Being Liverpool Manager

Earlier this evening Liverpool Football Club announced that Brendan Rodgers has had his contract terminated. The full announcement is here.

"At a football club, there's a holy trinity - the players, the manager and the supporters." Bill Shankly

I've been watching Liverpool since the early 70s. I stood on the Kop and watched the end of the Shankly era and the beginning of the Paisley era. I watched the best team in the world defeat all before them. This was the time when, to paraphrase Shankly, the bond between fan, team and manager was strongest. I grew up giving the manager my full support and I was richly rewarded. Support for the Liverpool manager is in my DNA. At least it was until Roy Hodgson. I was uneasy with that appointment and I was carrying a metaphorical pitch-fork by the end. I'm saddened that Brendan Rodgers has been sacked. He is a talented coach who gave his all to the cause.

From Rafa To Rodgers

LFC Data Analysis of Seasons 2004-05 to 2014-15

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."  Benjamin Disraeli

This post describes Liverpool Football Club's premier league performance in seasons 2004-05 to 2014-15 with graphs generated from publicly available data. The seasons cover 11 years, from Rafael Benitez' first match of season 2004-05 in August 2004 to Brendan Rodgers' final match of season 2014-15 in May 2015.

Hopefully the graphs and narrative will make you think about the highs and lows. It's hard for any Liverpool fan to look back over these 11 premier league seasons without some trauma. Just think about Istanbul if it get too difficult ;-).

The analysis also places Rodgers' performance in context. It remains to be seen if he will survive the run of poor results in the final quarter of 2014-15, culminating in the Stoke debacle.

In his final season in 2014-15 Steven Gerrard was Liverpool's top league scorer with 9 goals. This is equal to the lowest ever total by a top scoring Liverpool striker since Liverpool were founded in 1892. Steven joins 2 other top scoring strikers with 9 league goals: Milan Baros in 2004-05 and Jack Cox in 1903-04.

Whoever is in charge next season it is clear that Liverpool must do what they should have done in the summer of 2014 following Suarez' departure - take a risk and invest in a quality striker.

This article was first published on 26th May 2015. It was also published here on lfchistory.net on 3rd June 2015.