Quantcast
View from the Kop

Do you trust Roy to make the right decisions?

|

In his news conference today, Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson talked about the difficulties that he has to face since joining the club back in July. He says although there is still work to do to strengthen the squad, he believes he has done the best under the circumstances:

“I was very happy in general, considering there was so much to do and so many unanswered questions when I joined the club. I think we have done as good a job as was possible because there were so many difficulties with players that we desperately wanted to keep being courted by other clubs and wanting to leave. Then we had to replace some players and make certain we strengthened the squad. It wasn’t ideal and we would maybe have liked to have done one or two other minor things as well to really improve the squad but I don’t it was possible for me to do that in one transfer window, it is going to take more transfer windows. We were pretty much near the maximum of what we could do in the transfer window in this short period of time we had available.”

As I mentioned yesterday in an article, Roy has moved on a lot of players who were not in contention for the first team. The sale and loaning out of players such as Damien Plessis, Nabil El Zhar and others can only be a good thing, but it would be safe to say that Roy’s current squad is nowhere near his ideal lineup. As he says it takes more than one transfer window to make your mark on the club and its players. He inherited a group of player nearly all of which were bought by Rafa Benitez, and without getting into a debate about the strength of the squad he was left with, Roy determined that the squad was high in quantity but low in quality depth. An opinion which has been demonstrated by the high turnover of players since he was appointed manager a little over two months ago.

Again, I say this without trying to detriment the previous manager, but every new manager has their own view on players and have their own ideas about who should be in the playing squad. Roy will want to stamp his mark on the first team and going by his comments, his transformation of the squad is not yet complete. The question becomes whether these changes are for the better. Are the players coming in better than those which have left?

At the moment it would be merely conjecture to draw any conclusion for 1) new players take time to settle and 2) Roy has only been in the job for a short period of time. There has already been disquiet though among Reds fans about the comings and goings. Some were perplexed by the nature of Alberto Aquilani’s departure where Juve seem to be getting a year’s free trial for the player, while others question the signings of Paul Konchesky and Christian Poulsen both because of their abilities and age.

In the end, like any manager, he will have to live and die by his decisions. Konchesky could very well prove to be a competent, solid left back in contrast to the inexperience of Emiliano Insua last season and Poulsen could prove to be another good buy who adds some much needed solidity and experience in the centre of midfield after the departure of Javier Mascherano. Aquilani’s replacement Meireles could well be the bargain of the summer; especially if Roy is correct in his judgement after watching the player for a fair few years.

Of course they could prove to be mistakes too but in most cases I think he has made some shrewd decisions. His decision not to buy another striker before the end of the transfer window could make him open to criticism however, although he has said that he feels he didn’t have enough time after Masch’s sale to put the money to good use on a forward he was comfortable in buying. Whether this is a good enough excuse I don’t know (he could have scouted strikers for the best part of a month after Javier made it clear he wanted to go).

It really becomes about whether you trust Roy. I for one will be giving him time to see whether his decisions bear fruit, and not pre-judging his every move on the basis of opinion which certainly does not match his three decades in football management.

Follow us on twitter @live4Liverpool

Live4Liverpool is recruiting columnists. For further info contact the site editor at editor@live4liverpool.com

Full trailer for ‘Buried’ the new thriller which hits cinemas Sept 29:

Share this article

19 comments

  • magnumopus says:

    Sorry but there is no excuse for not being prepared for what fans have been asking for from before Rafa’s last year at the helm!!! That is another quality striker… Somebody wasn’t watching the helm.

  • Lee says:

    Roy comes across a nice guy but is old and completely out of his depth.

    How a manager of his age and lack of realy trophy wins can take over as manager is beyond me. For him to remark that Paul Konchesky is a quality defender proves how clueless he is.

    Add the fact that we signed two left backs but failed to get a striker and once again it shows stupidity.

    We need new owners, new manager and new quality players in that order. Forget all this ‘profile’ nonsense and just bring in some decent players.

