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4) Performance in Europe
When a club of Liverpool’s stature who have won the prestigious UEFA Champions League five times and the UEFA Cup thrice, a lot is expected of them each and every time they participate in any European competition. Rodgers had the opportunity to participate in the UEFA Europa League in his debut season with Liverpool and the Reds scraped through to the knockout stage despite getting a relatively easier group, only to be knocked out by Zenit.
This season Liverpool made their long anticipated return to the UEFA Champions League and were hopeful of making it to the knockout stage ahead of FC Basel and Ludogorets. Instead, the Merseyside club could only manage one win in six games, scoring five goals while conceding nine, and were demoted to the Europa League, where they were once again knocked out by Besiktas.
So even if Liverpool manage to qualify for the Champions League by some stroke of luck, Rodgers is clearly not the man to uphold the club’s name in the elite competitions.
5) Favouritism and relationship with players
A good manager should always pick his team on merit and should not show favouritism, but Rodgers has shown that quite a lot. He has clearly stuck by players, of which the most notable was Joe Allen. The Welshman was signed by Liverpool for £15m and after three seasons with the club, he still hasn’t been able to become a crucial member of the side despite the manager giving him ample opportunities, something which hasn’t been given fairly to players like Balotelli or Borini.
A perfect example of the manager’s favouritism is what he did while picking the team for the away game against Manchester United. Liverpool were clearly playing better in the run up to the big game with Lucas Leiva starting in midfield, but Rodgers dropped Leiva to the bench and started Allen in his place and Liverpool lost the game.
It is also interesting to note that Rodgers didn’t want Jordan Henderson at the club when he took over, but thankfully Henderson wanted to stay and fight for his place. In addition to this, there has been constant criticism of Rodgers for not giving fair chances to certain players the club signed during his tenure like Assaidi, Manquillo, Borini and Alberto.
The worst of the lot was how he dealt with Nuri Sahin. The Turk was clearly better than the midfielders like Allen, Henderson or Shelvey, but Rodgers was not ready to give Sahin his favoured position deeper in midfield as it was occupied by Allen. Sahin was deployed in an unfamiliar number 10 role and still played well, but Rodgers was not keen on using him and his loan spell was cut short halfway.
Many players who left the club under Rodgers have expressed how disappointed they were with him for varied reasons. Players like Agger, Reina, Sahin, Downing and Carroll have all come out and pointed their fingers at Rodgers for their departure. A manager who cannot even deal with his players properly is certainly not the right man to lead a club like Liverpool back to their glory days.
