When was your turning point?

[facaldaqui]

Wish we had that Christ at right half now.

[Alan Partridge]

It's not the losing that winds me up or gets me down. It is the sheer ineptitude and lack of professionlism in the performances. The total lack of leadership, desire, fight or hunger on the pitch beggars belief. The players have to shoulder a fair amount of the blame as they are the ones on the pitch. The coaching side of things is laughable. There has been no cohesion at all. The players don't appear to have a clue what is expected of them. We have seen the cursed diamond, one up front and a constant chopping and changing of personnel. It is as if someone is drawing the line up and formation out of a lucky dip!

I was taken in by the spin when BR was apointed and this has made me angry - angry at myself for believing the guff. He spoke about playing with a flexible formation and even spouted "Total Football". Well, if this is total football I am a Johnny Depp.

Pardew coined the much maligned phrase of "Tenacity, Spirit, Flair". Oh for some of that right now!

Just to add to this post, I just don't actually like the bloke. Big watch, big car, big book of tactics, dress sense, everything. Typical Chelsea bloke. All image and just what the hell has he done in the game to justify that?

That's a fairly petty excuse agreed but just something about him, i find it incredibly difficult to like the bloke. Then onto the main issue is his actual handlign of team affairs and let's be honest, it's been utter shit. Everything. all his signings have been awful, his tactics and constant changings of formations have been ludicrous, the results awful. On top of that he comes out with crap like 'the first 5 games are still pre season' are they? Points don't count then do they?

All that, but the main thing that really annoys me, he hasn't got a bloody clue what his best side is. Players like Cisse weren't even sub a week or two ago. Starts at WBA. He singles out O'Dea as this cracking young player, plays Mills Saturday. Simon Church scores a couple of goals, nowhere to be seen. It's just all over the place. God knows who gets a go Tuesday. Probably Marek and Tabb seeing as though they weren't in the squad Saturday.

Time is running out Brendan, if you aren't sure, just check that grandfathor clock on your arm.

[Arnie_Pie]

My turning point into pure apathy happened yesterday after we conceded that first goal.

Just don't really give a crap anymore. More important things to worry about.

[Ian Royal]

It's not the losing that winds me up or gets me down. It is the sheer ineptitude and lack of professionlism in the performances. The total lack of leadership, desire, fight or hunger on the pitch beggars belief. The players have to shoulder a fair amount of the blame as they are the ones on the pitch. The coaching side of things is laughable. There has been no cohesion at all. The players don't appear to have a clue what is expected of them. We have seen the cursed diamond, one up front and a constant chopping and changing of personnel. It is as if someone is drawing the line up and formation out of a lucky dip!

I was taken in by the spin when BR was apointed and this has made me angry - angry at myself for believing the guff. He spoke about playing with a flexible formation and even spouted "Total Football". Well, if this is total football I am a Johnny Depp.

Pardew coined the much maligned phrase of "Tenacity, Spirit, Flair". Oh for some of that right now!

Just to add to this post, I just don't actually like the bloke. Big watch, big car, big book of tactics, dress sense, everything. Typical Chelsea bloke. All image and just what the hell has he done in the game to justify that?

That's a fairly petty excuse agreed but just something about him, i find it incredibly difficult to like the bloke. Then onto the main issue is his actual handlign of team affairs and let's be honest, it's been utter shit. Everything. all his signings have been awful, his tactics and constant changings of formations have been ludicrous, the results awful. On top of that he comes out with crap like 'the first 5 games are still pre season' are they? Points don't count then do they?

All that, but the main thing that really annoys me, he hasn't got a bloody clue what his best side is. Players like Cisse weren't even sub a week or two ago. Starts at WBA. He singles out O'Dea as this cracking young player, plays Mills Saturday. Simon Church scores a couple of goals, nowhere to be seen. It's just all over the place. God knows who gets a go Tuesday. Probably Marek and Tabb seeing as though they weren't in the squad Saturday.

Time is running out Brendan, if you aren't sure, just check that grandfathor clock on your arm.

Spot on. It might be easier to take if he wasn't such a cock. But his management looks like something an inept child might try on football manager.

[peterroyal76]

Obviously we all want Reading to do well, but I REALLY wanted Brendan to succeed. After all he's lived in Reading and his work with the academy plus he seemed to me to have served an apprenticeship at Chelsea and Watford. Peterborough away was the starting point for me in the second half we were totally outfought and out thought.
Brendan now seems to be trying to say what needs to be done without actually saying it or acting upon it. Either his instructions to the players aren't clear or simple enough for them to understand or they're not good enough to put them into practise.Does he over complicate what is a simple game? Or are he and some of the players simple.
Something must change very soon either the manager or the performances. I for one would prefer the performances to change.

