10 Biggest Brendan Rodgers Mistakes As Liverpool Manager

10. Dropping Coutinho

Brazilian football certainly isn't what it was even five years ago, but the country still produces some top-class players for the international leagues to get into bidding wars over. The signing of Brazilian Philippe Coutinho in 2013's January transfer window was a good move on Rodgers' part, and the attacking midfielder quickly established himself as a genius at setting up goals. Coutinho routinely won Liverpool Player of the Month, and for good reason. He was one of the team's MVPs, a dependable midfielder who rarely let an goal-scoring opportunity pass him by. So, naturally, Rodgers mostly dropped the player for the majority of the 2014-15 season, in favour of playing Henderson, Lallana, and a Steven Gerrard who was already on the out. Rodgers' style seems to be to rotate players so everybody gets a fair chance to prove themselves. Except Coutinho has proven himself, and yet was benched in favour of players who showed they couldn't touch him. An inexplicable decision, especially given the goals he scored at the end of the season when he got a meagre couple of games' play.
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Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/