Liverpool embark on clear-out of Brendan Rodgers' backroom staff with sacking of assistant manager Colin Pascoe

Liverpool have embarked on a ruthless clear-out of Brendan Rodgers’ backroom staff, sacking his long-serving assistant Colin Pascoe and deciding against renewing the contract of first-team coach Mike Marsh.

The decisions followed Rodgers’ post-season review with chairman Tom Werner and Mike Gordon, the second-biggest investor in Fenway Sports Group, the club’s owners. The Liverpool manager has survived but Pascoe, whom he brought with him from Swansea in 2012, has paid a high price for a season in which the team failed to meet expectations.

Rodgers and Pascoe first worked together when the former joined Swansea. Pascoe, a Wales international who had played for Swansea in two spells, worked with Rodgers as they won promotion through the play-offs and then finished 11th in their first season. In the “Being: Liverpool” documentary at the start of Rodgers’ time at Liverpool he disclosed that his daughter Mishca was in a relationship with Pascoe’s son Theo.

The move to get rid of Pascoe has been presented as a mutual decision between the three - Rodgers, Gordon and Werner. Pascoe had a year left on his contract with the club and there has been no indication yet of who will replace him in the coaching structure. Marsh, a former Liverpool player, was promoted from the academy by Rodgers three years ago.