Liverpool FC Forum

by **Roger Red Hat** » Fri Oct 01, 2010 2:50 pm

do you do stand up comedy too?

by **jacdaniel** » Fri Oct 01, 2010 2:50 pm

bigmick wrote:It's not really a question of who's "fault" it is, because clearly as Roy is the manager he is entitled to be questioned by disgruntled fans. He may think that lifes a bit unfair that when a team made up entirely of Rafa's signings gets beat by Northampton two months after he took over he gets slaughtered for it, but that's life I'm afraid.

Fortunately for Roy, I think most people who are willing to look at the situation sensibly are prepared to give him more than six league matches before they write him off.

The next 6 or so PL games are very important for him now though. If we can only manage 6 points from them... he'll be in serious trouble.

Im not sure how the players would react if he did get the sack though. I believe that Stevie and Jamie probably had some say in us appointing an English manager.

We can't afford anything less than a win against Blackpool or this forum will be a miserable place for 2 weeks or so.

by **crim cram** » Fri Oct 01, 2010 2:54 pm

Agree to disagree i guess. I didn't see much from him and tbh it didn't seem like he wanted to be here. I'm not denying he has some skill and I hope he can get back to his old(Roma) self, but I'll say again, he looked lost when he played for us, like he didn't know where or how he was supposed to play.

by **Ciggy** » Fri Oct 01, 2010 3:00 pm

Sometimes a quick divorce is better than trying to make a go of a marriage that isnt working.

by **bigmick** » Fri Oct 01, 2010 3:06 pm

We really could do with a win against Blackpool. If we get one, we'll have 9 points from seven matches. In Rafa's first seven matches he got 10 points, mind you he did take over a team which had finished 4th and not 7th. I say this not to compare the two, merely to add a bit of persepctive.

by **crim cram** » Fri Oct 01, 2010 3:09 pm

Ciggy wrote:Sometimes a quick divorce is better than trying to make a go of a marriage that isnt working.

I think after six games it would be more of an annulment

by **jacdaniel** » Fri Oct 01, 2010 3:13 pm

It could still go either way for Roy. The next 5 or 6 PL games should give us more of an idea of which way that will be.

by **andy_g** » Fri Oct 01, 2010 3:19 pm

rocky29 wrote:Im always right in the end and ulot can mock me all u like just like the strikes situation im proved right.

it was an ok post until you put that bit in. i'll bet you aquilani isn't juve's best player for a start, however much ball fizzing he does. and congratulations on being proven right on the striker issue, nobody else believed we needed another one, of course... just you.

by **only me** » Fri Oct 01, 2010 3:23 pm

Don't wanna be too pesimistic but if results don't come soon we may find ourselves in relegation battles. It is very early in the season but out current performace is relegation level. Spiral of bad results and growing pressure could lead to a very complicated situation.

by **Big Niall** » Fri Oct 01, 2010 3:30 pm

Ciggy wrote:
Big Niall wrote:Roy has to clean up another persons Fukk up.

Go on Roy

So its Rafas fault now is it

You have 4 warnings because of the abuse you have given to Rafa if we dont win the next two games Roy will be getting it from both barrell from you.

The weak squad is Benitez's fault - he spent a fortune on this group. Roy has to make do with it.

Roy has my undoubted support for at least 2 full seasons and probably 3. Only then can we judge how he is doing with the mess left behind.

by **jacdaniel** » Fri Oct 01, 2010 3:39 pm

This squad is similar enough to the one that challenged for the title 18 months ago. And got to the CL quarter final.

its not as bad as people make out. And its much better than anything Hodgy has worked with before. Should be pushing for 4th at least.

people need to move on and stop blaming Rafa. We can't sack him again ya know.

by **supersub** » Fri Oct 01, 2010 3:39 pm

I don't think it is a weak squad.....it's a squad that reached 2nd not so long ago....we've lost Alonso and Mascherano but we have brought in Meireles and Joe Cole who are pretty good players to be honest...Johnson for Arbeloa......

lets not assume last seasons duff showing is all due to a manager....injuries and poor player performances have some bearing

just hope the players give a little bit back to Roy for the faith he shows in them

by **Ciggy** » Fri Oct 01, 2010 3:55 pm

Liverpool FC needed an inspirational figure... instead they got Roy Hodgson

Oct 1 2010 By Ben Thornley, Head of Sport

AFTER the manner in which Rafa Benitez’s Anfield reign reached its conclusion this summer, Liverpool needed a manager to re-energise the club and its fans.

