Anfield Time Running Out For Rodgers As Klopp is Ticking

Could Brendan Rodgers’ time at Anfield be up?

Under-fire Liverpool Football Club manager Brendan Rodgers is feeling the pressure after a stuttering start to Liverpool’s 2015/16 campaign. After a seemingly good start to the season claiming 7 points from a possible 9, the cracks began to show after a dismal home display as they lost 3-0 to West Ham at Anfield. Since then the Reds have lost out 3-1 to Manchester United at Old Trafford, claimed a 1-1 draw away to Bordeaux and settled for an unconvincing 1-1 draw at home to Norwich. With the Anfield faithful losing their trust in Rodgers week in and out, the Northern Irishman’s time on Merseyside could very well be up.

Rodgers is currently in his fourth season in the Anfield hot seat and has spent an excess of over £200m to build his own squad after the sales of star players such as Luis Suarez (to Barcelona) and Raheem Sterling (to Manchester City). He recently described this season to be a ‘process of rebuilding’ however after four seasons in charge of one of the world’s biggest football clubs and England’s most successful club one would think that Rodgers would and should be challenging for silverware on all fronts. The key target for Liverpool Football Club is getting back into the UEFA Champions League and featuring in Europe’s most elite football competition consistently. In Rodgers’ time in charge of Liverpool, he’s only delivered on that target once in which they were knocked out in the group stage of the competition.

The demands and expectations at Liverpool Football Club are very high with a large fan base worldwide. At first the supporters were patient with Rodgers’ approach considering the fact that he needed to find his feet at a new, bigger club with his only other managerial experience coming from clubs like Reading and Swansea with all due respect. He inherited a squad that did not fit his philosophy and style while having a major squad overhaul during his time. In his first season, his Liverpool side ended in a modest 7^th position, with many promising signs of improvement. In his second season he pushed Liverpool to what would have been their first league trophy in over 23 years but fell just short of the mark, losing out to Manchester City in the final weeks. His Liverpool side were a force to be reckoned with dispatching a team like Arsenal 5-1 by scoring the four inside the first 20 minutes. In the summer after the 2014 FIFA World Cup the club sold their best player in Luis Suarez for a hefty fee of £75m to Barcelona and Rodgers made the decision to build up his squad instead of finding a suitable replacement for the talismanic Uruguayan striker.

That move proved costly as Liverpool struggled for goals in the 2014/15 campaign, looking like a shell of the side that scored over 100 goals in the Barclays Premier League the season before. That campaign started off with a lot of optimism with a bigger and improved squad playing in the Champions League. The new-look vibrant Liverpool side went on a three month unbeaten run in the Premier League which was ended by rivals Manchester United back in March in a 2-1 home defeat. That result seemed to take the wind out of the Reds’ sails as they lost their grip on the top four, got knocked out of both the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League and lost out in two domestic cup semi-finals to Chelsea and Aston Villa respectively. Add to the mix, the news of long-standing club captain and legend Steven Gerrard’s departure at the end of the season there was a very dark cloud hanging over the Merseysiders.

Gerrard’s last home game at Anfield ended in a disappointing 3-1 defeat at the hands of Crystal Palace. To add insult to injury, Gerrard’s final appearance in the Premier League ended in a dismal 6-1 defeat away at Stoke City on the final day of last season. That result meant that Rodgers made history for all the wrong reasons as the Reds recorded their worst defeat for half a century on a day that was supposed to be scripted as the perfect send off for Steven Gerrard. On a day when Liverpool were poised to end in 5^th position in the league they had slumped to their worst defeat in 50 years and ended up in 6^th place in a disappointing season overall.

The club and its supporters were not impressed to say the least with nothing to show for Rodgers’ three seasons in charge at Liverpool after he himself said, “Judge me after 3 years”. The club’s owners Fenway Sports Group held a meeting with the Northern Irishman in July which resulted in them allowing him to stay on as Liverpool manager, however his coaching staff from the previous three seasons had paid the price.

Before the start of the new season Rodgers had assembled himself a new coaching staff and gone out and brought in 7 new players to the club following the departure of club legend Steven Gerrard and pacey forward Raheem Sterling.

The new season started off with the Reds putting to bed that awful display against Stoke City on the final day of last season by defeating them 1-0 on the same ground where they last conceded six. Although it was not a very convincing win, to start the season off with a win is always ideal especially when you put your own demons to rest. That result was followed up by an unconvincing 1-0 home victory against newly promoted Bournemouth on August 17^th.

