It is as if time itself is enjoying a joke at Liverpool’s expense. As the debris was being cleared on the club’s worst defeat in 52 years, the tenth anniversary of the club’s Champions League ‘miracle’ in Istanbul was celebrated.
Brendan Rodgers may be inclined to nick an image from that night as he assesses his own situation. At full-time on Sunday, he must have felt like he was 3-0 down at half time to a side including Pirlo, Kaka, Maldini and Shevchenko.
Just like that momentous evening in the Ataturk, Rodgers must also believe a comeback is possible.
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It was another day of introspection at Anfield – they seem to average one a week in modern times – but Liverpool remain adamant the upcoming internal review into the events of this season will not focus on Rodgers’ position.
“Not on the agenda,” is the official line on it.
Something may be about to change at the club – it really has to – but according to the club, not the manager, not the recruitment staff and not with the introduction of a director of football. One wonders what exactly the review will entail. The seating arrangements and ticket prices for next year’s club end-of-season awards, perhaps?
Steven Gerrard and Rafa Benitez lift the European Cup in 2005
There will be a degree of incredulity at the suggestion the status quo remains intact from those who witnessed the first-half humiliation in the Britannia Stadium. The cynical view is this is pure story management – an attempt to steer the focus away from any pre-determined desire to dismiss Rodgers.
He may be safe going into his assessment of the season, but will the sirens go off during the course of the conversation and the ground shift as he leaves the room?
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That said, given Rodgers has already had a preliminary chat and his working relationship with Fenway Sports Group President Michael Gordon is strong, his “150 per cent” sureness can be understood.
If his conviction proves justified, attention will turn swiftly to Fenway Sports Group and Gordon himself. Without the hint of any inaugural address, he slipped into the FSG presidency at the start of the season. We must stop seeing John W Henry as the all-consuming influence on Anfield affairs. So long as Rodgers has the trust of Gordon, he is safe.
Brendan Rodgers faces a crunch meeting with FSG's representative
There is one caveat, however. Rodgers must still be aligned to the club’s ‘model’.
Herein lies the crux of the issue. It is all about ‘the model’ at Anfield, with the employees signing up to it. It is referred to so often one often wonders if Anfield has been ambushed by an offspring of the church of scientology, or if staff gather to worship before it like the black monolith in “2001: A Space Odyssey”.
There are numerous elements to ‘the model’, but the main one is about "being smart". "Smartness" defines everything, particularly in recruitment. Upon buying Liverpool five years ago it was suggested to John Henry that rather than spending £40 million on well-established, proven world-class international footballers, it might be wiser to find these players before they become world-class. That is when they are cheaper.
It is not known whether anyone shouted "Eureka!" when this idea was proposed. Certainly no one seems to have piped up that everyone else had been trying to do the same thing, with varying degrees of success, since the first transfer fee was dispatched by carrier pigeon. Nor has anyone pointed out that, in all probability, all the best young players are already owned by Chelsea and have been turfed out on loan across Europe.
More worryingly, it does not seem to have occurred to anyone that if you have £115 million to spend and opt to target younger, cheaper players instead of expensive world-class ones, you are electing to operate in the same transfer zone as mid-table rather than elite clubs. The risk of becoming a mid-table team is just as likely as that of plucking the bargain gems that escaped the attention of the established Champions League clubs. Liverpool’s performance at Stoke suggested that this team is heading only one way unless they sign five top-class players.
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It rather feels like Liverpool have become a multi-million pound laboratory experiment, big on theory but light on success. Liverpool fans want ready-made winners. FSG want to create them.
That is why those casually dropping the names of Jürgen Klopp and Carlo Ancelotti into chatroom and social-media conversations are demanding FSG abandon everything they have been doing for the last five years.
The 2015-16 Premier League season starts in
The last three Liverpool managerial appointments came from Fulham (before FSG took over), the legends’ lounge and Swansea City.
If Rodgers does not mount the greatest Liverpool comeback since Turkey in 2005, the repercussions for his career will be grave. But regardless of what happens to him, it is Liverpool and their owners who must prove their way will revive the status of the club, or ensure that only the reminders of former glories are left for supporters to cling on to.
