A 1-1 draw with Newcastle United on Sunday leaves Liverpool with just 11 points from their opening ten games, their worst start to a season in 20 years. Matt Stanger wonders when the pressure will start to increase on Brendan Rodgers.
Monday 5 November 2012 13:59, UK
Matt Stanger wonders when the pressure will start to increase on Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers.
Although Liverpool utterly dominated Newcastle on Sunday, Brendan Rodgers' assertion that his team deserved what would have been a 'brilliant win' smacks of a manager clutching at straws following another wasted opportunity to bag three valuable points. After running Newcastle ragged in the second half and creating enough chances to win three matches, Liverpool certainly should have secured only their third Premier League victory of Rodgers' reign. But the manager's claim that his team missed out on a 'brilliant' win seems somewhat far-fetched, considering Newcastle are yet to win away in the current campaign and are struggling to find the form that catapulted them into fifth last season. Perhaps this point is too concerned with semantics, but Rodgers' declaration echoed the memorable line reeled out by Roy Hodgson in October 2010 when he opined that the Reds had secured a 'famous victory' after sneaking past Bolton 1-0. The reaction to what was seen as Hodgson's rather skewed perspective contributed to the campaign to have the manager defenestrated, with Liverpool's win at the Reebok lifting them to a total of only 12 points after Hodgson's first ten games in charge. Sunday's draw leaves Rodgers' Reds a point worse off at the same juncture.With Rodgers avoiding the same level of scrutiny despite a mixed start to his Liverpool tenure, it seems that Hodgson's biggest mistake during his time at Anfield was failing to announce that he had a 'philosophy' when he arrived in the summer of 2010.Games Played | Games Won | Games Drawn | Games Lost | Goal Difference | Points | ||||
Brendan Rodgers | 10 | 2 | 5 | 3 | -2 | 11 | |||
Kenny Dalglish | 10 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 20 | |||
Roy Hodgson | 10 | 3 | 3 | 4 | -4 | 12 | |||
Rafael Benitez | 10 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 17 | |||