Brendan Rogers defying odds at Liverpool

Brendan Rogers’ managerial profile is lower than his previous 3 predecessors in Rafael Benitez, current England head coach Roy Hodgson and Liverpool legend Kenny Dalgish. Benitez was around for six years and won the Uefa Champions League. Roy Hodgson and Kenny Dalgish came in when the club faced the worst managerial problems in decades. There is an English saying that ‘most annoyed listeners elicit a different reaction’. At one time Rogers said that he was motivated to start coaching so as to make a difference for people. In everything we do, there is a motivation either from internal or external influence. Today his managerial principles manifest themselves with the club challenging not only for a top four finish, but also the English Premier League title. Liverpool have 68 points, one point behind leaders Chelsea and only Manchester City look better placed on 66 points albeit with two games in hand on all their rivals. After this season, one would not hesitate to tip Liverpool to reach greater heights under Rogers. He is an organised man even during his time at Watford and Swansea City; he initiated a good youth project with an offensive style of play. Watford would be in the Premier League now had it not been for his abrupt departure from the club. From London he crossed to Wales and became the manager of Swansea City in the Championship during the 2010-2011 season. He won the promotion the same season. During his first season in the Premier League, the Welsh club became too hard to beat and looked organised in all departments with inexperienced players and limited resources to compete with other established clubs. Swansea were compared to Barcelona in terms of ball possession and ball movement. Managerial problems at Liverpool turned into a blessing for the young manager who had already established himself at Swansea. He was then recruited by Liverpool to replace Kenny Dalglish in 2012. Interestingly, Rogers has managed to assemble some unsettled players like Daniel Sturridge, Victor Moses both from Chelsea, Aly Cissokho from Olympique Lyon, Mamadhou Sakho with a mixture of youngsters like Raheem Sterling, Jon Flanagan, and Iago Aspas to create the most offensive force during the current season. Though Liverpool is not physically strong as compared to giants Manchester City and Chelsea, they look stable and more consistent in their performances. For many months now, I have been attracted to watch Liverpool’s offensive style with keen attention to his tactics and switch of players especially during emergency situations or whenever the Reds are a goal down. He has been able to use the experience, brilliance of Luis Suarez and Steven Gerald to organise every position in the team. Suarez monitors and organises all offensive play whereas the ever-green skipper Gerald commands the midfield from his deep lying hold role. The two are always involved in a game build up especially when they concede or fall behind in a game as seen recently during the match against Cardiff City. The Reds showed great patience until the 40th minute when Daniel Sturridge equalised before Liverpool went ahead to win the game 6-3 thanks to a hat trick from the unstoppable Suarez. Sturridge and Sterling or Coutinho attacks from the wide area and have provided more spark in attack than any other side in the Premier League. England international Sturridge, who sometimes inter-changes positions with Uruguayan Suarez, is the second leading scorer in the league with 20 goals. Suarez is the current top scorer with 28 goals and if the pair continues this rich vein of form, only a fool would bet against Liverpool pushing Chelsea and Man City for the title to the very end.