Liverpool are adamant that Sunday's horrific defeat to Stoke will not impact on Brendan Rodgers' future as he prepares for talks on how to revive the club next season.
Anfield officials have indicated Rodgers' position is unchanged regardless of the severity of after a 6-1 defeat on the final day of the Premier League campaign. The Liverpool manager suggested he would leave if the club's American owners, Fenway Sports Group, have lost faith in him, but privately it is evident Rodgers does not think that is the case.
Although he still faces a critical meeting with FSG President Mike Gordon, the suggestion from within the club is the manager's position will not be on the agenda in those talks.
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It now remains to be seen how those conversations go to establish how Rodgers can fix what has gone so horribly wrong since last August. He will still have plenty of explaining to do for finishing in a poor sixth and having missed all the pre-season targets.
Rodgers has already held preliminary conversations with Gordon in the last seven days, although that was prior to the debacle at the Britannia Stadium. The Northern Irishman felt emboldened enough to state he was "150 per cent" sure he would remain in charge before the weekend.
Such was the ineptitude of the display in Stoke, however, he accepted after the game that his position would be questioned.
Liverpool's principal owner John W Henry has effectively deferred all the major strategic decisions at Anfield to Gordon over recent years. The strong working relationship Rodgers enjoys with Gordon will give him the confidence he will have the opportunity to correct the errors of the last eight months.
Liverpool accept something must change at the club ahead of next season – precisely what will be established in what is being described as a "thorough and robust" review. It would seem, however, plenty has already been pre-determined. They need new players and have already started the recruitment process, with Rodgers central to those discussions.
Burnley's Danny Ings is expected to bolster Liverpool's attack
Danny Ings and James Milner should be the first new arrivals, both seeing out their contracts at Burnley and Manchester City respectively.
Despite suggestions that a director of football will be appointed, the club is also ruling that out – as they are major changes to the much-criticised transfer committee. That means the only visible alterations of note could be to Rodgers' backroom team, which in essence would be cosmetic.
There is no doubt there remains a degree of sympathy for Rodgers for the problems he has encountered this season, but equally the speed with which performances have deteriorated since a home defeat by Manchester United in March have put him in an extremely vulnerable position as he seeks more time.
The 2015-16 Premier League season starts in
If he needs to retain the trust of the club's owners, it is a case a regaining it from the supporters, especially those who witnessed the first-half capitulation on Sunday. It was Liverpool's worst defeat since a 7-2 loss to Spurs in 1963, but it was the timing of it – the culmination of a miserable series of results and performances – that has corroded faith in the current Anfield set-up.
Rodgers has plenty of mitigating factors at his disposal. He has alluded to the loss of Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge throughout the campaign, and recently spoke about the "distractions" he has had to contend with.
This was a reference to the ongoing saga surrounding Raheem Sterling's contract. Rodgers has also had to deal with the imminent departure of Steven Gerrard – although that was ultimately presented as a mutual decision after Liverpool delayed attempts to keep their captain – while the introduction and assimilation of so many new signings last summer has had a detrimental impact on performances. Rodgers shares the responsibility for those deals with other members of the recruitment team.
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Where opinion will be divided is whether Rodgers has managed to get the best out of those at his disposal, regardless of the loss of his strikers.
Liverpool defeated the recently deposed champions Manchester City by playing an exciting brand of football, but the same group of players saw their FA Cup run end having been outplayed against Aston Villa, a side fighting against relegation.
Gerrard signed off at Liverpool with a heavy defeat
They also took just one point from a possible 12 against Hull City, Crystal Palace, West Bromwich Albion and Stoke City. Had they won those games they would have finished fourth. Even QPR were only beaten by a last-minute winner from Steven Gerrard. Liverpool's end of season form was more akin to the days prior to Rodgers' appointment at the end of Kenny Dalglish's second period in charge, with many referencing the worst performances under Roy Hodgson.
It remains to be seen whether Liverpool's steadfast defence of Rodgers extends beyond his meeting with Gordon. He suggested last week that this meeting was no different to any yearly appraisal. That is clearly not the case, given such conversations are far more desirable when you have just finished second – coming as close as any manager in 25 years to winning the title – than when you have come sixth with a team that has just delivered the club's worst result in 52 years.
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