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Football News: The Potential Summer Re-shuffle at Liverpool FC

In recent weeks, a resurgent Liverpool team has powered its way up the table and has gone from looking like a mid table finish to being well within a shout of the top 4. This has seen masses of Liverpool FC fans change their stance on Brendan Rodgers who was one of the favourites for the sack following a 3-1 defeat to Crystal Palace in the first half of the season. Rightly or wrongly so, many fans wanted him gone and with good reason. For his third season in a row Rodgers had started with boring, slow, possession based football with no real pace or penetration. He continued to say embarrassing things in his interviews, spent masses of money to bring in academy players from other clubs whilst shipping the likes of Teixeira, Ibe and Wisdom out, and just to rub salt into the wounds, his excessive spending resulted in the club falling foul of the new Financial Fair Play rules which will undoubtedly yield heavy sanctions for the club in the next season. The dire football not only killed off any hopes of a title challenge before the New Year, but it also resulted in the club dropping out of the Champions league and into the much maligned Europa League. A 3-0 loss to Manchester United was rather surprisingly the turning point.

It was in this game that Rodgers decided to finally accept that his beloved tiki-taka was not working. Not only did he reintroduce a higher tempo, pressing system; he also trialled a new formation which at the time seemed almost crazy. Considering the team had been struggling defensively, switching from a back 4 to a back 3 looked suicidal. In fact, it was a stroke of genius. Like the previous season (in which Rodgers reverted to a 4-4-2 diamond with a pressing mentality) Rodgers had sadly waited until January to change things, but better late than never right? This new 3-4-3 was a breath of fresh air and despite the 3-0 score line in Manchester United's favour, Liverpool played by far the better football and created enough chances to win 3 or 4 games. Defensive errors, poor offside decisions and terrible finishing from Sterling and Balotelli conspired against Liverpool and they found themselves on the end of a score line that was completely undeserved. The choice to play Sterling as a false striker seemed to have revitalised Liverpool going forward as he offered the pace and movement that Balotelli and Lambert simply could not.
Since that infamous defeat at Old Trafford, Liverpool have gone on an astonishing run of form, winning 7 games from their last 10 league games and drawing the other 3. In fact, the only game they have lost in that time frame was the away leg of the League Cup tie at Stamford Bridge. Even then though, Chelsea required extra time to do the job. So the question is; does a good second half to the season really give Rodgers an undisputable right to another season at the helm of the club? Despite wasting vast amounts of money, he has still made the exact same mistakes every single season with no sign that he is learning. Quite simply, he cannot be allowed to continue in his current capacity. The owners of Liverpool have already identified this fact though and have since ordered a complete evaluation of the way the club is run both on and off the field, from top to bottom. It is highly likely that this review will reveal that Rodgers simply isn't a good manager. However it will also reveal that he is a very gifted and young head coach. It is well known that the owners of Liverpool favour a move to the more European Director of Football role, with a top coaching team underneath them. The two most successful teams in England right now employ this system; Manchester City and Chelsea. In my opinion, Rodgers deserves to be a part of that coaching team. The only question is whether or not he will swallow his pride and accept the role of Head Coach. Although the media eludes to it that is all the Special One is though. Mourinho for all his plaudits has always worked under a Director of Football. His humility to do so is what makes him such a great head coach though. It gives him time to focus on his game to game tactics and actually coaching the players whilst all of the background work is left to somebody else. If Rodgers has that humility, he too can be great.

The next question is; who would be a suitable candidate for the Director of Football role? The obvious and probably best choice is Cruyff. His work at both Barcelona and Ajax is unrivalled. However he turned down an approach from Liverpool when Fenway Sports Group first took charge of the club (rumoured to be because of his age) so it's hard to see how being three years older is going to make a difference. For me, the best candidate is a lesser known option who will probably sound rather underwhelming; Ramón Rodriguez Verdejo, or as he is more affectionately known as, Monchi. The former Sevilla goalkeeper now finds himself a Director of Football at the same club and it has to be said, the job he is doing on such a constrained budget is beyond impressive. He has found a way to make Sevilla competitive in both domestic and European cup competitions despite operating on a miniscule budget and consistently losing his clubs star players. Monchi is still young at 46 years of age and was born in San Fernando, Spain. He has played a key role in developing the clubs academy and scouting system which has made them not only self sufficient, but also profitable. He is by far and away the best option for Liverpool FC in my opinion and may wish to take a step up from Sevilla whom with all due respect, are simply never going to compete in the league against the powerhouses of Barcelona and Real Madrid.

