It’s a familiar pattern by now.
Manager loses his job. You wait a week or two. Stories that the players weren’t fit enough emerge. Stories of player unhappiness emerge.
And Brendan Rodgers’ departure from Anfield earlier this month is following this formula in textbook fashion.
It doesn’t take much to upset a footballer. And when you’ve arrived for a big-money fee, but have failed to show any discernible evidence that you’ve ever seen a football before, let alone played with one, then you’re likely to be more disgruntled than most.
Step forward Lazar Markovic.
The Serbian winger arrived at Anfield from Benfica with a big reputation in the summer of 2014, but failed to make any real impact whatsoever and soon found himself in and out of Brendan Rodgers’ starting XI (mainly out).
He went on loan to well-known rehabilitation centre for big-money flops/retirement home Fenerbahce, but in the wake of Rodgers’ departure Markovic has come out to say that he didn’t see eye-to-eye with the Northern Irishman.
“I didn’t have a good relationship with the coach,” Markovic told Portuguese newspaper A Bola. “That was a problem. I played in many positions but didn’t play in mine.”
Markovic’s comments are similar to those of Nuri Sahin when he left Anfield after a six-month loan spell in 2012.
“I did not fail at Liverpool. Brendan Rodgers wanted me to play as a number 10. But I do not play behind the strikers.
“I talked to him and asked him why he was playing me there. It is not my real position. The coach could not answer me … Thank God I have left Brendan Rodgers.”
We guess being played out of position is what happens when a transfer committee is signing players and a manager is picking the team.
