfield seemingly to compensate for two things, the lack of a proper DM, and Gerrard waning influence (apart from freekicks and corners, the former being an area Balotelli is adept at as well) I know it's an oversimplification of the job to say that it is to manage the players he has, but surely you adapt the system to the players not force players to fit the system?

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  4. "It was clear then and it's crystal clear now:
    Rodgers didn't have the balls to move Gerrard out of the holding
    midfield position, so he sacrificed Sahin to keep the captain happy."



    You've said it all, Jaimie.


    Unless Gerrard has a 'guaranteed starter' clause in his contract, which actually wouldn't surprise me.

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  5. I dispute this notion that Rodgers does anything to "keep Gerrard happy". Regardless of if these decisions are right or wrong Rodgers will always maintain that he picks the team he thinks will perform the best. Why would it be any other way? It's one thing to dispute the manager's choices because they don't get the result but there is simply no evidence of anything beyond him just making what he thinks are tactical decisions. Its quite an assertion to make, that there is some other twisted or broken motivation in play here. I don't dispute that Rodgers makes mistakes but I would maintain that they are good intentioned mistakes, not ones based in him playing games of personal favourites.


    One thing that Rodgers is consistent on is that he picks teams based on how players train during the week. We know from player and manager quotes that Gerrard is a tough trainer. Alongside Suarez he's spoken of as the guy who doesn't just skip along at 75%, he brings his full game intensity to training in a way that perhaps not many other players can or just don't bother to. It's a trait that you can attribute to many great sporting legends and I've consistently seen it across many sports. So if that's the case then Gerrard is probably picked every single week because he consistently out-trains his junior colleagues. Of course that doesn't always translate to a top performance on the pitch but it's not going to be easy for a manager if the players who would covet that starting spot can't out perform a 34 year old senior in a drill session or a bit of 5 on 5. It's up to those players to out-train Gerrard.

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  6. Sahin just didn't seem mobile enough when he was with us. I've seen nothing since he left to suggest he's going to return to the form that got him his move to Real. It seems like he is one of those players that now has a reputation that outweights what he actually does on the pitch. Whether upfront alone or in a pair it looks like Balotelli could be another one of those.

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  7. Nevergonnacrackthecode7:18 am, November 11, 2014

    Brendan is not the right man for lfc
    And persisting with him longer will lead us back to the dark ages of hodgson


    we need a brave manager one that can drop steven gerrard one that can play 433 and more importantly one that picks his team on merit

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  8. It would depend on the players. When it's Suarez then you adapt the system to the player. The guy guarantees you goals so you do whatever is required to get those goals and you get your reward. But adapting an entire team formation just to suit Balotelli? I'm not sure about that. And of course there are 11 players on the pitch and they all have different attributes. Inevitably someone is going to be used in a way that is not a full exploitation of their natural talents. I guess it's obvious enough to say that it's a balancing act and it has to be a bit of both. If Rodgers is sticking with a system from last year that was successful only because we had Suarez and Sturridge then he's probably making a mistake. Mario will never be Suarez or Sturridge. But if Rodgers is sticking with the system because he sees it as the most effective option to get the best out of everyone then he's doing the right thing. He's still open to making mistakes but ultimately he has to trust his own judgement, listen to his assistants and do what he believes in.

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  9. im getting so sick of this sahin storry. first of all, being a professional football player you need to be flexible, willing to play in different roles. Being flexible to play in any position was and still is one of BR biggest criterias and im 100% sure Rodgers talked about his intentions with Sahin before the club signed him on loan.
    Re: "Despite my love for the club" - if sahin really loves the club that much he wouldn't mind playing in any position BR wants him to, as long as it's benefiting the teams progress (it certainly did considering the stats W6 D6 L1 that jaimie posted). It's not like BR forced sahin to play as a CB, moving a holding midfielder a little bit forward isn't that big of an ask... Just look at allen (who clearly is best as a holding midfielder). Rodgers regularly selectis him as a OM and i've never heard him moaning about that.
    At the time we were desperately in need of a good OM, with only shelvey joe cole and gerrard (played CM at that time) at the club, so putting sahin behind the striker actually wasn't a bad move at all if you ask me.
    Moaning about stuff like that is ridiculous and shows a lack of professionalism and a lack of desire to help the team progressing (IMO).

