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Footballing Intelligence and Rodgers transfers

Now that we are no longer looking into the abyss, I thought it was time to try and change the narrative around Rodgers and what a Rodgers player looks like.

Much has been said about our transfers under Rodgers and who exactly picks our players and why oh why did we spend so much money on Lovren. But if you take a step back and look at all the players we have purchased since Rodgers came in, things don't really look as bleak.

For the purpose of this piece, I have decided to not look at the loans in or Assaidi because the loans were sheer desperation moves and Assaidi was bought before Rodgers had even got his feet under the desk.

So that first transfer window was atrocious, right? We brought in Allen and Borini, loaned out Carroll and failed miserably when trying to bring in a replacement. The fees paid for both were also on the high side but at the time I really don't remember many people being overly concerned by the prices paid. They may have been a few million more than we all would have liked, but what is apparent is the fact that even given Borini's lack of impact in our first team, he's still at the very least if sold a break even transaction on our books.

Allen on the other hand more than likely will still generate a profit if we were inclined to sell him, which I do not think we are.

Then there was the January window and we bought in Sturridge and Coutinho for an absolute steal. Both players are likely to be worth at least twice as much as we paid for them and they are clearly both resounding successes.

We then went and bought Kolo, Aspas, Alberto, Illori, Sakho and Mignolet with Moses and Cissokho on loan and to make matters worse we then proceeded to galvanise our squad in the January window by purchasing nothing.

Which brings us to this summers transfers. Can, Manquilla, Moreno, Markovich, Lallana, Lambert, Lovren and Balotelli.

Looking at that list of players what is apparent is the fact that Balotelli and Lovren at this stage have done very little to justify their purchases. It is still early days and so completely writing both of them off would be a tad harsh but I think we can all agree that they have not set the world alight since their purchase.

The others in that lot though have been at the very least really good purchases that have added to areas of need.

You can see a strategy in there, if you look hard enough and it screams out, young talent bursting at the seams just waiting to be unleashed.

Coutinho, Sturridge, Can, Lallana, Moreno, Manquilla, Sakho and Markovich all look like genuinely great buys that will improve over time and yet are still good enough to improve our first 11 in the here and now.

Now just think about that for a second, that's 8 players in the here and now that can either do a better job in our first 11 than the players they replaced or at the very least are really solid backups that will push the starters in their way.

If you take out Kolo and Lambert from the equation who were brought in as inexpensive back ups mainly to be used in Cup runs and in break glass in case of emergency scenarios, what you begin to see is evidence of an actual strategy.

Mignolet was when we signed him absolutely crucial to our success last season and although this season his flaws have begun to show, if he ends up as our back up keeper, which increasingly looks likely, he too ends up being an absolute upgrade on our current back up.

Allen and Borini are both still with the squad and Allen has shown that he is able to work incredibly well in a CM role and is therefore as far as I'm concerned a successful buy that may not always be in the first 11, but as a backup to the likes of Henderson and Lucas is more than serviceable.

Borini unfortunately for us and him, just does not have the killer instinct required to be a top notch striker, which is just infuriating because what he does incredibly well if he could finish would be exactly what Liverpool needs in the absence of Sturridge.

The failures therefore ends up being a pretty short list that includes Lovren and Balotelli who really haven't been at the club long enough to be deemed absolute failures and then you have Aspas, Alberto and Ilori.

Now Ilori was never brought in to be an instant success and has not spent any time at the club so I won't even entertain the thought of him being labelled a failure.

Aspas and Alberto along with Borini are probably not going to stick around and even if we were to lose a few million pounds offloading them, they should not have a dramatic impact on our finances.

So we are down to 5 players that just have not been good enough for us and in 3 of the 5 cases they were brought in as squad fillers with massive upside if things worked well and not much downside of they didn't.

Which seems crazy right? Because we have all seen how crazy certain fans get when discussing our incoming transfers and the lack of strategy and the BURN IT ALL DOWN WE ARE SHITE mob.

But what do the successes tell us about Rodgers and what a Rodgers player looks like? Well in two words it's footballing intelligence.

All our successes have an uncanny ability to do well in various positions, they are able to work under a barrage of different formations and they are all young enough to make the next decade an absolute blessing.

When you then look at the likes of Sterling and Henderson with Lucas as well, you are beginning to see exactly what a Rodgers footballer looks like and it all points to Liverpool becoming the most intelligent footballing squad in England and possibly eventually in all of world football.

Just take a moment to think about that.

If we were to add a striker and a goalkeeper with the same intelligence as the rest of the first team, there really won't be any cause for concern for Liverpool in the foreseeable future. Fingers crossed that's what our January window looks like, which then means in the summer we only need to add a few proper Rodgers additions to fill out the squad and we are primed to go on another massive run next season.

Is this too optimistic? It very well may be, but if you look at what we are doing and just decide to focus on the positives things really can be that upbeat.

Now to flip this whole thing on its head how many players have we sold that we actually wanted to keep at the club?

Once again that's a massively short list which includes Suarez and Agger with Suso. Now obviously Gerrard also features on that list, but that's an entirely different conversation.

Suarez as well we obviously did not want to sell but when Barcelona came calling, I think we all knew that he was bound to leave. Agger hurts, but what's clear is the fact that he just did not believe he was going to be useful to the club and wanted to move back home. While Suso is just baffling, because when you look at players that should have been able to work under Rodgers, Suso surely seems like a perfect fit.

Did I manage to change your perception? I really hope so, because as long as we finish top 4 this season we are really primed for a massive decade.



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