1979 was a great time to be alive. The cars were big and fast, I was 17 and Reganism was just a disturbing blip on the horizon. I parlayed my hard work and good behavior into a 1972 Monte Carlo, a lightning fast beast. I looked good in that car (well, truth be told I looked less goofy than usual in that car, but I will take some literary license here). The only problem was that while I knew that car could take me to the heights of the top division, I was also pretty sure that there was a better chance that it would relegate me to an early grave.
What to do?
One day, someone came along and smashed my promotion dreams and the front end of my Monte Carlo. As I assessed the damage, I had the strangest feeling that the boozed up numskull who had busted up my gorgeous muscle car had just done me that greatest favor ever. Insurance checks showed up and a nice man offered to pay me a bunch of money to take my muscle car off to manage Reading. So I got to walk away with a pile of cash from a car that was probably going to kill me, and bought a perfectly reliable Chevy Monza instead. Oh, of course I had to keep up the act and mumble about how much I missed my Monte Carlo, but I knew that it would only be a matter of time before its future owners came to grief.
So, yeah, I felt the same way about Brendan Rodgers.
Years pass (six of them in Brendan's case), Rodgers has just been sacked by Liverpool and I feel like I must make some comments, from the perspective of a die-hard Watford fan living in Colorado.
1. I wonder if secretly he's feeling what I felt in 1979/2009. He's just been sacked from a club with entirely unrealistic expectations, meddling bosses, and a media spotlight bright enough to fry any retina. He'll walk away with a pile of cash and can choose from a number of clubs should he wish to return to management.
2. Am I the only one confused by the players that Liverpool has acquired? Last season, Suarez gone, bring in Mario Balotelli and Fabio Borini except that neither of them play anything like Suárez and don't particularly fit into the style of play you've been using. This season, bring in Christian Benteke and Danny Ings, except that neither of them play anything like Suárez and don't particularly fit into the style of play you've been using. Ok, so short of getting Suárez back, what's a manager to do? Perhaps adapting play to some of those talented players? I'm just not sure the pieces are there to work with. Which leads me to...
3. When assembling a bunch of seemingly misfit pieces into a cohesive structure, isn't the best method to put the most important pieces in the spot where they fit the best? If so, Liverpool has been a mess for the past year. Best holding midfielder, playing in the back. Most creative player, moving around the pitch (Quantum Coutinho?) having made only seven key passes all season (compared to Cazorla's 33).
4. So, if you are the owners of said massive football club and you've just finished a disappointing season, it seems like you have two basic choices.
A. Sack the manager and retool.
B. Stick with the manager and retool.
Ah, but no, the creative minds at Liverpool came up with a third alternative... the half-sack. Rodgers was allowed to stay on, but without two of his closest staff. No clue how this was supposed to benefit the club other than as a handy bit of scapegoating.
5. Ok, so the season starts and there are always some bad teams that start off well (Leicester City) and some good teams that do a face-plant (hello Chelski). Liverpool is shading toward the latter, but with some legitimate injury issues along with adjusting to new players. The shouts for Rodgers' head are immediate and the owners are shopping around for some stylingItalian and German models. Time to show the old Monte Carlo, err, manager to the door. I wonder if the interview went something like, "Herr Klopp, kill, marry, bang... Adam Lallana, Joe Allen, Alberto Moreno." Klopp: "Exterminate!"
6. So what's a Watford supporter doing commenting on a manager sacking anyway? The Pozzo family goes through managers more often than I change the oil in the car. Just this... I think the Pozzi have it right. As players need to be swapped in and out to meet the needs of the situation, Given the choice between (1) handing over (almost) absolute power to the manager and (2) hiring someone to coach the players at the club, provide input when asked, and not expect a statue of themselves in front of the stadium after leaving.
The long-term manager is a relic of the past. Supporters and managers just need to get used to the new model. A tool to be brought in to fix a problem, just the same as the utility back being brought in to cover for an injury.
