Brendan Rodgers (50) is back in management with Celtic. He is supposed to take the club back in the position Celtic were when he left, taking over at Liverpool and Leicester. So far two wins of two in the Premier League, but also a blow to see a 0-1 loss away to Kilmarnock, being knocked out of The League Cup in the final 16, saying goodbye to one possible trophy this season.
He had his great moments at Liverpool and Leicester, ending runners-up in the Premier League while at Anfield and later winning the FA Cup with Leicester. He showed his ability to bring attractive football on board, but in some way it all ended in a grim affair, leaving both clubs in great difficulties.
Liverpool appointed Brendan Rodgers as manager in the summer of 2012, at the time, 39 years of age. He had a good period behind him at Swansea, clearly giving that team a good and solid identity.
That first season at Liverpool was not the best, ending 7th in PL, with his most pivotal signing beeing Joe Allen from his former club Swansea, paying £15million. In January 2013 he made one his best ever moves in the transfer market, bringing in Philippe Coutinho for a fee of £8.5million from Brazilian club Internazional.
In the summer of 2013, Rodgers added Kole Toure from Man City and Mamadou Sakho from PSG to his squad, as both made the defence a better unit. Luis Suarez showed his great goalscoring abilities and it all looked a grand set up, but as it all looked bright, lighetning striked, with the sale of of his top scorer to Barcelona. This stopped the progress for Brendan Rodgers.
He had a good kitty to use after the £75million sale of Suarez, but instead of going for a forward, that could have been a good and solid replacement, Rodgers brought in Ricky Lambert and Mario Balotelli as well as signing up a group of players that made the first eleven more gelly, and the ugly pattern of squad logistic errors, also seen later at Leicester, had started. .
Then in the summer of 2015 he had to see Steven Gerrard leave, of course a massive gap to fill, as the legend was such an important man for the club in full. Then also deciding to sell Raheem Sterling to Man City, after the player himself addressed his desire to leave, made it even more difficult, not really having a good enough momentum and it all melted down to a messy affair, leaving the club in October that year.
After a grand time with Celtic, he decided to leave the club and join Leicester. Celtic were dancing their best dance in years, leaving devoted fans in limbo and moving south again to get his sniff at Premier League. Rodgers managed to get the best out of the Leicester squad left behind by Claude Puel, as well as being able to sign Youri Tielemans for money being available from the sale of Harry Maguire to Man Utd.
He also managed to bring in Ayoze Perez and James Justin, both clever moves and players being able to give the team and squad more quality. Shinji Okazaki and Danny Simpson were both players leaving as well, but still Rodgers were able to keep his knit work well in place to get good results.
But as we could see at Liverpool, Brendan Rodgers, did not have a clever enough plan to be able to find solutions for povital players exit, becoming a major problem not possible to solve.
Instead of having a pragmatic view and replacing his best players when those sales appeared, he compensated with more additions and getting more legs in to build a monster of a squad with too many players in limbo not really knowing what type of job they were supposed to do.
This became a dilemma at both clubs, leaving behind a messy situation and seeing some of his latest signings at both Leicester and Liverpool turning out as disasters, later not being seen as squad material by his successors. The key question is why was Brendan Rodgers seeking those signings? as his early eye looked sharp and well qualified.
No one doubts Brendan Rodgers ability as a coach and how he construct his teams to play good football, but in some way, he can also loose it all, as players tends to be tired out, looking for a way out, not being able to keep players happy, as it appeared as a problem both at Leicester or Liverpool.
New Leicester manager Enzo Maresca, and current Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp, were left with squads full of questions and cleaning up was needed at both places. with players sold and replaced.
Enzo Maresca is working hard to try to sort out weaknesses and find new players to fill the gaps, as he also have to trim certain areas, totally overlooked by Brendan Rodgers. Leicester splashed out close to £50million on Victor Kristiansen, Wout Faes and Harry Souttar, all seen as possible departures and not key players in a future set up.
Brendan Rodgers complained about money and no transfer kitty at Leicester, but the way he used the money available, he cannot be described as nothing else than a disaster.
A good blend of a squad, is one with a solid eleven, a few players that are fighting like dogs to get back in the line-up, a couple of men with a bit of routine, not getting desperate when not playing and having the rest of the group being players on lower saliries waiting for their breakthrough.
To have a group that is very similar in quality, but not at the level needed to win games in Premier League, you need to build up a team of solid carachters that knows how to win.
To have players who can do two jobs in different positions is also needed, and that would see 18 players fighitng for places, that is really what you need, and to fill up the squad with young and hungry players as you have a natural setting.
Looking at what Brendan Rodgers have available at Celtic, and what fish he can catch, he should never have complained about anything at Leicester, just blame himself for errors done and no lesson learned as the same mistakes were done at Liverpool.
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