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  10. I agree with some of that. Sahin was there to fill a role at the club and his job is to do what the team needed. If the team was somewhat effective playing him in that role then Rodgers was absolutely right. It seems awfully specific of a player to demand that he, a relatively untested young man, step into a vital role like that, demote Gerrard who, despite the shortcomings, was obviously effective there last season, and all of that just because he prefers it that way. It's the kind of comment you'd expect from someone like Ronaldo or Messi or Suarez, although even Suarez was happy to play a different role for the team when it mattered. When a superstar like that is happy to switch out of his preferred position and sacrifice his goal scoring record, who the hell is Sahin to demand something different?

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  11. So Rodgers made a mistake playing him in that position but at the same time the team was effective with him in it? That sounds to me like it was a good tactical decision and the only problem is that Sahin didn't like it. If that's the extent of it then I'm not worried. Sounds like he was simply a player who didn't want to be told where on the pitch he was going to play so he left, regardless of the fact that it was seemingly good for the team. Players like that are welcome to leave and Rodgers was probably happy to see the back of him.

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  12. My words exactly!

    Even though Gerrard was a quality player to have i had no problem with him leaving (especially with coutinho coming in as a proper OM)
    Being a professional you need to be able to learn new roles. being able to play a lot of positions also allows you to understand tactics better and get a better overall football understanding. It gives you the know-how about other positions, what is essential for captaining a team for example. Just look at gerrard - he played wherever the team needed him (all midfield positions, right wing, rightback) When Rafa was at the club he was talking about Gerrard being a potential striker at the future, now he's playing like a 3rd CB... That's what you would expect from a professional player.
    I'm absolutely sure gerrard wouldn't be as good as a captain as he is now, if he hadn't played in so many different positions.

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  13. what if he does not shine even he play his fav role? we are in bad moment so blaming here and there hahahahaa make all kind excuses to relief us?

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  14. Sahin- solution for that position. Gerrard as number 10- solution for his age vs playing time.. Damn Brendan...

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  15. Picking up on "the same mistake with Mario Balotelli. The €20m Italian has specifically stated that he does not enjoy playing as a lone striker"

    Now this is where I will judge BR

    On Sturridge return IF he plays him and Mario together then that quantifies the above statement and if it works BR will be shown to have made a HUGE mistake!! why? because he should have played Borini with Mario for all the games so far. Mario has scored ZERO in the league so it would be hard to say it could be worse. BR, I am a huge 40 year long LFC fan , but I am watching.

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  16. IMO, Sahin was poor. He was slow and lazy off the ball and nothing special on it. It would have been far more interesting to see some individual player stats than team stats. Besides, the team stats suggested here aren't great. The win percentage is less than 50%. How is that good? 57 points (50%) is not enough for Liverpool. If you want to put a positive spin on them, then Suso was also in that team and therefore achieved the same record. However, many fans think he isn't good enough either.


    Regardless of what role Sahin had in midfield, it wasn't to the detriment of the team. He couldn't handle that, so see ya later. But, what Rodgers is doing now is clearly to the detriment of the team. I'm pretty sure Lucas stomps all over Sahin in deep midfield. Gerrard needs to go ASAP, and the team needs to be picked on merit. Else, Rodgers might be in trouble because the current results and performance levels aren't good enough. The team needs a good shake up before confidence drops too low.

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  17. Junaid from Pakistan10:29 am, November 11, 2014

    Blue eyed Allen has done nothing since arriving but still getting chances. Where is management doing especially Ian Ayre having spent 7 years at KOP and now CEO is the major reason of continuous Transfer market failures........ All the hard-work of last year is ruined by bad strategy of Young Talented, Young Talented.....players with no PROVEN Quality or established players and we are seeing this season that How players are not willing to come to Liverpool that is the club living on Past History and good work was just One Season wonder with Average Manager in charge for 2.5 years.............