So, providing a service, I present a job advert for Brendan:
Manager seeking a club. Strengths - flexible use of formations, supportive of playing staff, poker face when facing hostile press, access to advice from The Special One. Weaknesses - Americans, failure to convince world class talent to choose Liverpool over London, inability to fit square pegs in round holes. Preferred formations - all of them.
What to do?
One day, someone came along and smashed my promotion dreams and the front end of my Monte Carlo. As I assessed the damage, I had the strangest feeling that the boozed up numskull who had busted up my gorgeous muscle car had just done me that greatest favor ever. Insurance checks showed up and a nice man offered to pay me a bunch of money to take my muscle car off to manage Reading. So I got to walk away with a pile of cash from a car that was probably going to kill me, and bought a perfectly reliable Chevy Monza instead. Oh, of course I had to keep up the act and mumble about how much I missed my Monte Carlo, but I knew that it would only be a matter of time before its future owners came to grief.
So, yeah, I felt the same way about Brendan Rodgers.
Years pass (six of them in Brendan's case), Rodgers has just been sacked by Liverpool and I feel like I must make some comments, from the perspective of a die-hard Watford fan living in Colorado.
1. I wonder if secretly he's feeling what I felt in 1979/2009. He's just been sacked from a club with entirely unrealistic expectations, meddling bosses, and a media spotlight bright enough to fry any retina. He'll walk away with a pile of cash and can choose from a number of clubs should he wish to return to management.
2. Am I the only one confused by the players that Liverpool has acquired? Last season, Suarez gone, bring in Mario Balotelli and Fabio Borini except that neither of them play anything like Suárez and don't particularly fit into the style of play you've been using. This season, bring in Christian Benteke and Danny Ings, except that neither of them play anything like Suárez and don't particularly fit into the style of play you've been using. Ok, so short of getting Suárez back, what's a manager to do? Perhaps adapting play to some of those talented players? I'm just not sure the pieces are there to work with. Which leads me to...
3. When assembling a bunch of seemingly misfit pieces into a cohesive structure, isn't the best method to put the most important pieces in the spot where they fit the best? If so, Liverpool has been a mess for the past year. Best holding midfielder, playing in the back. Most creative player, moving around the pitch (Quantum Coutinho?) having made only seven key passes all season (compared to Cazorla's 33).
4. So, if you are the owners of said massive football club and you've just finished a disappointing season, it seems like you have two basic choices.
A. Sack the manager and retool.
B. Stick with the manager and retool.
Ah, but no, the creative minds at Liverpool came up with a third alternative... the half-sack. Rodgers was allowed to stay on, but without two of his closest staff. No clue how this was supposed to benefit the club other than as a handy bit of scapegoating.
5. Ok, so the season starts and there are always some bad teams that start off well (Leicester City) and some good teams that do a face-plant (hello Chelski). Liverpool is shading toward the latter, but with some legitimate injury issues along with adjusting to new players. The shouts for Rodgers' head are immediate and the owners are shopping around for some styling
6. So what's a Watford supporter doing commenting on a manager sacking anyway? The Pozzo family goes through managers more often than I change the oil in the car. Just this... I think the Pozzi have it right. As players need to be swapped in and out to meet the needs of the situation, Given the choice between (1) handing over (almost) absolute power to the manager and (2) hiring someone to coach the players at the club, provide input when asked, and not expect a statue of themselves in front of the stadium after leaving.
The long-term manager is a relic of the past. Supporters and managers just need to get used to the new model. A tool to be brought in to fix a problem, just the same as the utility back being brought in to cover for an injury.
So, providing a service, I present a job advert for Brendan:
Manager seeking a club. Strengths - flexible use of formations, supportive of playing staff, poker face when facing hostile press, access to advice from The Special One. Weaknesses - Americans, failure to convince world class talent to choose Liverpool over London, inability to fit square pegs in round holes. Preferred formations - all of them.
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