The way we used to pass out from the back under Rodgers, Martinez, Laudrup etc was the centre backs split to either side of the box, defensive midfielder dropped deep, full backs pushed up, If opposition pressed keeper would chip to the full backs otherwise keeper could pass to a centre back and we could move forwards by triangle style passing. More often than not we would keep possession and get up to at least half way where we could look to build. This had advantages over just booting the ball up to half way as it would just keep coming back.
The way we do it now seems crazy to me 1 defender back who get the ball from the keeper who then moves forward. The risk to reward ratio of this method seems far too risky to me
There's nothing wrong with passing out from the back but the way Russ does it is very odd.