Instead, they got Roy Hodgson.

As bad decisions go, replacing the Spaniard with the Londoner was like swapping Javier Mascherano for Christian Poulsen. Or attempting to sign Carlton Cole as a "high quality" back-up for Fernando Torres.

Liverpool required an inspirational figure to light a fire under a club in the shadow of its toxic American owners, a motivator to realise the potential of a talented but underachieving group of players who stumbled to a poor seventh-place Premier League finish.

With so many key men known to be considering their futures and Champions League rivals Manchester City and Tottenham growing stronger by the season, a boss who could make an immediate impact should have been sought.

Not a steady hand for hire whose last big job was 11 years ago at Inter Milan – and only then in a caretaker role – and who had spent the best part of the last decade cruising towards retirement in Scandinavia.

Hodgson is a fine coach but he isn’t a Liverpool manager, and already it is apparent he is horribly out of his depth.

Indeed, when you hear the 63-year-old talk it takes a moment for it to register that he is Reds boss.

It’s not just the foreign accent of his two immediate predecessors that he lacks.

He has neither the arrogance or charisma of Gerard Houllier nor the unswerving self-assurance, pedigree and genius of Benitez – traits necessary to deal with the huge pressure that comes with the Anfield job.

There are times when Hodgson himself appears to forget he’s sitting in one of the game’s most prized hotseats.

He often seems too modest and almost embarrassed to say anything that would make him appear confident.

Certainly, some of his signings and transfer targets suggest that Hodgson still thinks he is at Craven Cottage.

Hodgson is, however, at least as defensively-minded as both Benitez and Houllier. Revealingly after last week’s humiliating home Carling Cup defeat to Northampton, Hodgson said that when his side went 2-1 down he had to "throw caution to the wind."

Liverpool were playing a struggling League Two side. At Anfield.

Caution shouldn’t come in to the equation.

Equally as unforgivable was Hodgson’s failure to defend Fernando Torres against Mr. Ferguson’s accusations of cheating, with the former Fulham boss more interested in preserving his friendship with the United manager than defending the reputation of a star player.

The Scot after all can only be pally with a manager he doesn’t perceive to be a threat to him – and there’s no danger of Liverpool challenging Manchester United this term.

Or even the top four.

After playing the likes of Manchester City, Manchester United and Arsenal so far this term, it has been suggested that the Reds are not as bad as the table suggests.

Liverpool, however, looked no more likely to beat Sunderland or Birmingham than they did the Red Devils or City.

It feels wrong to judge a manager so early and perhaps Hodgson does deserve more time to make his mark at Anfield, but there hasn’t even been a glimmer of hope that things will improve.

This side’s strength if nothing else has always been its resoluteness and organisation, yet despite taking an even more cautious approach than Benitez the defence appears shakier than at any time since the Roy Evans era. And for all the criticism of Benitez’s favoured zonal marking system, at least players contested set pieces.

It might be considered too un-Liverpool to axe a manager so prematurely, going down an unwanted road travelled by the likes of Newcastle.

Sometimes, though, it is braver to admit that you got it wrong in the first place.

How long to do you leave it? Until Christmas or the end of the season? Time is something the club don’t have.

Another season outside of the Champions League is likely to prompt the exits of Jose Reina and Fernando Torres.

And if it’s the same men brokering their moves away who negotiated the paltry sum for Mascherano, Liverpool won’t even be suitably compensated.

Even then would Hodgson – who paid £7.5m for Kevin Davies while at Blackburn – be the best man to spend the money?

Worryingly, he is already trying to reduce expectations at Liverpool by suggesting after the defeat to Northampton and the draw to Sunderland that the fans needed to lower their hopes for the forthcoming season.

Liverpool fans and their crazy ambitions of beating the Black Cats and the Cobblers at Anfield, eh?