Those results were followed up by a decent away draw at Arsenal and two defeats to West Ham and Manchester United respectively, while recording 1-1 draws against Bordeaux in the Europa League and Norwich in the Premier League. The fact of the matter is that Liverpool have not won a single game since beating Bournemouth back in August and the fans are starting to rally up against the Liverpool manager. To add to the Reds’ woes is that they have not been able to score more than one goal in a game so far this season which is unacceptable by the club’s standards. Fans are flocking in to Anfield very anxious and as the games drag on, they become restless due to the Reds’ poor run of form.

The fans are clearly unhappy with the current manager and the number of dissatisfied ‘customers’ keep growing as they feel that Rodgers has had more than enough time to put things right and help the club move forward. At the minute, it seems like a two steps forward one step back type of atmosphere at the club which needs to change and fast.

There are however two possible replacements that the fans have identified and sounded out as favourites to take over from Rodgers, Carlo Ancelotti and Jürgen Klopp, both of whom are currently out of work. Both managers are very experienced in world football and have been successful at their previous clubs. Ancelotti and Klopp both fit the profile of what it takes to be the manager of Liverpool Football Club with both previously managing Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund respectively.

The fans would be pleased with the appointment of either of these world class managers with Klopp being the more favoured of the two. Liverpool fans have even gone as far as arranging that a large group of the supporters dress up like Klopp at Liverpool’s next home game in an attempt to ‘fill the Kop with Klopp’ in an attempt to appeal to the club’s owners to sack Rodgers. Klopp’s authoritative figure and high tempo of pressing and attacking play would suit the current crop of players at Liverpool and the Anfield faithful would welcome him with open arms.

Ancelotti on the other hand is a proven manager in the Premier League after a successful stint with Chelsea Football Club in which he won the Premier League and FA Cup double. He is also the second manager in history to win the UEFA Champions League thrice following in the footsteps of ‘the father of Liverpool Football Club’ Bob Paisley which really hits home for the Liverpool fans.

It is no secret that current Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers is on thin ice at Anfield and his time could very well be up. With the supporters getting on his back and calling for a new manager it’s only a matter of time before the owners of Liverpool Football Club start looking at replacements and end the Rodgers reign at Anfield.

Journalism, The Dying Art

It is no secret that we are indeed living in the age of technology. From smartphones to laptops; to iPads and tablets. These are all tools that are used on a day to day basis by people all over the world across different working fields. They have shaped the world in which we live and have changed the direction of journalism as whole.

With the ever-evolving technology and hyper-connectivity news is able to break and spread much quicker than ever before. Citizen journalists are starting to become more prevalent through the use of their smartphones as a result of the being part of the ‘here and now’. This however, is proving detrimental to the field of the once ‘elitist’ journalists. As the internet keeps on expanding through numerous social media platforms for millions of people to express their views and opinions, the printing press is edging near its ‘extinction’ http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/apr/15/what-is-the-future-of-journalism.

Yes, the development of technology has helped the journalism field in terms of being able to broadcast news stories as it happens and on the go. However, what this has brought about is the current trend of citizen journalists’ voices overpowering those of aspiring, qualified journalists. Another aspect that is slowly picking away at the printing press and journalism field as a whole is that of robo-journalism which uses algorithms and indices to search for and find data and information for news stories.

Citizen journalism and robo-journalism are in fact contributing factors to the evolving art of journalism however their negatives outweigh the positives as a there are shortcomings that accompany these current forms of journalism. These derivatives of the good, old fashioned printing press media lack what journalists are taught throughout their studies with particular mention to ethics and credibility. How do we know that what a citizen journalist is saying should be trusted or if it is in fact true? Where did he or she get their information? Was it merely reproduced, ‘retweeted’ or shared. Those are the fundamental questions that come with being credible journalist and producing reliable and truthful stories.

The field of journalism and technology alike is changing with the times as new tools and platforms are being provided to broadcast news on a number of platforms. Journalists and news agencies are adapting to the current trends within the field while evolving and reinventing themselves. The printing press is a suffering branch of journalism but it does not mean that journalism is dying by any means. The future of journalism lies within the social media sphere of things with the main attraction being broadcast media.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmFlKKOKenw