Brendan Rodgers apologised to the Liverpool support after the humiliating 6-1 defeat at Stoke City and accepted there would be doubts about his future after the manner in which the club have ended the season.
The manager was barracked by the travelling fans as he left the field at half-time, with Liverpool 5-0 down, and he said that the anger directed towards him was justified. Rodgers’ team finished in sixth place, after winning only two Premier League matches since the middle of March – against Newcastle United and QPR at home.
“Yes, absolutely,” Rodgers replied, when asked whether he understood there would be questions about his position. “I’ve always said if the owners want me to go, I go. It’s as simple as that. I still feel I’ve got a lot to offer here. A lot has happened this year that has made the job difficult and we’ve kept fighting right to the very end but I totally understand that [the questions]. Last season, when everything is working well and you have the support of everyone … but performances like today don’t help you and I’m fully aware of that.
“The first half was the worst I’ve ever had. I have never conceded that many goals in a game. To start with, it is an apology. All the supporters connected with Liverpool today will be embarrassed by that and deserve an apology. The fans had every right to be angry at half-time. Absolutely. We can have no complaints, all of us, if the supporters were angry at half-time because that was awful, absolutely awful.”
Rodgers addressed the issue of whether he still had the backing of the fans. “This period now, we’ve come up short and the only way you get support from them is by winning games – and we haven’t won enough games in these last couple of months,” Rodgers said. “So they have every right to be angry and frustrated and, of course, I take full responsibility for that as the manager, none more so than today.
“Our job is to go away and reflect on this season. We know there is an awful lot of work to do and the job now is to go and fix that, and make sure we come back with the motivation greater than ever to push on next season because we’ve finished in sixth. It’s where we deserved to finish and we have to now, from today, start the climb to get back up. ”
Rodgers finished by saying that he would find the right answers for next season. “Absolutely,” he said. “There’s a number of key elements of the performance that didn’t surprise me, if I’m being honest, so I think that there are areas that we will address in the summer that will hopefully help us be much more competitive, more consistently, from the beginning of the season. We, as a club, will work very hard to make that happen.
“My pride makes me want to be in this job. I love the job here. I love the club. It’s been a difficult season for us and if the owners ever say to me to go, I go but I want to be here. I love the club but I also understand that we need to be better than what we’ve shown in recent weeks.”