Rodger's plan of a 'one-club' mentality

[King Binny]

THE start of the new season may still be more than seven weeks away, but for Brendan Rodgers the hours are already beginning to pile up.

Technically, Rodgers has spent his first fortnight as Liverpool manager on holiday with his family in Spain. Quite how much they have seen of him, though, is another matter.

The weather may have been much brighter than on Merseyside this week, but the Ulsterman’s break was largely spent making phonecalls, reading reports and watching DVDs of players. Relaxation is a luxury most top-level football managers can ill-afford, even in the close-season.

“It has certainly been busy,” smiled the new Reds boss upon his return to the UK. “Obviously after my press conference I had a planned holiday. But since I’ve been back (to Merseyside) it has been great.

“It has been wonderful meeting up with the staff and the people involved with the club. I’m just getting a feel for things at the moment, but it has been great.”

Rodgers intends to move his wife and two children to Merseyside next week, and plans to “throw himself” into the local community. He is currently combining the task of house-hunting with the demands of plotting his Liverpool masterplan.

That masterplan is, slowly but surely, taking shape. Having brought with him three influential members of his Swansea City backroom staff (deals for Colin Pascoe, Glen Driscoll and Chris Davies should be confirmed soon) Rodgers has this week overseen a significant restructuring of the club’s scouting setup.

Liverpool are expected to announce the arrival of Dave Fallows from Manchester City imminently. Fallows is likely to be appointed as Head of Recruitment at Anfield, bringing with him at least two of his City scouting team.

“The template I will put down will be about organisation, on and off the field,” explains Rodgers. “What we are trying to do is organise the club so there is a ‘one-club’ mentality and one shared vision going forwards.

“It’s a challenge, but that is why I came. The size of the club doesn’t daunt me. This is one of the biggest clubs in the world, but I feel comfortable and at ease here.

“I’ve been afforded an incredible welcome by the staff and the people of Liverpool. But I understand it’s a new cycle beginning and there is a hell of a lot of work to do.

“That is the reality of it. It is a process, and you have to put your head down and work hard.

“This is an iconic club, renowned worldwide, with supporters who are renowned worldwide. Hopefully, over time, with our actions on the pitch and our dedication off it, we can make them proud of their club.”

Rodgers has managed to find time to catch “a fair bit” of Euro 2012 over the past week, but admits Liverpool’s vast network of scouts are keeping him informed on the bits he has missed.

Adding to, and improving upon, a squad which finished last season 8th in the Premier League is high on his list of priorities.

But while the rumour mill goes into overdrive, linking Liverpool with every player to have ever laced up a pair of boots, Rodgers insists the club will keep their cards close to their chest this summer.

“I like to very much keep my counsel on potential targets,” he says. “The problem with a club like Liverpool is they get linked with every player going. It looks like, with every player linked plus the players we’ve already got, we’re going to have five or six teams next year!

“That’s the way of the world these days. Every player wants to play for Liverpool. The magnitude, the size and the history of the club, and the quality of the people here in the city, means people will want to come and play here.

“The problem is, everyone can’t.

“I think there are a few players who can come in and improve the group straight away.

“I know the types of player I need to bring here to make us function well and that’s something myself, the club and the board will look at.

“I know what we’ve got, more or less, in the squad, but I also know there are a couple of signings that could really improve what we do.

“That’s something we’ll work together on over the course of the summer and hopefully we can get one or two in.”

One player who has been persistently linked is Hoffenheim midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson. Rodgers is close to the Iceland international, having worked with him at Reading and during a loan spell with Swansea last season, and admits he would like to speak to the Hoffenheim man, should an opportunity arise.

“First and foremost, Gylfi is a Hoffenheim player,” he added.

“I took him on loan for the second half of last season and he did very, very well. He scored seven goals and made a real, positive contribution.

“I wanted to sign him for Swansea but, like I’ve said to him and his representatives, that has to be his first port of call.

“If he comes onto the market for whatever reason – and I’m sure there’ll be a number of clubs interested in Gylfi - then of course I would like to be in a position to put our case here at Liverpool to sign him.

“But I’ve always said, I think he’s a player Swansea have had an agreement with and they have to have every chance to try and sign him. That’s only right.

“If anything changes from that, we’ll look at it from there.”

Another player facing an uncertain future this summer is Joe Cole.

The former England international spent last season on loan with French side Lille, but is due to return to Melwood for pre-season training next month, and is eager to re-start his Reds career.

Rodgers met with the 30-year-old during his Spanish vacation, and knows Cole well from his days coaching at Chelsea. He insists that everybody will be given a chance to impress in pre-season.

“I certainly know he’s looking to come back,” he added. “But I’ve got to assess all the players.

“With the likes of Joe – he’s a very talented player. He’s obviously gone out to Lille and done very well and he has the opportunity to come back here and show his qualities.

“For me it’s fresh for everyone. Of course I know lots of the players and their qualities but Joe is obviously a player who’ll want to come back and show his worth to the group.

