BY JAMES ROSS – FAN FUEL BLOGGER
Liverpool FC have started their journey into next season with the expected hiring of new manager Brendan Rodgers, who will leave Welsh side Swansea after guiding them to promotion at the end of the 2011 season, and then a very commendable 11th place finish in the Barclays Premier League this past season.
Rodgers had Swansea play attractive, possession based football, and it worked to great effect, easily maintaining their status in the top flight and gaining fans with the fluid football on display week in, week out. For the 39-year-old Rodgers, it’s been a quick path to the highest rungs of English soccer.
Rodgers was forced to retire from the game at an early age (20, to be exact) due to injury issues. He stayed at his last club Reading as a youth coach, and after spending many years in that position, made his first leap in 2004 when then Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho offered him the job of youth team manager for the London giants. In 2006, Chelsea promoted Rodgers to reserve team manager, a position he held until November 2008, when he made the leap to manage his first club side, Watford, where he was moderately successful.
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He left Watford in June of 2009 to manage the last team he was contracted to as a player, Reading, but results didn’t go his way and he left by mutual consent halfway through his first season. From there it was Swansea, and Rogers really excelled with the Welsh side, making them the first Welsh team to ever make it into the Premier League, and then keeping them up with some style.
For Liverpool fans, it’s probably a strange situation for them to digest. For a club that was the toast of English and European soccer in the 70s and 80s, it would seem an underwhelming proposition to place someone like Brendan Rodgers in charge. But it seems the Fenway Sports Group was intent on handing the reins to a younger, attack oriented manager, with the other key name being considered for the position to be Wigan manager Roberto Martinez.
A certain type of footballing philosophy for next season seemed to be essential. For a team that often looked boring and pedestrian this season, Rodgers possession based game should be a good starting point for him to build a reputation with the Anfield faithful.
Basic philosophy aside, I think Rodgers a good fit and a good bet to be successful at the club. His time at Chelsea has given him exposure to world class players, and this will undoubtedly allow him to transition from managing medium profile players, to those intensely illuminated by the media glare. There is far more to filling out a lineup sheet at a big club. Managing the egos and excesses of modern high level athletes just isn’t as easy as some would have you believe. And Rodgers will be exposed to this at much greater levels than he did in his previous assignments.
Personally, I think Liverpool have done well with the appointment of their new gaffer, and if they show him some patience, he should be able to lift Liverpool back in to contention. However, Liverpool fans should not expect a quick fix. The squad has many issues, as evidenced by their final placement in the BPL this season and, quite significantly, one position behind crosstown rivals Everton.
Brendan Rodgers enters the job knowing a repeat of that will not be acceptable.
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