It’s not time to tread water Roy, we need belief

Reading in the Daily Telegraph today, it struck me how Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson is so admired by even Europe’s top coaches. Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti is quoted talking about Roy with high praise indeed. In an extract from his book “The Beautiful Games of an Ordinary Genius,” he states how coaches such as Hodgson, Lippi and Trapattoni had a massive effect on is early years as a manager. Mentioned in the same breath as those two great managers is a feat in itself, but Ancelotti elevates Hodgson above those two in regards to how influential he was in regards to training:

“When I finished my career as a player, I went and watched [Giovanni] Trapattoni and Marcello Lippi training. I watched Roy Hodgson training Switzerland. He prepares training sessions fantastically well. That was very important for me to see.”

For me every time I see people stating that under Hodgson’s stewardship we would be lucky to finish mid table, it belies not only his record as manager but the number of admirers he has from the upper echelons of the footballing elite. People such as Ancelotti do not give praise lightly to fellow managers, especially if they are rival managers in the same league. Roy himself however is uncertain about how much success Liverpool can have under the current ownership:

“I hope the situation will change when the club is eventually sold and owners who are prepared to invest in the club come in. When that situation arises I’m pretty sure that it won’t be difficult for us to start achieving things again but at the moment the task is really to hang on to the players we’ve got and make certain we don’t have a situation where we have got a total rebuilding process.”

It’s obvious that Roy feels he is treading water until new owners come in and provide some money for new players. He basically feels he has been appointed to steady the ship, and although to a certain extent this is true, Liverpool is still Liverpool and there are players at this club who are far more capable than the lowly seventh place finish that they achieved last season. A team with Torres, Gerrard, Cole, Meireles, Kuyt, Johnson, Reina, Agger and Carragher should be competing for the top four at least without trouble; injuries permitting. It was not long ago that we were competing for the title with only a few different players, and although some would say we over-achieved that season, there is no stopping us rediscovering that form in the near future. Roy does feel that although underdogs, we can still compete:

“The stature, traditions and ability of Liverpool to attract players certainly makes it an achievable task even though we are in strange times. You should never try and dampen people’s enthusiasm and optimism. Furthermore every season we see teams not expected to win titles winning them. It doesn’t always go to the favourite in any country.”

Belief is key here. We can either keep expectations down, like Roy is trying to do, and hope we can get a top four finish, or we go into every match with a determination that we belong at the top. Much like some say second in 2009 was an over-achievement, seventh last campaign was massively below the required standard, and no matter who in the media says that is where the club belongs currently, I do not believe it. With the calibre of players at the club, we are a top four side relatively comfortably, and anything more should be seen as a great season. The ownership situation has to be sorted out of course, and the sooner we get investment, the sooner we can compete for the title again, but in the mean time, this club still has the talent and a manager to compete with the best.

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