Brendan Rodgers: Too much of a nice guy?

After a mediocre start to the season, Brendan Rodgers was sacked from his position of manager of Liverpool last Sunday, with his former side lying in 10th position in the Premier League.
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Of course, Rodgers’ side almost made history in 2013/14 by coming close to winning the club’s 1st ever Premier League title, but there is one problem that I’ve found with Rodgers; his crisis management.

He seems to be a great manager when the going is good. He implements a fascinating style of football and he delivers results. However, when his sides go into a downward spiral, he can’t seem to dig them out of it.

Since that 2013/14 season, Liverpool have got nowhere near the form that they displayed, partly down to the departure of Luis Suarez and partly because of Brendan Rodgers’ failure to adapt to his departure. He may not have suffered a down-swing with Swansea, but with Reading, he started well, but a string of bad results saw his resignation just six months into his job.

So why does Rodgers seem to fail when the going gets tough?

For me, it’s because Rodgers is too much of a nice guy to assert his authority.

There are so many examples of this. Take Liverpool’s infamous ‘transfer committee’ for instance. It was clear to everyone that the committee was not an effective idea, but Rodgers did not assert his authority enough to convince the club’s American owners that it was not a good idea.

Ultimately, I have a huge amount of respect for Brendan Rodgers, but for me, he is too much of a nice guy to succeed at the top level of football management.

The good guys may succeed in Hollywood movies, but this is football management we are talking about, and the good guys never prosper.

There is always a ruthless streak in managers at the top level. Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho, even Pep Guardiola has it.

And that is a major problem with Rodgers. He’s always taken the ‘softly softly’ approach.

That may work with an Under 14s side, but in the Premier League with one of the biggest clubs in the world?

Now it’s down to Jurgen Klopp to take Liverpool to the next level. With the respect he garners and the names he can attract to the club, he should be able to mould Liverpool into contenders once again.