I Just Blue Myself wrote:“I know how it goes,” Rodgers said. “Six or seven months ago I was the manager of the year and I was going to be this and that, tactically this and tactically that, and now, because we have lost two world-class players, I am useless. But I accept that. I must have just dreamt that about Liverpool playing 3-4-3 in the last game [the Capital One Cup victory at Bournemouth]. What do people think that was, a bit of luck? A British coach playing 3-4-3? A foreign coach doing that would be a tactical genius. I imagine people think I fell into that system through a stroke of luck or something.“
What an insufferable gobshite.
Nice little dig in the Guardian for the pre-match buildup and sums up what most people think about him:
All hail The Great Brendinho! Seriously, all hail him. Now. This is not a test. He really wants us to hail him and things could get testy if we don’t. Look: “The other night it was a British coach playing 3-4-3 so he has probably thrown the team together,” The Great Brendinho spake. “‘He has played seven midfielders?’ If it was a foreign coach it would probably have been seen as a wonderful tactical idea of playing the game. ‘Sterling playing through the middle – what is he doing? [Lazar] Markovic out wide?’ But that is the key for us – trying to get the players in position who can make us effective.”
Aren’t humans needy? This, remember, was The Great Brendinho speaking after a spectacular 3-1 dismantling of Bournemouth in the Capital One Cup, so just imagine how much praise he’d be showering himself with if he’d come up with this masterplan for a game of genuine significance, a Champions League final, say, or maybe a title-deciding game against, ooohhhh, I don’t know, Chelsea at home. Lest we forget, the use of the same formation three days earlier against Manchester United saw Liverpool depart Old Trafford with their tails between their legs after a 3-0 defeat, so perhaps Rodgers shouldn’t get too carried away. After all, there’s every chance Arsenal are going to ram Rodgers’s trumpet down his throat while he’s blowing on it. And then he’d choke on it.