Brendan Rodgers has been Liverpool’s manager for the past three years and as this chaotic season wraps up you can’t help but wonder if the Irishman is still the right man to take the club forward.

Liverpool have always had big ambitions, so it is unfortunate that in this last season the Reds have found themselves out of the running for every trophy going with five games still to play.

The case was similar in his first year in charge, in which the Reds only placed as high as seventh. It was a slight improvement on their previous one and as Rodgers was getting accustomed to a new environment and new challenges it was perhaps not a true reflection of his ability to manage the high profile club.

However, the fact that Liverpool, a club which was once respected across Europe, took a chance on Rodgers was actually quite surprising considering that he’d only had one year's experience of the Premier League before taking the job.

Rodgers’ sound work with Swansea City - leading them up from the Championship and then an 11th place finish in their maiden top-flight campaign - made him an interesting prospect.

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You can understand why the club thought he had the potential to turn around a struggling team, but with no European experience perhaps the appointment was rather short-sighted.

The only season in which Rodgers has shown anything more than potential at Liverpool was the last.

The Reds started the campaign in a determined fashion winning, all three of their initial league games and thus secured Rodgers the Manager of the Month award for August. A second award followed in March leaving no doubt that Rodgers was having the best managerial season of his life. But the real stars were on the pitch.

Luis Suarez, Daniel Sturridge and Raheem Sterling were an effective and formidable unit breaking through everything in their path. Only Manchester City had a better campaign, ultimately claiming the top spot with Liverpool just two points behind. But with success came unwanted attention and Suarez’s 31 goals made him a prime target for the best teams in Europe.

Now that the Uruguayan has left Merseyside, perhaps we are seeing what Rodgers is really capable of. Obviously a decent manager but he seems destined to struggle to break into the top four if he doesn’t have a truly world class striker to fire him to glory.

Liverpool knew Suarez was probably going to leave last year and yet the best replacement they could muster was Mario Balotelli. Now the Italian has always shown potential along his travels but was unlikely to ever be a good enough alternative to the ridiculously prolific Suarez.

It is unlikely that Liverpool will get the chance to sign a player of Suarez’s quality in the upcoming summer transfer window as the top players want Champions League football, and that doesn’t seem possible failing a catastrophic implosion by one of the Manchester clubs.

So Rodgers is likely to struggle once again next season and supporters will continue to question if he has what it takes to elevate the club back into being one of England’s dominant top four teams.

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