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Would Liverpool be right to sack manager Brendan Rodgers?

Would Liverpool be right to sack manager Brendan Rodgers?

With Sunday’s FA Cup semifinal loss to Aston Villa, Brendan Rodgers becomes the first Liverpool manager since the late 1950s to fail to win a trophy in his first three seasons with the club.

Predictably, fans took to Twitter en masse calling for Rodgers’ sacking. Liverpool sits fifth in the Premier League table, mathematically eliminated from catching league leaders Chelsea but seven points back of fourth-place Manchester City with one less game played.

City’s dreadful form this calendar year has handed the Reds an opportunity to finish fourth and qualify for the Champions League play-off round, but they’re hardly favored to seize it. Therefore, a managerial change at Anfield could come very soon.

Is firing Rodgers the right thing to do? Let's discuss.

PROS

It could make Raheem Sterling more likely to stay — Rumors persist that the 20-year-old England international wants a move to Chelsea or Manchester City, primarily to link up with their more successful managers. Well, what if Sterling gets his say in a new Liverpool manager? The club hierarchy has stood firm on its position of not intending to sell Sterling in the summer, even if his representatives buy out part of his contract. It’s a slippery slope to let players pick their own bosses, but at this point, if Liverpool thinks Sterling is going to leave when his contract is up in 2017 anyway, it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

It would give last summer’s signings a fresh start — After selling Luis Suarez and his ungodly strike rate last summer, Liverpool spent £117 million on eight new players, none of whom have really lived up to expectations. Still, a new manager could iron out a more specific tactical plan, departing from the constant shifting of Rodgers’ formations and potentially breathing new life into regulars Adam Lallana, Emre Can, Lazar Marković and Alberto Moreno now that they have more defined roles.

Any silverware would seem like an upgrade As mentioned, Rodgers is the first Liverpool manager since Phil Taylor in the late 1950s to go trophy-less in his first three campaigns at Anfield. The Reds’ drought isn’t that long – they won the League Cup under Kenny Dalglish in 2012 – but the fans are thirsting for a major trophy like the Premier League or Champions League. Regardless of how far from contention the club is in that respect, winning a lesser trophy early could buy the new manager some time.

CONS

It would wipe out continuity once again — Since the 2010 departure of Rafa Benítez, who won the Champions League and FA Cup in addition to making Liverpool a top-four fixture, the club has had three managers, and sacking Rodgers would mean another reset. Clubs like Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United are worth hundreds of millions of dollars more than Liverpool, so they can afford to hop from manager to manager. Plus, they do so looking for someone who can win the Premier League and Champions League, not for someone to simply bring them back to relevance. At the moment, Liverpool may need stability more than anything.

There’s no certainty of landing a big name — Ideally, Liverpool would land a manager with a track record of success at Europe’s highest levels, and one just came available at Borussia Dortmund. But as great as the fit seems, there’s no guarantee Jürgen Klopp would move to Anfield, and there aren’t many other bosses that fit the bill. So that would leave Liverpool with a group of ambitious young managers who’ve proven themselves at smaller clubs … which basically describes Rodgers.

This gives the naysayers too much of a voice It’s always important to use your fans as a sounding board, and the rich history of Liverpool makes this a tricky sell, but is Rodgers really doing that poorly? Say what you will about Sunday’s result, Rodgers has proven to be adaptable this season and kept the team within eyesight of the top four despite spending much of the season with Daniel Sturridge, the other goalscoring machine from last term, unavailable due to injury. If Liverpool qualifies for the Champions League, that would offer a great chance to upgrade the squad in the summer. Who could justify a sacking in that scenario?