“There are a lot of players I’m aware of and they wouldn’t be at Liverpool if they didn’t have the qualities.

“I suppose going forward and over the course of pre-season I just need to decide the types of players who are going to fit into the function and the philosophy and the structure of the team.

“When a new manager comes into any club, it always sparks off that renewed motivation for players.

“The cycle with Kenny (Dalglish) was a terrific cycle but I’m a different tactician and a different type of person and that will give all the players an opportunity to perform.”

 

[Vlads Quiff]

Yes, I like this sort of talk..............

The magnitude, the size and the history of the club, and the quality of the people here in the city, means people will want to come and play here.

The problem is, everyone can’t."

 

[Hansern]

I love Brendan Rodgers, cant wait for the new season!

 

[LeTallecWiz]

He says all the right things ...

 

[Athens]

He says all the right things ...

It's because he's Irish, he has the gift of the gab...

 

[kingjulian]

One club mentality....this kind of management talks bores and scares me in equal measure.

 

[Cerberus]

Why does it scare you?

 

[localny]

I thought we were already one club?

 

[King Binny]

“The template I will put down will be about organisation, on and off the field,” explains Rodgers. “What we are trying to do is organise the club so there is a ‘one-club’ mentality and one shared vision going forwards.

Slightly similar, from Rafa in his latest column:

There are many changes required in the way this country develops its young players. To make them more competitive, England above all need the clubs to decide on the style of football they want to play, from academy right through to first team. They must then coach the coaches in that style and then coach the players.

For me, there is a very big weakness in the system when the players reach 18. At that age, a player in England who is not quite at the required level to play in the Premier League has to go off on loan to a League One or Two team, where it is very difficult for him to develop the basic skills in the way he would at his club. The style and standard of coaching will probably just not be the same.

Those players who are of a slightly better standard but still not quite good enough to play in the Premier League will end up sitting on the first-team bench, and could be stuck there for years. Take Scott Carson, for example. He was the best player at Leeds United and then joined us at Liverpool, but he hardly played a game for three years.

When I arrived at Liverpool, this problem struck me and I said that our reserve team should play in the Football League pyramid. I wanted to use the experience of my years as a player and manager of the Real Madrid reserve team, which played in the Spanish second division. Joining the pyramid was important, but nobody wanted to hear or listen and I was told that I was going against an English tradition by suggesting this. I think people can see the problem a little clearer now.

If we assume the English reserve teams will not be allowed to compete in the pyramid, the only way to create matches for these young players is by making the Reserve League a proper Under-21 national competition, which allows teams to select a limited number of first-team players to help them recover from injury or keep match-fit. I know the Premier League is working on this for next season. It must be a competitive Under-21 league in spirit.

But it is the introduction of the same style of play throughout a club – and seriously investing in the coaching system to make that happen – which underpins the creation of more technically equipped players, and it was in the final year at Liverpool that we linked the academy and club more closely to make that possible.

There are plenty of myths about this idea of one style of football running throughout the club. For example, just because Barcelona have become such a successful club, everybody now talks about wanting to play "like Barcelona". But we were talking about having a consistent style throughout the club at Real Madrid over 15 years ago. How can you play "the Barcelona way" if you don't have Xavi, Iniesta and Messi?

It is more realistic to decide on a system; deciding, for instance, that you want to play the ball on the floor, not in the air, and then you need to create a philosophy at your club where everyone has the same one. You stick to it, no matter who is manager, and you appoint a manager with that vision. (If it's a non-football person who decides on the vision, it could be a problem.)

At Liverpool, we created this link between the academy and the first team by appointing Pep Segura, who had been at Barcelona, as the academy's technical director, with Rodolfo Borrell as Under-18s coach. We agreed which systems we would use and which style. In England, the individuals who are asked to coach the coaches and help spread the playing philosophy are very, very important. You can't just work with computers and databases of young footballers.

I have also been advocating for several years that clubs should be allowed to recruit young players from anywhere and that change, now allowed for in the Premier League EPPP document, cannot come soon enough. At Real Madrid, we trialled hundreds of boys a year from Madrid and all over Spain. If the best cannot work with the best, they will not progress.

I don't think England should be too worried about the number of overseas players in the Premier League. The country's young footballers can learn from those players, their different styles and ideas. And I don't think that the 4-4-2 system which Roy Hodgson used at the European Championship will prevent technically talented players being put to best use for the national side. The 4-4-2 style can become 4-2-3-1 when a team attacks. It's the football philosophy that counts, not the system.

It is a question of what you want to do when you are in possession and what you want to do when you are not in possession. It is about people having more ambition, more confidence in their game to try things out and to get into the box. The improvement in basic technical skill that we are talking about and the confidence in a philosophy which is instilled into players will solve the problems. I have been saying this for a number of years but it is very hard to be heard sometimes!

England have to look forward. Finding top players is not the problem. The potential is out there, all around. It is how to develop it which people should be talking about.