[brendywendy]

none of the above
dont care whos in charge as long as they do well
i like rodgers, though some of his decisions defy belief,
but ill be itching for change if things dont turn before xmas


losing to two of the best teams in the league really isnt a good reason to turn on any one

[facaldaqui]

I agree with Alan Partridge that the team selection is the most worrying thing about Rodgers. Not because it is wrong (I'm not qualified to judge who's fit, etc) as because it is so inconsistent. Coppell's method was usually to keep a winning team, and, by and large, that worked. OK, that's not much of an option for Brendan because we don't win much, but when Coppell made changes last season, even then there was some pattern: he stuck by Long for periods, he kept Harper out once he dropped him, he did the same with Hunt up to a point, though Hunt was still sub. Coppell was a little indecisive about Matejovsky, but otherwise, he was systematic. Rodgers will play a player for a game or two and then drop him--no real rhyme or reason to his treatment of Church, Rasiak, and Hunt; and his decision to drop O'Dea yesterday--even given O'Dea's partial mistake against Boro--seemed unrelated to his form.

[adamh4608]

he was not my choice from the start that was curb's

[Smoking Kills Dancing Doe]

Football is a simple game made complicated by those who should no better.

Began to worry as soon as we heard of models and manuals.

Play 442, play long ball. Just try and get people in behind. We have pace, we have forwards who are mobile and decent in the air.

Hoooofffff

[Ian Royal]

none of the above
dont care whos in charge as long as they do well
i like rodgers, though some of his decisions defy belief,
but ill be itching for change if things dont turn before xmas


losing to two of the best teams in the league really isnt a good reason to turn on any one

But his piss poor management is seeing us NEED to win against these teams. Because he's incapable of putting away any team.

[weybridgewanderer]

for me it was watching us away at swansea

we were clueless

if swansea had been any good we would have lost by 4 or 5

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

While I wouldn't go out on a limb and lay I "lost faith" on the day, as long ago as the defeat at Kettering had me thinking.

We'd played Didcot, and in terms of possession and total domination, were more convincing then when we won 9-0 there the previous year, but only won 4-0 because despite the nice football, we weren't creating chances.

We then played Kettering, and it was pretty much the same - nice football, plenty of possession, but barely a chance created. A rather worrying pattern was emerging. We just keep doing the same thing, banging that round peg into that square hole, hoping it'll work eventually.


There's an optimist in me that wants him to sort it out, but I look at how we play now, and there's not even the nice football any more. We just seem to have gone backwards.

[handbags_harris]

He was never my first choice, that was Curbishley. I didn't feel he'd done enough at Watford to deserve a crack at the managerial job here, and I didn't like the way we (and he) went about getting him here. I also felt that the fans were all too ready to accept a man who would happily walk out on a club in a similar fashion to how both McGhee and Pardew walked out on us. We know how that feels, and I was actually saddened that RFC would go about doing that to another club. On the footballing side, I felt that if we appointed an inexperienced manager at Championship level (that is to say a manager who has little experience of management in the Championship) we would struggle, and that manager would lose the faith of the fans very quickly. My prophecy hasn't failed to disappoint SO FAR, but I do believe that he should be given until at least the middle of December to try to turn things around. I'm not happy with the club and haven't been for a number of months, but to a certain degree Rodgers is on a hiding to nothing following on from Steve Coppell. That doesn't excuse the ineptitude he has shown on the touchline though.

[From Despair To Where?]

Just to add to this post, I just don't actually like the bloke. Big watch, big car, big book of tactics, dress sense, everything. Typical Chelsea bloke. All image and just what the hell has he done in the game to justify that?

That's a fairly petty excuse agreed but just something about him, i find it incredibly difficult to like the bloke. Then onto the main issue is his actual handlign of team affairs and let's be honest, it's been utter shit. Everything. all his signings have been awful, his tactics and constant changings of formations have been ludicrous, the results awful. On top of that he comes out with crap like 'the first 5 games are still pre season' are they? Points don't count then do they?

All that, but the main thing that really annoys me, he hasn't got a bloody clue what his best side is. Players like Cisse weren't even sub a week or two ago. Starts at WBA. He singles out O'Dea as this cracking young player, plays Mills Saturday. Simon Church scores a couple of goals, nowhere to be seen. It's just all over the place. God knows who gets a go Tuesday. Probably Marek and Tabb seeing as though they weren't in the squad Saturday.

Time is running out Brendan, if you aren't sure, just check that grandfathor clock on your arm.

Spot on AP. Jose's mini me, all brashness and bold statements but without the ability to back it up.

To be honest, I had little faith to start with but a couple of things really started the alarm bells ringing. Away to Newcastle. Fair enough, a game that we wouldn't expect to win but what struck me was was the stench of ineptitude. The classic Tommy Burns style of pretty sideways passing but oxf*rd all penetration, the captain turning his back and yelling at all and sundry whilst the player he is supposed to be marking is making it 2-0 with a free header and the fact that we threw in the towel at half time. I remember turning to my mate and saying "Christ, we're shit".

Secondly, transfer deadline day, the disgraceful manner in which we jetisoned Harper and Rosenior and the far from adequate replacements.

[Mad Dog's Ghost]

Middlesbrough. No quality, no spirit. Just nothing.

In fact that's what really sums us up. Plain, simple nothingness.

Will be 100% behind the team for Leicester game and pray we'll turn it round ... but it's just blind optimism really.

