What do you base this opinion on? Since Christmas our points gained has been at least on a par with pretty much everybody in the league bar Utd. Does that not suggest it's starting to 'click'? Would that happen if the players hadn't bought into it? Also those you would perhaps think most resistant to Rodgers methods, the Kenny buys such as Henderson, Downing and Enrique, have all improved and been standout performers. In fact everyone who was at the club before Rodgers arrived, except for Martin Skrtel, is arguably playing better than they did last year. When players don't buy into a Manager's methods there are usually massive warning signs (Hodgson & Villas-Boas are recent examples), have we had any of those?
With regards the £35million, that's something that is on the club and those who have since left. It wouldn't be fair to tell Rodgers he has to use a player because of his pricetag, that's what happened at Chelsea with Torres and Shevchenko and we know how that went.
I don't think we should confuse being punished repeatedly for the same weaknesses as being all over the shop. Sometimes an attack-orientated team seems more 'all over the shop' because at the end of the day conceding goals makes it look like that. The way we are taught to treasure a clean sheet, that a 1-0 victory is better than a 3-2, is something of a fallacy, and probably stems from the old division of duties. It's frustrating conceding goals, but there's little to make me think we'll have to sacrifice the attacking progress we've made in order to address our weaknesses. That should set us up well for next year.
I also think we are a bit "all over the shop".
Yes, our results have improved since Christmas and we have accumulated points - but with what philosophy, formation and personnel?
The aim to retain the ball, pass teams to death and subject them to "Death by Football" is receeding with every match. We were actually trying to keep hold of the ball more at the beginning of the season. Our percentage of possession has been decreasing the longer the season has continued. Our recent goals are becoming increasingly direct.
The formation has gone from 1433 to 14231 to 1424. We are OK when we have everyone in the "first team" in contention but a couple of injuries in midfield and suddenly the players seem unsure of what role they are meant to be fulfilling.
There are defiite signs of progress and we are lucky that our players have been in superb form (Suarez) and that our signings have worked out well (Coutinho / Sturridge) but this was likely to have been the case whichever formation and philosophy we had employed.
With a new CB, DM and striker I think it's likely that at at least half of next season will also be "transitional" if we are still aiming to implement a high-line, possession-based, sterile domination 1433 because, with an eye on results, we appear to have postponed that for the present. Although, as you rightly say, an attacking team can sometimes look more awry conceeding goals, the fact is that we still havent sorted out basic weaknesses such as dealing with setpieces, high balls, tension through the midfield or even being pressed hard. That isn't going to change over Summer and we may have to ride our luck slightly in the early part of next season.
So far, Chelsea have gotten off to a bad start, Arsenal half-imploded, none of City's signings worked out, Spurs have taken time to adapt under Villas-Boas but many of those problems will be addressed over the transfer window and we could find it significantly harder to get a top 4 slot as compared to this season.
We are progressing but our improvement is unlikely to be linear rather than characterised by peaks and troughs in a generally upwards direction.