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  18. Sahin was played out of his preferred position, this is true.
    But all i can remember was when he was played in that "Preferred" position he never did more than a jog and arsenal dominated the middle of the field cause he was waddling around.
    Its a shame it didnt work out but at the time it was best for both that he left

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  19. I disagree with that. We need to realise that despite the demand of flexibility that is placed on professional footballers, it doesnt take away the fact that managers especially BR make a meal out of that demand and insist on playing people in the wrong positions. BR is fantastically great at doing that . He IS currently doing that with Mario and Markovic. What BR doesnt realise is it reflects back on him because he signed those players. Why should he go through the trouble of buying or getting on loan, a player only to play him out of position? Is it that the right player fir the said poistion wont be available in THE WHOLE WORLD? NO, poor scouting system and poor decsion makinhg by the manager

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  20. Junaid, no offence but you are talking out of your rear end.

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  21. what is markovics preferred position? i dont know very much about him pre liverpool

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  22. There is a very BIG difference between a CAM being asked to play as a striker to when a CAM is asked to play as a CDM. Yes both positions are in the midfield but the requirements are wrolds apart. BR doesnt get this, and he wont get this hence his "transformation" of SG from a CAM to CDM= Never works. While players must multi-skill managers who know soccer like Mourinho, Ancelotti, Pep etc will never ask a CDM to be CAM or vice-versa. Asking SG to play as a CDM is akin to asking Masch to play as a CAM, simply because he is a professional player and "must adopt". I kn ow my example sounds oversimplistic but all Im saying is, I supprt BR as our manager but I dont supprot his silly errors like on Sahin, Can and Mario. A spade is a spade whether its our spade or Moyes' spade

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  23. Quoted from the official liverpool homepage, Lazar Markovic the first interview:


    -We know you can play in a few positions, but which would be your preference?

    -I do not mind. The left side is preferable, but I will play wherever I am asked.


    This proves that he is NOT played out of position

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  24. No wonder Reading found something wrong with him enough to fire him

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  25. lazar markovic is not played out of position.. mario wouldn't be either, if sturridge was fit

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  26. 1. sahin is not a mascherano type of player
    2. we almost won the league last season with SG in DM, he was in the PL team of the year so this comment is invalid.

    Good players can and should be able to be flexible,they will get better players by understanding/playing other roles that was my point

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  27. Not necessarily. The specific point I'm making is that if JKs assessment is correct then Sahin did OK for Liverpool, so playing him in that position was not much of a mistake at all and what remains is the player's specific preference for playing in a different role. So it's not that he couldn't, it's just that he didn't want to. He contributed, but for some reason thought himself above just contributing, he wanted to be played in the role that he liked the best. That's quite different from him being misused and therefore being useless.

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  28. I contest your assertion that Gerrard in a DM role = never works. Did you miss last season? Gerrard played there all season and Liverpool produced the most entertaining football I've ever seen them play and scored a ton of goals. There were some flaws and, yes, if you insist, we only came second but frankly if that's the only reason why you consider it a failed tactic then I don't know why you watch football at all. If you didn't enjoy watching Liverpool last year, with Gerrard in that DM role, then frankly there is something wrong with you. Instead I think you're just purposely neglecting to recall just how well we played last season.

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  29. I don't know much about him now.

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  30. i think he enjoyed 'soccer' last season not football ;-)

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  31. There are things that players say when they are new to a club just to get in fans and managers; good graces like "I will play wherever I'm asked". A manager must never read too much into that kind of stuff. I take it that before buying a player, there are scouts who actually scout AND WATCH a player AND NOTE which position (AND SIDE/orientation) a player is most effective and THEN compare with a club ALREADY HAS IN THAT POSITION and then buy/not buy. With a hesitant measure of certainty I would say this was not done on the likes of Markovic or Mario, just that they had "productivity going forward" was the analysis done. From that first interview you can see that Marko prefers the left. And if you saw him in his first game for us he linked up well with Moreno ON THE LEFT side. Watch him on youtube (I hope our scouts saw him in live action not just on youtube)= he comes from the left drifting into the centre, not from the right drifting into the centre. Mario is playing as a striker INCONTRoVERTIBLE but has never been a LONE striker and he even says it. Which begs the question: Did BR discuss tis with the player before signing him or BR looked at his goal scoring record ONLY without carefully analsying the positions and company (positional company in footballing strategy terms) which he score from mostly in open play

