by In and Out » Thu Sep 16, 2010 8:54 am
ROY HODGSON has warned there is no quick fix to Liverpool’s worrying start to the season as he prepared to ring the changes in Europe once again this evening.
The Anfield outfit came in for some strong criticism after their stuttering start to the Premier League campaign continued with a dismal goalless draw at Birmingham City last Sunday.
It kept Hodgson’s side in the bottom half of the embryonic league table with just five points from four games, already seven points adrift of leaders Chelsea.
Hodgson will rotate his resources when his side begin their Europa League Group K campaign by hosting Romanian side Steaua Bucharest this evening. And the Liverpool manager admits it will take time to impose his philosophy during a “transitional” period for a new-look squad.
When asked when he believes the team will be at optimum form, Hodgson said: “I don’t know. I’m not unhappy with what the players have done. They are working very hard and trying hard to do the right things.
“We’ll get better but I’m not prepared to set a timescale. We need to be more creative, we need to be better defensively, we need to be better at set plays. We need to be better at all the things we work at. We do as much as we can in training. But it is still a newish team and it will take some time before we can sit back and say we are firing on all cylinders. I am only confirming that of course it is a time of transition, which is always a difficult period. Every transition is difficult, even if there are no changes in the club itself.”
Hodgson added: “I came from a team where I had been for two-and-a-half years with the same team, same players and same ideas and same philosophy. Now I am at a team where I am trying to put a team together and put together a philosophy.
“Everything is new all the time and every training session and match is a learning curve and I will learn from those things. I have a very good, receptive group of players with talent. All of these games are important steps towards becoming a better team.”
As in the narrow home win over West Bromwich Albion a fortnight earlier, Liverpool struggled to create chances against Birmingham and have netted only twice in the top-flight this season.
And Hodgson said: “The style of play will get better. Birmingham was not one of our better games. But the style of play wasn’t a problem against Arsenal and that was the same style we played against Birmingham. I don’t take notice of that kind of criticism. Every time we play and win, people will say fantastic, great style, and it we play and draw or lose, people will say bad style. It’s as simple as that.
“There is no change in our style from the start of the season when people enjoyed watching us in the opening Europa League games and against Arsenal. Nothing has changed other than the fact we have lost one or two players through injury.”
No Liverpool manager has won his first five games in European competition, a landmark Hodgson will reach should his team triumph this evening.
And the Anfield manager is prepared to follow the lead of Sir Alex Ferguson and make wholesale changes ahead of Sunday’s visit to Old Trafford.
“What we will do is pretty much what Sir Alex did on Tuesday,” said Hodgson. “We will look at the squad, look at who is fit and raring to go in the game and players who you think can possibly win the game, and we will put that team on the field.
“If there are changes and the team doesn’t do well everyone will turn round and say you should have played the same XI. But if you play the same XI and lose then people will say you shouldn’t have done it as you have a big game on Sunday.”
Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher are among those likely to be rested, with Joe Cole, Jay Spearing, Ryan Babel, Martin Kelly, David Ngog and Daniel Agger all vying for a starting role.
Raul Meireles, the £11.5million signing from Porto last month, could make his first start in central midfield, but Fabio Aurelio (Achilles) and Dirk Kuyt (shoulder) both remain sidelined.
TONIGHT’S officials are from Spain, with Cesar Muniz Fernandez the referee
[I think this should ease the mind of some who thinks Roy is truly happy with our results and performances, given time I think he'll do a decent job]
AS Liverpool’s players trudged from the St Andrew’s turf on Sunday afternoon, there was little glimpse of a smile on their collectively stern faces.
But Daniel Agger is convinced the laughter has returned to the training ground at Melwood since the arrival of Roy Hodgson.
Regaining the feel-good factor has been a buzz phrase around the club ever since Hodgson’s appointment as successor to Rafael Benitez sparked what Liverpool hoped would be a turning point in a summer of disillusionment.
Results on the pitch have pointed to the fact it will take time for the Anfield outfit to truly replicate the form that made them competitive for much of the Spaniard’s reign.
But away from the playing field, Denmark international Agger believes the change in players, coaching staff and training methods has already started to have a positive effect.
“It’s a new team with new players, young players, new staff,” says the defender. “You can see on people’s faces they’re a lot more happy.
“The training sessions are different. When you get a new training session, new staff, new methods, it gives more energy somehow.
“Obviously the sessions have to be good and in the right way. But for me it’s important for a team to be happy to play football. For me personally it’s important to be happy to play football. I can perform better and I think it’s the same for everybody.”
When asked if he felt the squad had grown stale under Benitez, the 25-year-old adds: “I think we have to look at the future not the past so I don’t think it’s relevant.
“In every training session we focus on the future, we don’t look at the past.”
The recent past, though, has seen Agger pushed into an unaccustomed role in Liverpool’s defence.
With injuries having forced the Dane to become a makeshift left-back during the death throes of Benitez’s reign, Agger has found himself still in the position at the start of the Hodgson era.
[I think GBYS harped on about the lack of apparent atmos amongst the players, for Agger the atmosphere is better so that should lay this last little fallacy to rest]
Football is a relatively simple game and Roy knows it
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