Liverpool manager goes three years without trophy
LONDON — While rarely short on bravado or self-confidence these days, Brendan Rodgers did betray a sense of trepidation when taking the Liverpool job.
“It’s the start of a long, hard journey for us,” Rodgers said in a rare televised dressing room team talk before his first game in charge in 2012. “If it was easy it wouldn’t be worth doing ... you can only trust yourselves.”
How much longer, though, will Liverpool’s owners trust Rodgers with the job that turned Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley into such managerial titans in the last century? He seems safe for now, but not since the 1950s has a Liverpool manager — Shankly’s predecessor Phil Taylor — failed to win a trophy in his first three seasons.
Even Kenny Dalglish won a trophy — the League Cup — during a stopgap forlorn 16-month second spell in charge before making way for Rodgers in 2012. Dalglish will always be revered at Anfield for collecting titles as a player and then the coach, including Liverpool’s last topflight title in 1990. But the 42-yearold Rodgers, who joined after winning admiration at Swansea, is still waiting for his first trophy in management.
Rodgers came close to ending Liverpool’s long wait for the Premier League title last May, but a late-season collapse allowed Manchester City to seize the trophy and it’s been downhill since then.
A 2-1 collapse to Aston Villa in the FA Cup semifinals on Sunday ended Rodgers’ last track to a trophy this season. In the glare of a capacity Wembley Stadium and global television audience, it was a day that encapsulated Liverpool’s season on the slide and the lack of significant progress in the five years since the Boston Red Sox ownership group rescued the club from financial collapse.
Outwitted by younger and less experienced Villa counterpart Tim Sherwood, Rodgers seemed to be constantly changing formations against a team which in the Premier League is embroiled in a relegation scrap.
Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard, once the heartbeat of the team, returned from a three-match suspension but seemed as absent as in recent weeks as he struggled to impose himself against the more dynamic Villa players. The botched handling of Gerrard’s future has been another misstep by Rodgers and the hierarchy this year. The 34-year-old midfielder will end his lifelong association with Liverpool in May and join the Los Angeles Galaxy.
The arrival at halftime at Wembley of Mario Balotelli provided a reminder of the worst decision of the Rodgers era. The enigmatic Italy striker was signed to replace prolific scorer Luis Suarez in a panic purchase at the end of the summer transfer window. Balotelli has been nothing but trouble for Rodgers, who seemed relieved recently that the languid player ruled himself out of matches.
With a solitary Premier League goal to his name, Liverpool will struggle to recoup the $24-million US transfer fee. Balotelli was the latest underwhelming signing of the Rodgers era which has seen more than $300 million spent on players.
And the revenue coming into Liverpool will drop next season, with a return to the Champions League looking less likely as the top four in the league drift further away.