Tonight is a big night in Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool career.

The first game in the group stage, away to the toughest team in the group, may not seem like a make or break tie, but it’s not far off. And it’s all because of last weekend’s performance.

Against Manchester United, Liverpool were simply awful, they didn’t defend well and they couldn’t get the ball to their attackers. Those that say there is nothing wrong with Liverpool other than their defence, midfield and attack have a point. The first half of that game was emblematic of that, and stayed 0-0 only because Manchester United’s attack was toothless itself.

Liverpool’s second half started dreadfully, conceding a terrible goal from a free kick when Daley Blind was left in acres of space for United’s first goal and Joe Gomez’s inexperienced tackle on Ander Herrera gave Manchester United a two goal lead.

Even after that, Liverpool couldn’t get back into the game until Christian Benteke lifted the side with a stunning overhead kick, but Liverpool were, yet again, loose at the back and allowed Anthony Martial in to score.

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It wasn’t the defeat that would have hurt Liverpool fans the most – though any defeat to Manchester United will hurt – it was the fact that their team just didn’t look up for the fight. Danny Ings was lost out wide, and Christian Benteke was isolated up front for the first 70 minutes or so, until Jordon Ibe produced a good display out on the right.

Liverpool’s first half performance was so abject that it calls into question what the manager is doing at the club this season. The new signings will surely need time to gel, but we said that last season, too. Their win against Stoke on the first day of the season didn’t come from a confident, dominating performance, it came from a great strike from Philippe Coutinho.

They beat Bournemouth at home with a Christian Benteke goal that even the Premier League has admitted should not have counted. And the performances against both West Ham and Manchester United were dire.

In fact, Liverpool have played well in one 20 minute spell, against Arsenal at the Emirates, all season.

So now is the time they have to start to win games. Brendan Rodgers may have been lucky to keep his job at all over the summer – the disappointing end to the season was perhaps mitigated by the fact that Champions League qualification was gone after defeats to Arsenal and Manchester United in March / April.

But the 6-1 defeat at Stoke might have forced the board’s hand. Instead they backed their man, allowed him to make his transfers, and so far they haven’t paid off.

The dilemma for Liverpool is perhaps the timing of these poor performances. September isn’t really the time to go sacking managers – they’ve just spent the summer getting things in place, the players all know what they’re doing, and any new man coming in would have to dismantle all of that and potentially just make things worse.

More importantly, the new man would have no chance to make any new signings until January, and so if he thought changes were needed, he’d have to plod along on the same level until January, by which time it may be too late to mount a serious top four challenge.

So tonight is a big game for Liverpool, and for Rodgers, and they’ll be hoping they have a similar result to Chelsea’s last night. Mourinho’s men were down on their luck until last night, and they must have feared the worst when Eden Hazard siked his early penalty. But a 4-0 win was just what the doctor ordered after their poor displays, and Liverpool will hope that they can win their European tie so emphatically and kick start their own season.

It’s the perfect setting – Bordeaux are a decent side, they have a new stadium, an up and coming manager in Willy Sagnol, and they’ll be looking to impress. That could help Liverpool as the French side might look to attack them more than they might usually look to do against a big English side – though with Liverpool’s defensive frailties this season, perhaps that’s not such a good thing for Rodgers!

If they don’t manage to turn it around tonight, Rodgers might really start to fear for his job. It’s not just a possibility at the moment, it’s turning into more of a probability. Defeats you can take, because if you can take the positives from it you can move on. But defeats where you play badly, as Liverpool have done all season, spell disaster. It’s hard to come back from that, but Liverpool have the chance tonight to start the road to recovery. They really need to take it.

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