In fact I expected a slightly negative reaction to last season's overachievement fighting it out for 4th.
Exactly. We took two giant strides forward last season, despite wearing the lead boots that are our defensive side. When you do that you normally need to take a small backward step to right your balance and equilibrium.
Challenging for top four, probably finishing third without seriously being in the title race would have been that step, whilst also dealing with the demands of the CL.
We look more like a clueless, legless drunk, and Rodgers is looking like his bluff has been called.
The players who performed so well in midweek get jettisoned for the normal underperformers, and they, err, underperform.
The more the hole, the more Rodgers keeps digging. The ego will crash land at the end of the season, and he'll have no excuses. He's been backed. He can't have any complaints there.
Compare how he's doing with how Koeman's doing with Southampton. They're all new players to him, and he to them. Then there are the new players to the remaining squad from last season. They've had a large turnover of players, we've just had a large influx.
He seems bereft of ideas. Plans B & C are 'more of plan'. He seems determined to prove something that is proving to be 'unproveable'.
He reminds me of a dog chasing it's tail, the harder it proves to catch, the more he tries.