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Yes, good points all - I agree that Rodgers is doing a good job and I'm optimistic about the future.
I guess I'm just realising that the rebuilding job might take longer than expected. In my mind the plan was that Rodgers would introduce a possession-based, "death by football" 1433 and the players unable to cope would be phased out and replaced in three transfer windows (summer 12, 13 and the winter between). We could therefore write this season off as transition.
Now, as you say from pragmatic reasons we have changed the style of play and formation from that vision in order to accommodate our best players. Sturridge would seem to be the central striker best fitting Rodger's 1433 and he seems reluctant to play Suarez as an inside forward so we have had to put him in the '10' role. That's fine but it won't change for next season. Same for Gerrard, for example.
We will obviously upgrade in Summer - most likely replacing Skrtel for one. But if we do,the new defender will hopefully be most comfortable in the 1433 which we won't be playing.
My point is that we are still in the phase of not having the right players to suit a particular formation - or to put it another way - even by the end of next season we won't know what our best formation is. Now, if that's the case, it just makes it that bit harder to qualify for the top four.
It would already take an improvement for us to manage top 4. It would take a HUGE improvement to manage it easily enough that we could do it without knowing what our best formation will be. Thinking back, I can't recall many other teams who have achieved that.
Unlike under Kenny, we are seeing career-best performances from most of the players; the odd exception being Skrtel in whom the reverse is true. I see definite progress and I buy into what the manager is doing. I just think that his hands are tied by circumstance to a greater extent than I initially realised.