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  32. im 100% sure, once sturridge is fit balotelli will play alongside him... thats what he was bought for, to partner Sturridge!

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  33. When we talk about "how well we played last season" we need to look at SAS and Sterling' input in creating goals and SG' successfull hollyhood passes which were made use of by the three SAS and Sterling. If we talk about SG in a DM role let us look at his man marking, zonal marking, pass interception and aerial duels won= the stats are appalling. He was productive going forwards not in any of those defensive dimensions AS A DM' primary role is. I dont think I have the energy to go further with this argument. I think we were watching different games

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  34. See my main post here!

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  35. We are scared of the truth that BR is destroying SG' legend by the DM thing. We are just scared. chelski have the Matiches, Mikels, Ramirez and have support from Felipe, Willian if required and we are busy burrying our heads in the sand trying to justufy that SG is a DM. The contestation tells you he isnt. Nobody has ever contested that Suso is a left-sided CAM , or that Jones is a keeper, albeit a poor one. SG isnt a DM. the sooner its addressed the better for us. I remember him struggling to catch Marcelo - a left back. I wonder

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  36. He may well of been in the team of the year but that was for his offensive / creative output. Without the likes of Suarez, Studge and Raheem making runs all over the pitch, Gerrards distribution is nullified and as a result, his defensive attributes are brought more into focus. That is when we can see he lacks all that is needed to be a success as a defensive midfielder. Gerrards role in the team is that of deep lying play maker - that's how he plays and that is one of the reasons we are soft at the back. We have no shield, no protection but we do have someone who can ping a lovely 60 yard ball into space. Problem is, we swapped the roadrunner for Elmer Fudd!

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  37. Well i can see most of this for sure, I certainly remember seeing Marko on the left and thought "promising" (think it was pre-seaon?)
    Sadly since the only strong thing i have seen from him was a positive interview he gave where he sounded amazing by his own admission!


    BR always states he wants players who are versatile and can play in a number of positions across the park! so rather than use this "when" needed he deploys Marko on the right for development!!


    In the meantime we slide down the league and the players become despondent :-( while other teams are playing there best players IN their best positions!
    For God sake BR, you use them in an alternative position when, due to injuries we have no choice, not because you are bloody minded.


    This is why we have a team of "jack of all trades" Masters of None !

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  38. Ruud Gullit V Alan Shearer. Only ever going to be one winner with the fans when things are going badly.

    Steven Gerrard V Brendan Rodgers. Only ever going to be one winner with the fans when things are going badly.

    The only time to let a player as idolised as Gerrard go is during a period of success. We missed that train last season. He will now renew his contract and like a mercenary pick up his undeserved £140,000 grand per week. He has been a very good player but in today's game and in current form and fitness has no place as a starter.

    If we signed someone who played at the level SG is playing now he would never get in the team. This undeniably means he is in the side not for performance but on name alone. BR daren't go head to head with such a force.

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  39. Sahin has not featured once this season for Dortmund? Is he even still playing for them? No loss to us...

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  40. Lucas is more effective DM than SG. BR destroyed Lucas' Liverpool career.

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  41. If I'm not mistaken, BR didn't move SG to the DLP role until around this time last season... i don't disagree that SG is a liability now days..

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  42. Lucas is not going to solve our defensive issues and to suggest that Rodgers destroyed Lucas's career at Anfield is totally untrue. Since those two very bad injuries he has not quite been the same.


    We need a better defensive midfielder than Lucas and there are many out there we can go for.

