Brendan Rodgers: Liverpool Elite
As the Liverpool title charge continued with a thrilling 3-2 victory over Manchester City, the result meant that Brendan Rodgers set a couple of memorable records. In doing so, in one way he joined the club's managerial elite. Firstly, winning the three points meant that the Reds have taken eighty-seven points from their past thirty-eight league games, which is a record for the club in the Premier League era. The last time the rolling total was so high was on 9 February 1991, when Everton were sent home pointless across Stanley Park after a David Speedie brace inspired a 3-1 home win. To give this timeframe some context, this match was almost four years before Raheem Sterling, who scored the opening goal against City, was even born. For the record, the club record for a rolling thirty-eight game period is ninety-two, which happened three times in late 1990. Liverpool can't get that high this season, but to be only five points shy of the club record is no mean feat nonetheless. The other significant achievement that Brendan Rodgers made yesterday can be seen in the table below. The win over Manchester City means that Brendan Rodgers has the best league win percentage and points per game average of any Liverpool manager who has worked solely in the Premier League era. Clearly, there are a host of provisos that have to be applied here, as this is not a fair comparison. The various managers have been in charge in different eras, inheriting vastly different standard of teams, for starters. They have also been in charge for massively different periods of time, some have managed the club in Division Two, the amount they have spent on transfers will vary (and is largely impossible to compare), and as Jose Mourinho is frequently keen to point out, some of the men on this list will have had to balance the requirements of cup competitions more so than others. But despite all of that, Rodgers can only play with the hand he has been dealt, and considering that many Kopites were not convinced by him a year ago, he has done remarkably well to move up this chart. If Liverpool win their last four league games to clinch the title, Rodgers will move up to second on the all time list with 1.97 points per game, and will only be behind a man who picked the team in the nineteenth century. Whatever happens this season, the table shows that Rodgers already has the second best goalscoring record and goal difference per league game, and again, his record isn't bettered by any Liverpool manager in the last one hundred years. Rodgers' next challenge will be to maintain this form alongside Champions League participation next season; not a bad challenge to face, eh? Please check out my other articles, and follow me on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Scroll down to see the related posts for this article. Thanks.