Liverpool assistant manager Colin Pascoe is set to follow Mike Marsh in leaving the club. The Kop boss, Brendan Rodgers, may have survived the chop at the end-of-season review, but his backroom staff have taken the hit and the Irishman gave the green light to the changes. Liverpool confirmed this morning that first team coach and former Reds’ player Mike Marsh would not have his contract renewed at Anfield.

Kirkby-born Marsh made 101 appearances for Liverpool as a player between 1989 and 1993, and returned to the club as an Academy coach in 2009. He was promoted to U18s coach two years later, and stepped up to the first team following Rodgers’ appointment in 2012.

And this afternoon Brendan Rodgers’ assistant manager Colin Pascoe, a man who has been with the Northern Irishman throughout his coaching career at Swansea and Liverpool, would leave his role 12 months before the end of his current contract. This decision taken after the first-team coach did not manage to renew the contract.

It is after all only just over a year since Rodgers told the ECHO, as the Reds chased that elusive Premier League in April 2014: “I get wonderful support from my assistants. My staff here are absolutely critical to what we’ve done. i could not do it on my own and they are a big part of the success here.”
Pascoe was at Swansea when Rodgers arrived in 2010 and the pair became close in the process of leading the Swans from the Championship to the Premier League in 2011. They could look to former players to fill the empty slot, but it is not clear what direction they will go in what is set to be a pivotal summer for the club and Rodgers.

Rodgers met with co-owner Tom Werner and Fenway Sports Group president Mike Gordon earlier this week and within 72 hours two of his coaching staff left the club. Rodgers brought Pascoe with him from Swansea when he became Liverpool manager in June 2012. The decision to allow both leave was agreed between Rodgers, Werner and Gordon after they agreed a “comprehensive plan for improvement” when they met in Liverpool on Tuesday.

Liverpool will now look to replace him, though it is unclear at this stage whether they will do that internally, or by bringing in an experienced coach from outside. Speculation has already begun over who will replace Marsh with former players Sami Hyypia, the ex-Bayer Leverkusen and Brighton manager, and Bolo Zenden, who served as interim assistant manager to Rafa Benitez at Chelsea in 2012-13 season, two early names suggested.