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Brendan Rodgers' blueprint for successful transfers
Ramsin Tammo
Roar Rookie
10th June, 2014
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Brendan Rodgers has moved to Celtic.
Ramsin Tammo
Roar Rookie
10th June, 2014
1

In his second year in charge of Liverpool, Brendan Rodgers brought the Merseysiders forward in leaps and bounds.

After a sketchy first year, the confidence and consistency exuded by the Reds in the 2013-14 season produced devastating results, resulting in an unexpected second-place finish.

A large portion of this success can be attributed to Rodgers’ management methods.

Managers will always be judged by what they can get out of their current squad and the quality and success of their signings. While one of the loudest appraisals of Rodgers is how he manages to bring out the best in players and adapt them to an ever-changing system that ultimately brings winning football, his transfer dealings have been hit and miss.

However the positive thing for Liverpool is his hits have made a much more positive impact than his misses have negative.

Rodgers’ transfer dealings since taking the top job can be summarised as highly efficient on one hand, questionably wasteful on the other. His big transfer successes have been those he managed to pick up as ‘bargains’.

Daniel Sturridge was a Chelsea discard. Came across relatively cheap for a young English player, at just over £10 million, and he hit the ground running to become the most devastating English striker going around.

His performances this year have been outstanding, some of his goals out of this world, and his goals at the start of the season in place of the suspended Luis Suarez led Liverpool to being title chasers at the end of the season.

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Not only a spectacular goal scorer, but a consistent one, and one of the most in-form strikers in the world.

Philippe Coutinho was another discarded player, this time from Inter Milan, and so picked up on the cheap. Since signing for Liverpool he has shown the form that saw him starting for his previous Italian giants employer on a regular basis as a teenager.

A perfect fit into Rodgers system of interchanging attacking players, this was an astute purchase by Rodgers.

Kolo Toure was less heralded but just as effective. A free signing from Manchester City at the start of the 2013-14 season, Toure was meant to play back up for most of the season. His time came early, standing in for the injured Daniel Agger at the start of the season, a period which set the foundation for Liverpool’s title charge. And he was magnificent, playing like he was in his prime.

His form dropped slightly as the season drew on, however he remains a valuable back up and solid, experienced defender when called upon – and resident referee intimidator, as seen by his freight-train like charge on Phil Dowd in the game at Craven Cottage.

All of these players were unwanted by their former clubs, hungry to prove something, signed at relatively low cost, and thus low risk. But plenty of credit must go to Rodgers for making them feel wanted, building their confidence and turning them into vital cogs of a Premiership-leading team.

On the flip side, it is the big money signings where Rodgers has not experienced much success. Granted they were his first signings, but Joe Allen and Fabio Borini did not initially have the impact that was expected.

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Allen is showing his value nowadays as a squad player, while Borini had a breakout season on loan at Sunderland. However they can be seen as wasteful signings in that Liverpool overpaid for these players.

Having said that, a Borini return will be very useful next year for a Liverpool team fighting on the European front, as he will be the ideal backup for the SAS during the long season, while Allen is looking more like himself after the expectations brought on by his price tag died down.

Even though Rodgers may be criticised for these signings, it is his willingness to learn, adapt and make the big decisions which has made him so successful – he sent out Borini on loan, and benched Allen for a lot of the season. This trait is also evident in his general management of Liverpool, where he has constantly changed formation, styles and system, which was so successful for him at Swansea. He recognised success would be attained via another method with the ingredients he had on hand at Liverpool.

Not all of his big money disappointments have found a place yet, in particular Iago Aspas, however you can be sure Rodgers has the quality within him to make the right decision on such a player’s future.

He has also transformed Jordan Henderson and Raheem Sterling into vital clogs and World Cup-bound stars. It is clear this is one of Rodgers’ best qualities.

With this track record of debatable big money signings, it’s perhaps a good thing deals for Wiilian, Mohamed Salah, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Clint Dempsey and Yevhen Konoplyanka did not materialise.

This season’s transfer window is about to crack open, and we can expect to see a lot of overinflated prices quoted after the World Cup. Rodgers has already secured two interesting signings in Rickie Lambert and Emre Can. Based on his past transfer dealings, there is reason for optimism for these two, given they were secured in a smart, quiet manner.

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But with European action back at Liverpool, along with a rumoured significant war chest, we will likely see a lot more big names associated with Liverpool – and Rodgers’ progress will be closely monitored as he tries to find the right ingredients to ensure Liverpool stay fighting for the big titles.

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