Brendan Rodgers Sack Rumors Increase After Liverpool Champions League Exit, Jurgen Klopp, Rafael Benitez Favorites To Step In

It has been just over 24 hours since Liverpool were knocked out of the Champions League group stages and speculation over the future of their manager, Brendan Rodgers, is now at a fever pitch.

Rodgers almost guided Liverpool to the Premier League championship last season, which would have been the first time they were champions of England in over 20 years.

However, this campaign has been an unmitigated disaster for the Northern Irishman. Liverpool haven’t come anywhere near to replicating their luscious form of last season, and they are now both out of the title race and the Champions League.

Many Liverpool fans and soccer experts have blamed their demise on Brendan Rodgers, and now speculation that he might be replaced in the very near future has grown exponentially since their draw with Basel on Wednesday.

According to the Express, there are three main candidates to replace Brendan Rodgers. Borussia Dortmund’s Jurgen Klopp has been touted as a potential successor, despite the fact that the German side have had a woeful start to the campaign themselves. In fact, they were actually bottom of the Bundesliga just a few weeks ago.

Zenit-St. Petersburg manager, Andre Villas-Boas, has also been touted as a candidate too. Boas has enjoyed a rather good start to his tenure as the manager of the Russian side. However, he hasn’t fared well in the Premier League in the past. Fans of Tottenham and Chelsea were highly critical of the Portuguese manager’s attempts at their clubs, and he was quickly sacked by both teams because of their poor form under his stewardship.

Meanwhile, Rafa Benitez has also been labelled as a possible replacement for Rodgers. Benitez is regarded as a legend at Liverpool because he led them to their fifth Champions League triumph with a sensational victory over AC Milan in the 2005 Champions League final.

According to Bleacher Report, Liverpool have now approached replacements for Rodgers, which signals that he only has a few games to prove that he is still right for the job.

“It doesn’t look good for Rodgers. There’s been contact with alternatives to replace him for at least a month now. The fact that they’re looking shows Rodgers is not in a good place.”

Brendan Rodgers admitted that Liverpool deserved to have been knocked out of the Champions League. The BBC have reported that Rodgers insisted that in their six group games they simply hadn’t been good enough and that they had “to be better in [their] performance level.”

[Image via Telegraph]