Column: How Rodgers changed expectations

Every aspect of the Reds' transition from a side that finished seventh to one in contention for the Barclays Premier League title was scrutinised meticulously over the course of a ground-breaking campaign.

Nowhere more so than in the national media, where the club's return to the Champions League for the first time in five years, prompted by a stunning 11-game run of victories, filled endless column inches and provided plenty of back-page headlines.

Continuing our series, Liverpoolfc.com will review an unforgettable season with a handful of the country's leading journalists - today we get the thoughts of the Daily Mirror's northern correspondent David Maddock who tells us why Rodgers is the man to bring the glory days back to Anfield...

As no-brainers go, the manager of the year choice this season was up there. Without question, Brendan Rodgers stood head and shoulders above any other rival.

How many, at the start of the campaign, would have suggested - even in jest - Liverpool would be top of the Premier League five days before its end?

Answer: none. No, not even you, that hardest of die hard fan. Not the players, and not even their manager, as it happened. So to be in that position wasn't just a remarkable achievement, it was a miraculous one.

It's funny how observers get used to an idea so quickly. At Christmas, the received wisdom was they would still struggle to make the top four. With two months of the season remaining, most people were adamant it was impossible for Liverpool to remain in the title hunt, because they simply didn't have the resources to compete.

With the Reds still there, still top in the final fortnight, those same critics then aimed arrows Anfield way...because they did not go into the final game with the title destiny firmly in their hands. It's a strange world, eh?!

Yet the Premier League is also a statistically predictable one. There is a simple fact in football. The more money you spend on player wages, the higher you finish. Liverpool's spending this season was fifth highest, almost identical with Spurs in sixth. So they should have finished fifth or sixth.

They finished second. Above Chelsea, on a different page to Manchester United, and within 10 mad minutes of Manchester City. How? Because they have got their best out of their squad.

Why? Because of their manager. Simple.

For a start, he has made Liverpool a true football force, a sheer attacking phenomenon that terrifies opponents. For evidence of that, you only need to look at Chelsea's Anfield tactics, a side worth hundreds of millions of pounds who were so scared of the first half threat their game-plan was - genuinely - to keep the ball off the pitch. It was laughable and depressing all at the same time.

Look at the Arsenal game too, when the visitors were 4-0 down and yet were too afraid to go forward, in case they conceded more. Liverpool have been the most exciting, adventurous, courageous side in English football this season, and for that fact alone, their fans should be proud.

It goes beyond that though, because if merely attacking was the answer, then everyone would do it. What Rodgers has done, is to develop players into genuine talents, maximising their potential, by producing flexible systems that suit them, and confuse opponents.

Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge are the obvious examples, their goals evidence of an ability that was always there, and has been teased out by a set up that has suited them superbly. They would both do well to realise they look so good because they are playing in a team designed around them.

Yet Jordan Henderson is perhaps an even better illustration of the manager's sharp thinking. Here is a player who was going to be sold at the start of last season, and one many assumed simply wasn't cut out for the intensity of Anfield.

Now, he is a player who will - I guarantee - be central to England's plans in Brazil, and will be one of the best performers there. It is a remarkable transformation for which both player and manager haven't received enough credit.

Henderson has always had real talent, but wasn't suited to playing wide in a 4-4-2, and he didn't sit well in central midfield alongside Steven Gerrard in a similar system. He does though, fit perfectly in Liverpool's outstanding pressing game.

He is the modern midfielder, and he will only get better, because he passing around the box is much better than people realise, and there are more goals in him for sure. Under Rodgers, you would expect him to continue on that development path.

The manager was also astute enough to recognise that Gerrard makes the perfect holding midfielder, because of his range of passing and composure under pressure.

That role is key in the modern game, with teams requiring a quarter-back type figure, who can cope with the pass rush, and still direct his side forward. Put in those terms, is there anyone better suited than the skipper?

Yet when the manager first tried it, he was seriously questioned. Typically, Gerrard was under-estimated, given no credit for the ability, both technically and mentally, that has made him a world-class player for more than a decade.

Now, he has the chance to extend his career for several years, and in a position pivotal to their style of play, and crucial for any top side, Liverpool now have one of the best in the world at operating that role.

Again, credit to the player, and to the manager, for seeing what the rest of us failed to see. That is why this has been a seismic season for the club, and one in which they have shown they are here to stay.

They have outstanding performers along the spine of their team, and a young side that will surely only get better.

They also have a young manager who will also only get better for this year's experience. It is an exciting thought.