    Less talking to the media would also be good – until he gets sacked of course.

  • trev says:

    babel has a chance to prove he can be a top player as a back up striker with roys guidance i think he will take that chance rafa had no man management skills and destroyed players confidence and spent money foolishly roy wont spend just to spend he wants value for money which is a good thing

  • Rusty says:

    With Aquilani, the key point seems to be that for the year he is in Italy, we will not have to pay his wages.

  • stavros says:

    i am happy with Roy’s transfers.he brought experienced and proven talent,and sold most of liverpool’s rubbish.el zhar,plessis,degen,…aquilani loaned out with an option to buy for 17 million is a good move.if rafa had played babel the last years,we might not need a striker.babel’s got great talent and roy will use him wisely,i’m sure of that.ngog is 21 years old and another good player.i would prefer a pacey winger than a striker at liverpool right now.we have 4 center backs proven all of them,3 side backs and kelly who has talent,in midfield we are good with gerrard,meireles,poulsen and lucas,jovanovic ,joe cole and maxi wingers and strikers are kuyt,babel,torres,ngog.we have 4 strikers and we should have bought another one?lool.put the players in their positions and we are full of strikers.4-4-2, with torres-kuyt,torres-babel,babel-kuyt,babel-ngog.kuyt is not a winger in my opinion,but a striker.maxi,joe cole and jovanovic should play for the wings.i believe the liverpool squad is good and whatever i’ve read and saw,liverpool will have a good season,in my opinion.a win in birmingham is first things first.new owners and one or two january moves will make us fight for some trophies.roy was also right to say that there are liverpool players to be sold further.itandje is surely the one.lucas might be the other?i’ve read that roy was thinking of selling him in deadline day.
    Squad:
    Reina
    Johnson Carragher Agger Konchesky
    Cole Gerrard Meireles Maxi
    Kuyt
    Torres
    Subs:Jones,Skrtel,Aurelio,Poulsen,Jovanovic,Babel,Ngog.The squad aint that bad,is it?.Considering both Babel and Ngog are strikers,the bench would look better if we had another winger.Arda Turan please.In Roy we trust

  • Tony K says:

    Simple answer to a simple question,no I don’t trust him.

  • Lee says:

    Stavros…..

    You’re optimistic I’ll give you that but unfortunately, like many other red supporters, you are deluded.

    We signed Joe Cole and Meireles in the transfer window and that is it. The rest of them aren’t much cop whatsoever.

    Loaning Aquilani was a stupid move. Ok it saves on wages but we lose on the transfer fee.

    Let me also tell you that we have Torres as the only main striker at the club and we are crying out for another like him to go with Jovanovic and Ngog as back-up. After all, Hodgson has failed to realise that Jovanovic is actually a striker (not a winger as you incorrectly suggest) and that Kuyt is NOT a very good footballer.

    I also get fed up of reading about how talented Babel is. He’s had plenty of time and he just isn’t up to it. He has the ability but no brain and his heart isn’t in it either.

    To add to the other tripe you posted you went on to say how much we need Turan. Let me say this for the last time, just because a player says he wants to join us or is linked to us through the media, does not mean he is worthy of playing for us. We need wingers yes but Turan isn’t good enough. Get off the bandwagon and leave the football comments to those of us in the know.

    6th place for us this year mark my words and then hopefully Roy will be sacked and we start to move on up.

  • steve mcauley says:

    yeah i trust old roy but not the editor of live4liverpool, maybe you could e-mail me directly to stevemac@live.ie giving me your reasons for deleting my comments!

  • daboy says:

    I think not selling Aquilani and buying a striker was a mistake i still think Cole Mereiles and Jova were good signings.
    As well Wilson may be a goodie but i do believe it is a weak squad and Roy is not the man for Liverpool.
    In saying that new owners are coming and his ability to build a side will be truly tested with money to spend, thats if he gets any.
    Also at the moment the players are apparently happy with him so i suppose lets just hope i am wrong about Roy.

