Stand by your Manager!

As soon as the final whistle had blown to signal the end of the disastrous home defeat by West Brom, disgruntled Reds fans took to Twitter to voice their anger at what many considered a woeful performance by a team playing far below their capabilities.

Disgruntled fans promoted this
ridiculous hashtag on Twitter

Fans singled out players such as Fabio Borini for abuse, criticizing one particular chance against the Baggies that he probably should have scored, which would have given Liverpool the lead. This is somewhat harsh given that Borini is only just back from a serious injury that kept him out of the opening half of the season - you can't seriously expect him to burst back onto the scene with the scoring touch he undoubtedly possesses turning every opportunity into a goal. It will take the lad time to find his feet and get back to the scoring form he showed us in pre-season, before that injury wrecked the start of his career with the Reds.

Others blamed Daniel Agger for the second goal, saying he let Lukaku get away from him too easily. Granted there might be some truth to this, and it may have been the psychological blow of conceding the first goal so late in a game they were dominating that caused Agger switching off slightly, allowing Lukaku to take full advantage and use his fresh legs to double the lead. He was also blamed for Arsenal's first goal in their comeback draw at the Emirates. But Agger has been one of Liverpool's key players this season, a commanding presence at the back who fully deserves his place in the side.

Pepe Reina also got a fair bit of stick with large numbers of Reds fans laying the blame for the draw with Manchester City entirely on his shoulders, following his odd decision to rush out of his goal allowing Sergio Aguero to score an - admittedly stunning - equaliser. Reina, however, is still a very good goalkeeper, and certainly the best available to Rodgers at present.

Which brings me to perhaps the worst thing I saw on Twitter this week, as the hashtag #RodgersOUT began trending.

This is absolutely disgraceful. How can supposedly loyal Reds fans be calling for his head already?

OK, so there have been some terrible results this season, highlighted by the recent defeat by West Brom and the shocker against Oldham in the FA Cup, and the team has still not beaten any team above them in the league yet this season. But this is Brendan's first season in charge, and he is still imposing his vision and style on the club.

It is not reasonable to expect BR to be an instant success at Liverpool. He was signed by the club with a long-term plan in mind, a goal of bringing attractive football to Anfield and getting the Reds back playing a style that garnered so much success in the years gone by. This kind of plan takes time to implement, with a change in playing style and playing staff key factors that cannot be completed overnight.

His actions in the summer transfer market showed Reds fans that he does have a plan. He inherited a squad from Kenny Dalglish that had been expensively assembled, as the King flashed the cash to get Andy Carroll, Luis Suarez, Stewart Downing, Jordan Henderson, and Charlie Adam amongst others. With the exception of Suarez, Kenny's men had woefully underperformed, but this may have been down to the playing style implemented by the old regime.

Rodgers knew how he wanted the team to play and knew the type of players he needed, as he shipped out the likes of Carroll and Adam while bringing in Fabio Borini, Nuri Sahin and Joe Allen, at the same time promoting Suso and Raheem Sterling from the youth team into the first team squad. Unfortunately for BR, Borini picked up a serious foot injury early in the season (leaving Suarez as the lone striker in the first team), Sahin never lived up to expectation and Allen has taken his time to find his feet.

The January transfer window saw Rodgers plug the attacking gap by signing Daniel Sturridge - who made an instant impact with 3 goals in his first 3 games - and the highly-rated Philippe Coutinho, both moves that were warmly welcomed by the Reds faithful.

This, combined with some fine team performances in the first half of the season (admittedly without winning the match on several occasions), meant that the implementation of Rodgers' plan was underway. Most Liverpool fans know this, and expect it will take some time for the scheme to bear fruit and for the team to flourish.

Some fans, however, are incredibly fickle, and expect the manager to instantly forge a team that will win every match. The kind of fans that will happily boast about the Reds' performance after a win and then demand the manager be sacked as soon as a result goes against them.

Do not be too hasty when criticising Rodgers and his team. Wait until the end of the season and see if he has got the team to perform as we all hope they will. We all know that Liverpool are historically better in the second half of the season, and now that we only have the league and Europa League to concentrate on let's give Rodgers the time he needs to mould a team capable of challenging next season.

My personal thoughts are that BR will use the summer transfer window to bring in new players that will finally shape the squad that he needs to complete his vision - and I expect a large number of current Reds players to be heading out the door.

#YNWA