Neil: No crisis for Rodgers’ Liverpool

Ian Watson
Brendan Rodgers Liverpool Football365

Brendan Rodgers has proved himself as a manager and deserves time to fix the problems at Liverpool, according to Norwich boss Alex Neil.

Norwich visit Liverpool on Sunday hoping to extend an uncertain start to the campaign for the Reds, who have managed one point and a single goal in their last three games.

Poor performances mean Rodgers is already under pressure this season but Neil dismissed suggestions Liverpool are there for the taking this weekend.

“Brendan Rodgers has proved himself a manager, there’s no question about that,” Neil said.

“He nearly won the league with Liverpool. Who am I to comment on Brendan Rodgers? He’s done fantastically well as a manager in his career.

“People always say it’s a good time to play them, we’ll just look at what we do and see where it takes us.

“I don’t buy this, ‘Liverpool are in crisis’. Liverpool have got good players, they’re well managed and they’ll be a danger to any team in the league.

“It’s something all teams go through when they’re really good and then when they don’t perform as well as they should do.

“Players aren’t robots, maybe the combinations in the team aren’t functioning as well as they can or there may just be a loss of form in the group.”

Norwich are currently level with Liverpool on seven points following an encouraging start to their battle for Barclays Premier League survival.

Wins against Sunderland and Bournemouth, as well a draw against Stoke, mean the Canaries sit ninth in the table ahead of their trip to Anfield.

“Our away record has been really good because we’ve gone with a method to win the game,” Neil said.

“Every game has been different. Sometimes we’ve been very aggressive from the start, sometimes we play on the counter-attack.

“We’ve got a plan which we worked on today in training and hopefully that gives us the best chance of coming away on Sunday with some points.”

Norwich defender Andre Wisdom, on loan from Liverpool, is ineligible and Gary Hooper is out with an ankle injury but Lewis Grabban has returned to training and is available.