  • Alan says:

    Roy has to earn the fans’ trust through results and trophies. At the moment his CV is far less impressive than even Gerard Houllier’s. And Houllier was proven not good enough to achieve Liverpool’s high expectations.

    Roy is 63 and this is his first major job in his own country. He has never even won the League cup in England let alone FA Cup or a League title. His Scandinavian titles are no better than the Scottish league.

    My gut tells me he is out of his depth and the way he went 3-0 down to Man City yet didn’t make a sub til the 78th minute scared me because it was stupidity. As was failing to secure a decent striker to cover for Torres after 6 weeks.

    But I am desperate for him to prove me wrong.

  • tee somethang says:

    hey roy u are at this juncture still new to liverpool but dont fall into the rafa handicap so soon. we need u to sign arda turan watever it takes.dont tell us about lack of money becoz the money is there.sell lucas for 8m,kuyt for 12m and get arda fro 12m.buy another striker either gomez,mileviskiy

  • tee somethang says:

    roy remember u are judged on results and decisions u make.we are telling u now while its early days that sell lucas and buy arda.sell kuyt and get milevisky.u always say there is no money.surely we can get 7m for lucas,13m for kuyt.thats enough for us to get milevisky for 10m and atda for 14m considering that u havent used up all the mascerano money.now if u want to be like benitez who didnt listen and ended up killing our team,dont do wat i am saying here.

  • tee somethang says:

    all u guyz who are saying we dont have money are missing it.sell lucas,kuyt,aqua and get 33m.now that is enough to buy milevskiy,arda and another player.please dont believe that there is no money.roy must wake up b4 its too late otherwise some of us wo doubted his credentials will begin to be justified.

  • Lee says:

    See there you go again…(ref. Tee)

    We’re linked with Arda Turan so we should sign him

    We’re linked with Milevskiiy so we should sign him

    It’s idiots like you that wind me up on a daily basis begging us to sign players that you’ve happened to look up on youtube.

  • Lee says:

    FAO antix,

    Agreed we shouldn’t sign any old striker so why did Roy try to do just that at the end of the transfer window.

    The likes of Pavlyuchenko, Doyle, Cole etc shouldn’t be linked with us let alone actually play for us.

    He had months in which to sort the situation out, not one or two days and that’s what will be his downfall.

    Roy is not good enough for LFC and once we get new owners we can fire his out-of-depth, out-of-touch, non-achieving wrinkly old arse and start to achieve again.

  • sultan says:

    Still im in doubt with ROY

  • Lee says:

    i’m certainly still treating Hodgson with concern but am doing so with the utmost support. the liverpool manager job comes with ready made criticism from the stupid biased english media. I think money has played a part in the signings, I think Aquilani was farmed out to cut the wage bill down, simple as. Because I dont think Hodge would be rash enough to let such a player go knowing he only had Lucas and Poulsen in reserve, neither of whom can pass to save their life. even still though I am concerned that since Roy has spent most of his managerial career in the bargain basement looking for solid if unspectacular players I wonder if even if he gets money come January will he have the necessary ambition to chase the right targets, and I mean big marquee signings that will shoot us up the table. Oct 6th could see the club repossessed and then potential bidders will pounce on the cut price, saving their real money for the squad. my honest guess is Roy will have a handsome kitty in January. and a better left back, a defensive midfielder, 2 fast wingers and another striker. so my idea is:
    Taye Taiwo from Marseille LB
    Gokhan Inler from Udinese CM
    Arda Turan and Jesus Navas for wingers
    then Sergio Aguero or Benzema for the other striker. Benzema wont last til January at Madrid, i’ve seen him play and he cant handle it, but as with Sneijder, Robben etc, Madrid’s trash is others treasure.

  • stan howard says:

    roy has what it takes, no doubt about it, no doubt at all – common sense, a simple game kept simple

  • stan howard says:

    if roy does win us something houlier will claim it was really he won it, like he won the world cup for france and the champions league for liverpool

Comments are closed.