Yeah, since Rodgers was advocating for the likes of Benteke, Dempsey and Ashley Williams, I'm not sure how much good another £100m+ would've done him!
But yes, Arteta's spending is something that doesn't come up much when he gets praise from the pundits/media - similar to his mentor in that respect. Having said that, it does reflect the different state of play for title-challenging teams now - if you're going to compete with a team of financial dopers, and you don't have the high transfer hit rate/best-in-class manager that we've had for the last few years, then you need to splash big money to bridge the gap.
My guess would be that if Arteta and Rodgers swapped roles for next season, neither would perform much better than the other currently is - Arteta would win the SPL, and Rodgers would challenge for the league but ultimately fall short.
There is no precedent in Rodgers football teams being good out of possession and of the ball. In 13-14 Liverpool conceded 50 league goals. Its a ridiculous number that is reserved for teams that finish mid table. By contrast our defence this season has been by design. We dont have a keeper bailing us out with amazing saves week to week. We have conceded the less amount of goals simply through tactical training. There have been multiple games were we have conceded no more than 2-3 efforts on goal. We have conceded the least shots in the league. Which is by virtue of how we are set up - by design to limit the number of efforts on our goal. David Raya will win the golden glove, and it will be a very passive golden glove - he hasn't done much to earn it. But
If we swapped Arteta for Rodgers, I would fully expect the floodgates to open and we conceded around 30-40% more goals that we would under Arteta. The idea these two coaches/managers are comparable is comical. If you cant see Arteta is miles ahead, you cant see the wood from the trees. Do people actually watch football or do they just source wikipedia for a cherry pick a stat.
This is why I dont rate Ten Hag or De Zerbi. I watch Man United and Brighton and off the ball they are rubbish. They get played through, passed though, spaces in midfield everywhere, you can say the same about Ange mate at Tottingham. By contrast, Arsenal are the hardest team to score against, the hardest team to get an effort on goal against. We never used to be this team, Arteta has made us this way.
This is why those who think Arsenal should sack Arteta = numpties. You dont sack a 42 year old manager who is showing this much promise. You back him. And im thankful KSG (our FSG) are not irrational and overly emotional, and regardless of what happens this season, Arteta will get a contract extension.
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