The last time the 18 times champions of England made such a poor start to the season was during Graeme Souness’ second term in charge.

Had David Moores moved as quickly to end the former midfielder’s disastrous reign as he did to accept Tom Hicks and George Gillett’s money, then maybe Liverpool’s title drought would not now stand at 20 years and counting.

Sticking by a manager is only noble if you have the right boss. Nothing in that past of present suggests Hodgson is.

The Souness years – from which the club has never recovered – showed what can happen if you keep faith in the wrong man.

It’s not as if there isn’t a ready-made replacement at Anfield in Kenny Dalglish, the man to whom the club should have turned in the first place.

Instead, a Liverpool board described by Benitez as knowing "nothing about football" made the mistake of going for the man of the moment, hiring Hodgson on the strength of one good season after forcing the Spaniard’s exit because of one poor campaign.

For now, though, the ownership issue is the most pressing challenge facing the club.

After all, the root cause of Liverpool's decline is a lack of investment in the squad for three years, exacerbated by a handful of poor transfer decisions by Benitez admittedly. Appointing Hodgson, however, has only accelerated the Reds' regression.

sportsdesk@dailypost.co.uk

[url=http://www.dailypost.co.uk/sport-news/liverpool-fc/2010/10/01/comment-liverpool-fc-needed-an-inspirational-figure-instead-they-got-roy-hodgson-55578-273
81493/]http://www.dailypost.co.uk/sport-n....7381493[/url]

by **JC_81** » Fri Oct 01, 2010 4:00 pm

supersub wrote:I don't think it is a weak squad.....it's a squad that reached 2nd not so long ago....we've lost Alonso and Mascherano but we have brought in Meireles and Joe Cole who are pretty good players to be honest...Johnson for Arbeloa......

lets not assume last seasons duff showing is all due to a manager....injuries and poor player performances have some bearing

just hope the players give a little bit back to Roy for the faith he shows in them

Just on that point mate.

You haven't considered that the squad that came second also had Hyypia as backup centre half, who put in some crucial performances, not least as a last minute stand-in at Old Trafford. Benayoun had the season of his life and Riera was an extremely useful player before he fell out with Benitez that season. Aurelio also had his best injury free run that season.

Two years down the line not only have three of those players left in addition to the Alonso/Mascherano axis in midfield, but we have a Steven Gerrard who imho is just past the peak of his powers (although still a top, top quality player) and a Fernando Torres who looks to me to have lost half a yard of pace after all the injuries he's had in the last 12 months, let alone his body language starting to suggest he doesn't love life on Merseyside as much as he did a few years ago.

You then look at Kuyt , who is now 30, and Carragher two years further into his thirties, who have been key players for us in recent years. They aren't getting any younger.

I agree that Mereiles and Cole are good players, but Konchesky and Poulsen certainly aren't imo and our squad is significantly weaker than it was 2 seasons ago. A change of manager and a change of direction was needed, but we should never kid ourselves that with the limited resources and financial constraints placed on the club by the owners that a new manager alone was going to take this same squad from 7th to being serious contenders or even a comfortable top four team.

by **akumaface** » Fri Oct 01, 2010 4:02 pm

I really don't understand why people continue to say give Roy more games to prove himself. Even since the pre season up to now and in all competitions, there are enough games to prove himself. Please someone give me some fact as to what Roy had done right or think we are improving as a squad! I can point out many wrongs but not rights. I can't believe with the kind of players that we have, we can accept that he is doing a decent job. He couldn't even see he doesn't have the kind of player to play in this defensive system and keep insisting on it. By doing so simply means he hasn't done any preparation or a clue about the players that we have. What good will it do if we give him more time to be even more defensive. We won't even qualify for Europa league next year. Now we are talking if we beat Blackpool then we are back in it. This is embarassing to see as we even hesitated that we can't beat blackpool. For me, I want us to win but who will bet their life that we will win against Blackpool with the way we are playing now. I really hope for those who thinks is a good idea to give Roy more games is right as I just wish our club to be just as successful. This is not being negative but is the reality. No one here wants to say "I told you so" as we are all in this together and just don't want us LFC fans to suffer with a problem that can be fixed right now then to drag till it is too late to do something.

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