[CMRoyal]

Subconsciously the alarm bells went off during and after the Newcastle game - it was Brendan's stunned look that did it, as his plans fell away in front of his eyes, leaving him staring at his own naked hubris in the post-match interview. I said at the time he was to be congratulated in acting so swiftly on the realisation that the squad he'd been "doing great work" with and bigging up all summer was plainly not good enough. It was a massive misjudgment of their and his abilities, but at least he did something about it. However, the low-confidence genie was out of the bottle - the youngsters' esteem is going to take some rebuilding now that it's been made clear that actually, forget what I said all summer aboiut how great you are, you're off to Wycombe/Southampton/the reserves for a few months instead - and the replacement signings don't seem capable or willing enough to build it back up. We're in a mess, and I think it was Peterborough away that really made me realise that.

[Man Friday]

Subconsciously the alarm bells went off during and after the Newcastle game - it was Brendan's stunned look that did it, as his plans fell away in front of his eyes, leaving him staring at his own naked hubris in the post-match interview. I said at the time he was to be congratulated in acting so swiftly on the realisation that the squad he'd been "doing great work" with and bigging up all summer was plainly not good enough. It was a massive misjudgment of their and his abilities, but at least he did something about it. However, the low-confidence genie was out of the bottle - the youngsters' esteem is going to take some rebuilding now that it's been made clear that actually, forget what I said all summer aboiut how great you are, you're off to Wycombe/Southampton/the reserves for a few months instead - and the replacement signings don't seem capable or willing enough to build it back up. We're in a mess, and I think it was Peterborough away that really made me realise that.

Again agree entirely, but what do you mean "he did something about it?" (Other than sign Rasiak, Howard, McAnuff and Cummings?)

[Maguire]

I do believe that he should be given until at least the middle of December to try to turn things around. I'm not happy with the club and haven't been for a number of months, but to a certain degree Rodgers is on a hiding to nothing following on from Steve Coppell. That doesn't excuse the ineptitude he has shown on the touchline though.

That probably sums up my feelings rather nicely HH.

The trouble is that when people turn against somebody (as most of you lot seem to have done with Rodgers), is that you'll use anything and everything to beat him down with no matter what.

The whole "why did he ditch Rosenior and sign Cummings" thing is one example, as if you think he wouldn't rather have Rosenior as an option now. The fact that our entire squad (which, if you remember, couldn't notch a home win from Jan to the end of the season, even with international players) was ripped to shreds seems to be forgotten. "Oh but he's had 3 million to improve the squad". Well no, he's had more like -10million to spend on his squad.

I don't think defeat away to WBA really changes anything as we all kind of expected it anyway, but he really, really needs to win a home game sooner rather than later.

[Uke]

I do believe that he should be given until at least the middle of December to try to turn things around. I'm not happy with the club and haven't been for a number of months, but to a certain degree Rodgers is on a hiding to nothing following on from Steve Coppell. That doesn't excuse the ineptitude he has shown on the touchline though.

That probably sums up my feelings rather nicely HH.

The trouble is that when people turn against somebody (as most of you lot seem to have done with Rodgers), is that you'll use anything and everything to beat him down with no matter what.

The whole "why did he ditch Rosenior and sign Cummings" thing is one example, as if you think he wouldn't rather have Rosenior as an option now. The fact that our entire squad (which, if you remember, couldn't notch a home win from Jan to the end of the season, even with international players) was ripped to shreds seems to be forgotten. "Oh but he's had 3 million to improve the squad". Well no, he's had more like -10million to spend on his squad.

I don't think defeat away to WBA really changes anything as we all kind of expected it anyway, but he really, really needs to win a home game sooner rather than later.

Turning point doesn't mean out the door though

It means the point where he starts his final set of SMART objectives with a view to keeping his job. He's probably had the warnings already associated with contract performance. So the 'process' may well be underway to minimise the costs of early contract termination.

Shit or bust for Brenda

[CMRoyal]

Subconsciously the alarm bells went off during and after the Newcastle game - it was Brendan's stunned look that did it, as his plans fell away in front of his eyes, leaving him staring at his own naked hubris in the post-match interview. I said at the time he was to be congratulated in acting so swiftly on the realisation that the squad he'd been "doing great work" with and bigging up all summer was plainly not good enough. It was a massive misjudgment of their and his abilities, but at least he did something about it. However, the low-confidence genie was out of the bottle - the youngsters' esteem is going to take some rebuilding now that it's been made clear that actually, forget what I said all summer aboiut how great you are, you're off to Wycombe/Southampton/the reserves for a few months instead - and the replacement signings don't seem capable or willing enough to build it back up. We're in a mess, and I think it was Peterborough away that really made me realise that.

Again agree entirely, but what do you mean "he did something about it?" (Other than sign Rasiak, Howard, McAnuff and Cummings?)

Yeah, that's what I meant. He seemed to imply in the summer that Bertrand, Smith and A N Other (eg Mills?) was just about all he needed to supplement the squad. Then all of sudden we are buying and selling like a demented stock trader, leaving no time to get a coherent squad together that could play as a team. I'm trying to avoid the phrase 'panic buys' but that's increasingly looking the case.