Surely when it comes to new signings and like Rafa before him might I add, his main focus will be mentality, mentality, mentality ... then technical ability. See in the type of system Roger's will look to employ at Liverpool having the level of technical ability needed is important, it doesn't matter how great a mentality you have - it will only get you so far but to a certain extent it does depend on the area of the pitch you occupy.
You need to be in the right position at the right time to use that technical ability, that means high levels in regards to making the correct decisions - knowing whats best for the team or more accurately the system; will I force the play and make something happen or keep the ball ticking over, should I put my foot down or take a step back etc etc.
Having the right mentality so you can use look to us your technical ability is more important, no matter how great a technical ability you have without the right mentality you will be useless and because players will a higher level of technical ability usually cost a fair bit, you will be a waste of money and that is something we can not afford to do - i.e. waste money.
On the other hand player will lesser technical ability but that have the right mentality are vastly under valued and can mean signing players at a fraction of what they are worth. That will key to our future success - i.e. looking to save money without settle for 'less' where ever possible.
Good post. I think this sums up what Rodgers did with Swansea. Must admit, I didn't watch them all that much last season, was hard enough watching us at times...
Looking at a player like Leon Britton, for instance. He caught my eye several years ago (mainly because of the name, not many footballers named after one of Thatcher's Home Secretaries!) Here is a player who has never looked like gracing the top flight of English football since he was a teenager. Two years ago, he was out of contract and looking for a Bosman. The club he ended up at? Sheffield United.
No disrespect, but if the blades are the best club you can find when you are on a free, then it's fair to say you aren't that highly rated in the game. After a poor spell with them, he returned to Swansea. Footballing fortunes can rise and fall in the space of a few minutes, but it is fair to say that at that point, Britton was not exactly a cool player. Comparisons with Xavi would have earned the observer a twirly-finger-by-the-side-of-the-head gesture from even the most generous of audiences.
On his return, though, he quickly re-established himself in the side and helped the Swans push into the play-offs. In that half-season, he scored 2 goals, his best return since the heady days of 06-07 when he netted five times in a season. Swansea, as we know, won promotion and at last the former Arsenal and West Ham trainee was to get his chance at playing in the top league.
It is fair to say that, even now, Leon Britton is not at the top of many managers' summer shopping lists. But amazingly, last season, Leon Britton was the most successful passer of a ball in any of Europe's top football divisions. He found his team mate with an incredible 93.3% accuracy. That's better than Busquets, Lahm, Thiago Silva and Xavi. And it's not some statistical freak, he played 36 league games last season.
Now you could argue that the lad has clearly always had talent, the Arsenal youth set-up don't waste their time, and West Ham had a great eye for young talent when they signed him, having recently blooded the likes of Lampard, Cole, Ferdinand and so on through their youth system. But let's be honest, talent isn't always enough. Something else happened last season that gave Britton the season of his life, and let him deliver something that apparently no top flight manager in the game considered him capable of just two years ago when, at 27, he was a free agent.
The Swansea team is full of stories like this. It is no co-incidence.
And of course, it is a very different matter to raise one of the games lesser lights to feats that outdo the cream of the global game than to get the likes of Gerrard back to his old best after three years of slow decline, but in terms of what we can expect from new players coming in, players who maybe aren't the big name signings, players who might not be on the radar of Man City and Chelsea, it raises some very interesting prospects indeed.