In terms of who should be the head coach? I personally would like to think that Brendan Rodgers would accept the role and would be very good at it. He does improve players in terms of technical ability and intelligence and he is a very exciting tactician. If he does not accept such a role, then I sadly don't see him being kept on for the next season. Nobody really wants to see him fail. If he doesn't succeed, that means Liverpool doesn't succeed. In my opinion, his biggest problem though is weak fellow coaches.

What would I do regarding the assistant coach role? Is Colin Pascoe really that great? My argument quite simply is no, purely because he doesn't compliment Rodgers and just seems to be a bit of a 'yes man'. I strongly believe he got the job based on familiarity and don't think he is actually very good. Who would I replace him with is very simple in my mind, but it is yet again a relative unknown. I often hear names like Pulis, Clarke and Hyypia bandied around but they have all got the taste for being head coaches or even managers now. There is simply no way they would undermine their own skills and accept a job as Rodgers assistant. It's clear everyone wants an assistant coach who can make a team defensively solid. That is why Carragher is often brought up in the discussion. What experience does he have though? You simply cannot assume that just because he was a good defender that he will be a good coach. It is a complete no go for me and yet again, an example of sentimentality ruling the heads of the fans. My choice would in fact be Juan Vizcaíno Morcillo. Vizcaíno is a 48 year old former defensive midfielder who is now one of the main coaches at Atlético Madrid; coincidentally the team he had his best spell as a player with. He has played a large role in the defensive solidarity of Atlético in recent years and it was their mean and disciplined defence that against all odds snatched the title away from the Spanish powerhouses. Vizcaíno is yet another young Spaniard with a proven pedigree in the game and in coaching. His defensive prowess coupled with the free flowing style of play that Rodgers will hopefully stick to this time, and the passion Mike Marsh has for Liverpool would compliment each other very well and make Liverpool a force to be reckoned with. Technically third in the Atlético coaching hierarchy, Vizcaíno might fancy himself to make the step up from third coach to a full assistant coach in another country. It doesn't hurt to enquire.

The last change I would make to the coaching staff is one that I think everybody can agree on; replace John Achterberg. He has a proven track record of miraculously managing to stunt the development of every goal keeper he has ever coached, as well as damage their performances with his outdated and average coaching techniques. I'm sure he is an incredibly nice man and would thank him for his efforts and time with the club, but he is simply not good enough. The man I would replace him with knows the club very well. Vicent Xavier Valero Verchili is a 41 year old goal keeper coach who was credited by both Reina and Torres as the biggest influence on their Anfield careers. Torres claimed that Xavi Valero could instruct the Liverpool players on how to beat opposition keepers in one-on-one situations by judging their body shape/position. During Valero's time at Anfield, Reina was widely regarded as one of the best keepers in the world. For me, bringing Valero back is a no brainer. Whether he would leave Rafa Benitez's Napoli is up for debate, but if you don't ask you don't get.

These changes would leave of us with a core staff set up of Monchi as the Director of Football, Brendan Rodgers as the Head coach, Juan Vizcaíno and Mike Marsh as the Assistant coaches, and Xavi Valero as the Goalkeeper coach. By sheer coincidence, all of my recommended replacements are Spanish. This would not be an issue though as Rodgers can speak fluent Spanish and the club still has a lot of Spanish staff lingering around from the Rafa era. This set of staff would compliment each other in my opinion and utilise each person to their strengths. Leaving a Director of Football to do all the leg work will allow Rodgers to focus on what he does best; coach his players. This article is of course purely speculative and more of a "what I would do" than a "what will happen", but either way it is very likely that this is the kind of set up we will see at the start of next season. Hopefully Rodgers is willing to be a part of it.

Written by Adam Jones February 24 2015 14:57:58