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  43. I think successive major knee injuries caused Lucas more harm than Brendan Rodgers has.

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  44. Is Sahin not Turkish???

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  45. People seem to forget that Sahin was moved into the no.10 position because he looked woefully out of his depth at defensive midfield. He couldn't track a runner, couldn't keep up with the play and his impact in every game was negligible


    This might have been down to the fact that he wasn't fully recovered from the major injury he'd suffered, but it doesn't change the fact that he wasn't up to scratch in that position. If you're going to try and let a player play himself into form, it is less risky to play him at AM than DM. I think this was the reasoning behind what Rodgers did.


    It's a shame, because at the time and even now, I'd be very excited to see him play for Liverpool, but he wasn't anywhere near his best for us.

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  46. Sahin is a rubbish player that why RM dumb him! In football terms, if u are good u are good no matter what position u slot in except u talk abt goalie! Any club that took in Sahin beware.... no just he's poor but also a player who doesn't put in his soul and effort for any club. Good luck to Dortmund

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  47. Have to agree with all the comments, especially the part about BRs stubbornness. We aren't going to get the best out of balotelli until he's up front with another striker. Its time to get back to a diamond in midfield and get balo some support, then we can judge him. I heard Alan curbishly on sky the other day, and he said that Liverpool should have gone for 3 top level signings to improve the team like mourinho has at Chelsea. I think this would have made perfect sense. We could have got a tops level striker to replace Suarez and then a world class midfielder and defender. This would have made both the squad and team instantly stronger. Instead we've paid over £20 mill for players with potential! It beggars belief!

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  48. I think you will find Gerrard only moved into the deeper holding midfield role mid-way through last season, so to say Brendan didn't have the balls to move Gerrard out of that position therefore sacrificing Sahin is incorrect. Joa Allen was the player most often deployed in the holding role when Nuri was brought to the club with Lucas struggling to regain fitness after his long term knee injury. It is 100% clear Rodgers is trying to build a squad of tactically versatile players who can fill more than 1 position if needed and in my opinion Sahin didn't help his case with Rodgers when he wanted to come off after breaking his nose against napoli when Brendan obviously wanted to see more fight and aggression in him.

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  49. fofthegoodofliverpool9:29 am, November 12, 2014

    when all is said i think its simple Gerrard was good because of suarez ,he made everybody look like a superstar look at Henderson of last season and this season.I mean the guy can make fergie return to football management as a prophet.He is justifying everything fergie said about him this season.Am afraid he will end up like Downing but the Bottom line is Suarez made everybody including Rodgers look good.Am not even sure if Sturidge is that good and will help us that much as we expect of him now

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  50. fofthegoodofliverpool9:31 am, November 12, 2014

    i agree i mean the next time BR goes to market i want Schneiderlin,cavalho/song we need proper DMs

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  51. Valid points there. It needs a manager who has some stick up there to make steely desisions. When Moureen took over at Real among the first peopl he sold were Raul, Guti- Real Madrid Stalwarts and living legends but BR is a cut from another cloth. He does not have the balls to do that with Gerrard. Was fooled by what he did with Reina and Dagger, thought he had it but not enough of it on SG.

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  52. On one of JK's posts today he mentions/laments that BR makes some players poor (Lovren, Sakho)i.e. they do very well for Croatia and France but are horrible for us. I think its the same with SG, BR is making him worse

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  53. I don't understand the argument...


    Here we have on one hand the argument that Sahin was played out of position. And then on the other hand, we have the argument that the team was successful with him in the selection.


    How could one complain that he's out of position while acknowledging that we were successful with him playing out of position.


    Confusing.

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  54. How many times has Stevie been subbed off the field under Rodgers?


    In my opinion, that says it all.

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  55. Why wouldn't he do that for tactical reasons? I don't mean that he's not wrong, but he could have many reasons for using Gerrard this way that are, in his mind, good for the team. Maybe he doesn't want to use a sub if he doesn't have to, maybe Gerrard is flexible enough to change roles. We can disagree with him but there isn't any strong evidence that it's a game of personal favorites. Whatever else Rodgers does, I don't see him picking players other than because he truly believes they will do the best job.

