Former Liverpool Director of football criticises Brendan Rodgers over massive transfer gambles

Brendan Rodgers has failed to get Liverpool’s season up and running after a busy summer

Former director of football at Liverpool, Damien Comolli has blamed Brendan Rodgers’ summer transfer dealings for the Reds’ struggling start to the season, in the aftermath of their 3-1 loss to Manchester United at Old Trafford, as per the Mirror.

He pointed to the disruption caused by Rodgers’ consistent gambles in the transfer market over the past few seasons as the sole reason behind their current plight, as the former Swansea manager tries to rebuild his squad following the departures of star players Luis Suarez and Raheem Sterling.

Despite signing the likes of Benteke, Firmino, Clyne and Gomez, Liverpool have seen a dip in form since kicking off their Premier League campaign with two straight victories in the first two matches. The next three matches saw the Reds only take 1 point, with a fortunate draw against Arsenal followed by two losses at the hands of West Ham and Manchester United ensuring that their good start would be in vain.

In their recent 3-1 loss against long-time rivals United, the Reds had seven players on the pitch who weren’t even at the club last season, which points out to a lack of cohesion in the squad due to the players still taking time to bed into their surroundings. Frenchman Comolli mentioned this when he spoke about the reason behind Liverpool’s failings so far and also added that the team will take time to hit their stride, although that could be too late as other teams will be picking up points sooner.

Liverpool's front three of Christian Benteke, Roberto Firmino and Danny Ings didn't create a single chance between them vs. Man Utd.

— Squawka Football (@Squawka) September 12, 2015

“I said before the beginning of the season that it is a massive gamble to change as many players as they did in the summer, as they did last summer.” he said, as quoted on the Mirror.

“If you look at Saturday, the two full-backs are new – and the left back is not a left back. In midfield, for me there are two new players, because though Can has been at the club for a while he has never played in midfield, and then the front three were all new players as well.”

“That’s seven new players, and in reality they looked like they’d never played together before, which makes sense. There were people playing out of position, players like Firmino who haven’t had a proper pre-season with the team. It’s going to take time, but I’ve said previously that it was a huge gamble, after they’d taken a huge gamble last season, and it is going to be difficult.”

“And by the time they do start to gel, if they do, other teams will have a lot of points.”

‘Performances have not been convincing’

Damien Comolli was an influential figure with transfers for Liverpool

43-year-old Comolli, who was brought to Anfield in 2010 and was credited with bringing in the likes of Suarez and many other players to the club, gave his unbiased comments on how the season has turned out for his previous employers while clearly stating that he was not convinced by the team’s performances in the first few matches against Stoke, Bournemouth and Arsenal.

“Objectively, if you look at the first few games; they won with a screamer at Stoke from Coutinho, then at home to Bournemouth they scored from a goal that was not a goal, and then Bournemouth were all over them.” said Comolli. “Arsenal had a goal disallowed at 0-0. And although Liverpool came back strong after that, being 1-0 down would have been a different game. Then they’ve lost the last two,”

“They’ve got seven points, but their performances have not been convincing.”

Liverpool's last 15 Premier League matches: WLLWDLWDLLWWDLL Goals: 13 Conceded: 24 So inconsistent. pic.twitter.com/On4p3uzAB0

— Squawka Football (@Squawka) September 12, 2015

Liverpool will be looking to bounce back from their struggles when they take on Bordeaux in the Europa League, following which they face Norwich at home and Aston Villa. Their former director of football expects these games to define the rest of the season for Liverpool as they try to improve after a disappointing 2014-15 campaign.

“They’ve got three games coming up. The Europa League game at Bordeaux on Thursday, and then back-to-back at Anfield, Norwich and Aston Villa. And you know how it is in the big clubs, even though on Thursday he might rotate and play eight or nine players who didn’t play at Old Trafford, if they do lose then in people’s minds it is another defeat. It won’t matter that it is not the best team.”

“They need to avoid defeat on Thursday, then they have two massive games at home.” he added.