Is Adkins another Brendan Rodgers?

[Lower West]

Good record. Good footballing philosophy. Can't make it work at Reading.

Like any good manager. Given time they will steady the ship.

[RoyalX]

I would imagine those who don't realise that Rodgers walked into a great set up at Swansea will also want to congratulate him for how much they've improved since he went. You can't have it both ways.

This. Also just how well does everyone think Rodgers is doing at Liverpool? Jury still very much out IMO. This article (http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/tacticsan ... 05?cc=5739) was written towards the end of last year but is still relevant.

"Liverpool has improved during the course of the campaign, but mainly because of £22 million worth of extra attacking talent, and the quirks of Liverpool's fixture list, rather than a significantly increased understanding of Rodgers' style."

[Maguire]

I think Rodgers it doing pretty well tbh.

Problem is that people will forget the situation the club were in when he took over and soon regress to the usual "Liverpool should be winning the league" mentality.

[Hoop Blah]

I would imagine those who don't realise that Rodgers walked into a great set up at Swansea will also want to congratulate him for how much they've improved since he went. You can't have it both ways.

Personally I give Rodgers predecessors some credit for the job at Swansea but I don't get the fixation with those who love to belittle what Rodgers did there by saying it was an easy job because of the set up he inherited. He turned a side that had finished outside the playoffs for two consecutive seasons, and had scored at less than a goal a game the previous season, into team that finished 3rd with 12 more points and scoring almost 30 goals more. That's quite a good improvement in my eyes, and good management.

Laudrup has done a good job picking up where Rodgers left off, but, although he won the cup, in the league they actually finished with less points and less goals than under Rodgers. How much they've improvement since he went? Not sure they have to be honest, but I do think Laudrup has kept them moving forwards with some astute signings and evolving the way they play.

[Vision]

Rodgers certainly talks a good game and has done well to land the Liverpool job, he might even get them into the top 5 this season. To suggest that the set-up at Swansea - one of the best footballing sides in the Championship before his arrival - wasn't there before he arrived is revisionist nonsense.

His career has peaked though I reckon. I'd wager in 5, 10 years time he'll be managing in the Championship. Or lower.

The setup was there yes, it wasn't a totally new club obviously! He almost doubled the goals they scored and took them up a level and league from the work of Martinez or Sousa. Martinez gets all the credit in some quarters for their style but arguably Kenny Jacket laid the foundations that he then built on.

Rodgers is on a roll and its churlish to suggest he didn't do an excellent job at Swansea or that he's doing we'll at Liverpool.

That was the lesson he learned with us I suspect. All the possession football is pretty pointless without the necessary end product. He bought Sinclair and (Dobbie and Borini on loan i think) to provide goals for Swansea and when they got promoted added Danny Graham who did pretty well at the beginning of his time. As sson as the the goals looked like they were drying up he added Gylffi on loan. Pretty much first thing he did at Liverpool was bring in Sturridge to ease the pressure on Suarez in the goalscoring department too. He's definite ly developed and learned from his time here but just as it's blind speculation to say he would definitely have taken us down it's equally speculative to suggest he'd have learned those lessons here amongst the pressure of a relegation scrap which we were most certainly in. His time out of the game gave him time to reflect and he certainly seems to be one of those who is a genuine student of the game. I hate that phrase but you know what I mean.

My real concern wth him is that I'm not convinced about his abilities in organising the defensive side of a team. He had that already in place at Swansea although Vorm was a good keeper and Caulker did well on loan. It just seems to me that defensively he relies on the combined ethics of keeping possession or regaining it within 8 seconds ala Barcelona. Liverpool look good in a lot of areas at present but when the opposition do get at them they look at sixes and sevens at times. And my general feeling is that his sides struggle to defend set pieces as well.

All that aside though as winchester said above, like McD, he did a great deal of good for this club long before he took the manager's job and the lack of respect accorded both of them by a fair few fans is a bit on the pathetic side really.

As for Adkins... well I'm not quite seing the revolutionary change in style that some appear to be, but I guess there is a slight change in approach which hasn't really taken off yet despite the recent run of decent results. It's early days though and I just hope he's given the time, patience and support to fully implement his ideas.

[Royalclapper]

There have been quite a number of rumours and suggestions that Manchester City are particularly keen on Rodgers. It was difficult to know if he'd be able to handle really top class players but he seems to have earned enough respect at this stage to demonstrate that he can be a high profile and sought after manager.

Adkins looks to be the centre ground between Rodgers and McDermott which is no bad thing for a club in our position.

[SCIAG]

Both superb managers, I'm just glad neither are another Brian McDermott and drop players like Pearce and Guthrie because they can actually coach.

We are talking about the same Brendan Rodgers, right?

Yeah the one who beat us to promotion, established Swansea in the Premiership and is now doing a very good job at Liverpool - superb manager.

I was referring to the guy who dropped players like Pearce, Mills, Kebe and Long, and rarely fielded an unchanged side. You criticise McDermott for dropping a couple of players inexplicably, and praise Rodgers for not doing it, even though he did it far more than McDermott. It was one of the main reasons his spell with us was such an unmitigated disaster.

He's only really par for the course at Liverpool. He's come into a difficult situation and has stopped them going further backwards, but he's wasted a lot of money doing so, and mismanaged Nuri Sahin, ruining Liverpool's chances of signing him permanently.

[floyd__streete]

Ahh yes, the guy who was in charge for 28 months, and who'd left 12 months before Rodgers took charge, was the main reason behind their promotion to the Prem and their subsequent establishment

Rodgers took Swansea to a different level. Do we belittle Coppell's achievements because they were built on the foundations that Pardew built?

Yeah they guy who followed on from the good work done by Kenny Jackett and took them up as League One champions and made them very competitive in the Champ in their first season up there. The guy who is proving his worth in making unbeaten Everton a side which already mixes results with attractive football (they rarely achieved the latter under Moyes).

And not at all.....anyone in their right mind recognises Pardew's achievements as a determining factor in Coppell's successful era. Without Pardew turning it around there would be no 106 points, no 8th placed finish in the Prem. In fact, your comparison is an excellent one - Pardew made the grounding for Coppell's success at Reading in much the same way as Martinez did for Rodgers at Swansea. Thanks for reinforcing my point for me m8, glad we agree

Kaboom!

It's going to be tough coming back from that one.

Not really. Just a bit of common sense and even-handedness. Thanks for your continued interest in everything I write, though. We both know you still bear a bit of a grudge for me getting stuck in on your 'over-reaction thread' 6 years ago following a 3-0 defeat at Bolton when I said this looked like a relegation side. And it was

[floyd__streete]

Yeah but most Prem managers won't be in the Pren in 10 years time.

Who knows eh? Moyes has managed 11 years, he's not even won a trophy. Ferguson is a Freak of course, Wenger has managed 17 years. Even Steve Bruce is back at the top level again, more than a decade after he first managed a team there!

Take your general point though. To be fair I think the truth with Rodgers can be summed up thus: Not nearly as bad as many of us thought he was, but not nearly as good as he thinks he is either

[Sanguine]

He's only really par for the course at Liverpool. He's come into a difficult situation and has stopped them going further backwards, but he's wasted a lot of money doing so, and mismanaged Nuri Sahin, ruining Liverpool's chances of signing him permanently.

Too early to say really. Only Borini has been an absolute disappointment, and Sturridge and Coutinho for a combined £20m is arguably the best transfer business of the last year or so, apart from Michu.

At Liverpool he is being credited with changing positively the way Liverpool play (talk of a return to the old days of Liverpool's patient, passing football), but doing so in a way that doesn't expose the weaknesses of the squad. He's clearly learned from his experience at Reading and it is holding him in good stead now.

On Sahin - he very deliberately managed him, and Sahin threw his toys out of his pram, he only wanted to play in one position, which dodesn't fit Rodgers' ethos.

[Kebe's apprentice]

He's only really par for the course at Liverpool. He's come into a difficult situation and has stopped them going further backwards, but he's wasted a lot of money doing so, and mismanaged Nuri Sahin, ruining Liverpool's chances of signing him permanently.

Too early to say really. Only Borini has been an absolute disappointment, and Sturridge and Coutinho for a combined £20m is arguably the best transfer business of the last year or so, apart from Michu.

At Liverpool he is being credited with changing positively the way Liverpool play (talk of a return to the old days of Liverpool's patient, passing football), but doing so in a way that doesn't expose the weaknesses of the squad. He's clearly learned from his experience at Reading and it is holding him in good stead now.

On Sahin - he very deliberately managed him, and Sahin threw his toys out of his pram, he only wanted to play in one position, which dodesn't fit Rodgers' ethos.

Allen for £15 million was a huge disappointment.

If Sahin did not fit in with Rodgers' ethos, then why get him on loan in the first place? He took one of the best young deep lying playmakers in Europe, and tried to play him in the no. 10 role, shocking management from Rodgers tbh.

[Royal Rother]

Thanks for your continued interest in everything I write, though. We both know you still bear a bit of a grudge for me getting stuck in on your 'over-reaction thread' 6 years ago following a 3-0 defeat at Bolton when I said this looked like a relegation side. And it was

[kwik-silva]

He's only really par for the course at Liverpool. He's come into a difficult situation and has stopped them going further backwards, but he's wasted a lot of money doing so, and mismanaged Nuri Sahin, ruining Liverpool's chances of signing him permanently.

Too early to say really. Only Borini has been an absolute disappointment, and Sturridge and Coutinho for a combined £20m is arguably the best transfer business of the last year or so, apart from Michu.

At Liverpool he is being credited with changing positively the way Liverpool play (talk of a return to the old days of Liverpool's patient, passing football), but doing so in a way that doesn't expose the weaknesses of the squad. He's clearly learned from his experience at Reading and it is holding him in good stead now.

On Sahin - he very deliberately managed him, and Sahin threw his toys out of his pram, he only wanted to play in one position, which dodesn't fit Rodgers' ethos.

Allen for £15 million was a huge disappointment.

If Sahin did not fit in with Rodgers' ethos, then why get him on loan in the first place? He took one of the best young deep lying playmakers in Europe, and tried to play him in the no. 10 role, shocking management from Rodgers tbh.

Rodgers' fault is that he tries to force things upon his players rather than playing to the players strengths. If he has the right group then it works wonders if not, like here, then it's going to struggle.