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  56. I doubt this. This response appears to me too much like it should come from a Liverpool official at a press conference. We ALL know that (1) Allen, (2) SG = (1) personal favourites and (2) unsubstitutable legend. Their carrying on on the pitch really has little with the supposed merit (and the ''he does well in training'' argument). Its too clear to see. Seeing it doesnt mean we do not support the team or disagree that SG has been a massively faithful servant to the club

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  57. You doubt it, but none of us know for sure. When you say that Allen and Gerrard are favourites ... well what makes them favourites? What is it about them that gets them picked so often? Is it just that Rodgers has a personal affiliation? Do they just get along better in a personal sense? Do they have common interests outside the club? Are they just good mates and therefore Rodgers always picks his mates first, like they're all 12 years old and back at school?

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  58. Im sure if you read my comment above there you will notice how I very clearly who Im saying is a favourite and who is a Liverpool legend(and why that means they play no matter who else is better than them). Did I say the two of them are all favourites and Liverpool legends? No !!! That would be stretching the imagination. I said Allen is a favourite son of BR and BEYOND debate, SG is our legend and BR doesnt have the b#$*s to sub SG hence BR' s favourite from Swansea plays even if Can is a better option and SG plays as a CDM because BR is a poor at seeing talent, he buys appallingly and chooses to sacrifice SG by playing him out of position and claims that "players must adapt" just like he did with Sahin, is doing now with Mario. If we buy players so that they can "adopt" to wrong positions then football easy= you buy any s&@t players and make them adopt EQUALS your winning team. Dont tell me there was no money. Truth is BR' buying is b8%l s@*T

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  59. OK, but my question stands: why does Rodgers do this? You say Allen is a "favourite son" but what does that actually mean? Do they have some kind of special bond? Are they best mates? Does Rodgers pick him because he signed him from Swansea and they have a long relationship and so because of that Rodgers feels closer to him that the other players i.e. he just likes him a bit more and they have dinner together every Tuesday night? Does Rodgers think he'll look a fool if he doesn't play Allen often because he signed him for a certain fee?

    As for Rodgers not subbing Gerrard or leaving him on the bench ... why? Is he actually scared of Gerrard when they come face to face in the dressing room and he's afraid Gerrard will say mean things about him or beat him up? What does he think will happen if he subs him or leaves him out and why is that a problem for Rodgers? Why does he need balls to do that? Or are they just good buddies and they have dinner together on a Wednesday night and Rodgers just wants Stevie G to like him because it means Stevie G will say nice things about him in the media and therefore other people will think he's great?

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  60. The first thing Rafa tried to do was sell Gerrard too. SG has far too much influence with the club and fans to allow the manager complete authority over the team.

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  61. The simple tactical reason is if he's not playing well and not contributing to team's success.


    In my opinion, he's under no threat to be subbed off and that's hurting the team a bit. He's a legend of the club and he deserves the respect of all that he's done.


    But that shouldn't make him bulletproof from being subbed off if he's not contributing.

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  62. Yes I think he is scared of subbing Gerrard (and to some extent he has anecdotal evidence to support his fear-vs Madrid in Madrid last week). With Allen, I think its just a case of BR being stubborn and unwilling to accept that Allen is not the player we all thought he was when he was bought. All the early signs as magnified by Opta, have gone/fled-the crisp passing in dangerous spaces especially. Now he isnt even a shadow of the player he was at Swansea. By BR and his stubborn arrogance would rather stick it in and hope that he comes good.With the Swans' current play I doubt if Joe can even get into that team now.

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  63. So there is need for BR to be smart about how he handles SG. but certainly this DM business doesnt cut it for me and SG's declining influence on the pitch bears testimony to this

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  64. http://www.90min.com/posts/1642468-5-things-brendan-rodgers-must-do-to-save-his-job/4-learn-when-you-play-gerrard-make-sure-you-use-him-properly

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