When a regime starts to unravel at Liverpool, there is usually only one way it will end
Bad results become like an avalanche and the onset of disappointment is impossible to prevent.
I first saw it happen shortly after I broke into the team under Roy Evans, and history repeated itself with Gerard Houllier and Rafa Benitez. After failing to build on a challenge for the Barclays Premier League, Liverpool would slip away. Ultimately, the manager would lose his job.
Title challenges have not happened too often in the modern era. Liverpool fell short in 1997, then 2002 and again in 2009. The disappointment lingers and the realisation that you might not get another shot at the biggest domestic prize alters the atmosphere. It is hard to break that cycle.
So, as Liverpool suffered one setback after another at the start of this campaign — and expensive new signings failed to produce what was expected of them — I was concerned that my old club were heading down a familiar, bleak path. Putting it bluntly, I feared for Brendan Rodgers.
This was a challenge unlike anything he had ever faced. Liverpool is a club like no other when the atmosphere changes and disappointment grabs hold. The manager’s position gets scrutinised, his decisions get picked apart and it undoubtedly has an impact.
I owe Houllier and Benitez a lot for the help they gave me career but it’s important to reiterate the point I have made before: they walked out of Anfield as different men to the ones who were appointed.
By the end they were giving bizarre press conferences and some of the decisions they were making were not as sharp as they had been — that is what the burning intensity of carrying Liverpool’s destiny on your shoulders can do to you.
Credit, then, must go to Rodgers for how he has arrested the slide and propelled Liverpool back into the race for the top four.
It was against Manchester United, Sunday's opponents, that Rodgers first unveiled his 3-4-3 formation on December 14. You rarely see many other managers play in such a way but that alteration has unlocked so much improvement.
For starters, look at the way some of the new players who were criticised early on are thriving. Emre Can wasn’t bought to play on the right side of a three-man defence. Lazar Markovic didn’t arrive to be a wing-back while Adam Lallana wasn’t expected to play in some of the positions he has done.
They arrived as players with talent and Rodgers has given them a platform to show what they can do. The best managers find solutions and a way to make their players thrive. That is what is happening, particularly with Can. Credit shouldn’t go to the transfer committee. Rodgers has made it work.
He did it last year, too, when accommodating Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge in the same team — a lot of his counterparts, remember, struggle to fit two top-class forwards in the same line-up but Rodgers made Liverpool one of the most exciting sides in Europe.
We associate radical systems and the ability to think on their feet with foreign managers but that is exactly what Rodgers does. His changes at half-time against Swansea on Monday were instrumental in contributing to their win.
The past few months have also dispelled the idea it was just individuals who were responsible for Liverpool’s title charge. Rodgers was said to be lucky to have Suarez and Sturridge but don’t forget he banished Suarez to the reserves in August 2013, and he had the season of his life.
Well, one has left for Barcelona and the other is nowhere near his best following a series of injuries, but Liverpool are the form team in the Premier League and playing some of the most exciting football in the country.
That is down to Rodgers, his ideas and man-management.
Aside from that, he has also had to deal with Steven Gerrard’s imminent departure and the problem of phasing him out of the side. Again, it is a challenge he has confronted and one that he has prevented from having a negative impact.
Negativity has long since been dispelled and Liverpool now have an opportunity to enjoy what I believe would turn out to be a better season than last year, if they are to achieve both their remaining objectives.
Qualifying for the Champions League would, considering where they were after losing to Crystal Palace on November 23, make this season a huge success. Adding the FA Cup would make it outstanding.
Rodgers is aware that no Liverpool manager in modern history has gone three years without winning a trophy and his time will ultimately be measured by silverware, but he is on the right lines. Only Kenny Dalglish, after all, has taken more points from his first 104 league games.
It has been interesting to see his name being talked of as a potential replacement for Manuel Pellegrini, should Manchester City make the decision to dispense with him at the end of the season, but that isn’t something by which I am overly concerned.
Whether you are a player or a manager, leaving Liverpool for domestic rivals is not something you do easily and Rodgers said recently he could not see himself managing another English club.
What about managing England?
Once the time comes for the Football Association to look for Roy Hodgson’s successor, Rodgers would tick all the right boxes: he works with young players, promotes an attractive style and has experience of competing in Europe.
He has been bold, brave and the way he has changed Liverpool’s fortunes has proved one thing beyond doubt: Brendan Rodgers is a top-class manager.
Now we will see if he can propel himself to the level of Anfield’s greats.
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