When Roy Hodgson was appointed as Liverpool manager I was first of all relieved that the search for a new man had ended and that we would be able to concentrate on strengthening the squad. Along with my feeling of relief I also felt curious about the impact that Roy would have on Liverpool. Would the arrival of a new coach with fresh ideas revitalise our squad and turn us back into the title chasing side from two seasons ago? Or would the players simply carry last season’s poor form into this campaign?
While both of those scenarios are a little bit extreme, I’ve so far seen evidence of both happening so far this season. At times our play has been lethargic and lacking in ideas just like under Rafa but I’ve also seen hints that the players are reacting well to Roy’s new approach and are already becoming mentally stronger as a team. The performance that most characterised our apparent new mental toughness was the 2-1 away win against a very difficult Trabzonspor team. Although the goal that levelled the game for us was down to a lucky own goal, it was great to see us turn around a tough European away fixture like that.
We started off that game being dominated all over the pitch and quite rightly went 1-0 down early on, and I couldn’t help but get flashbacks of last season in the Europa League, where we’d get outplayed in the away leg by a lesser team and try to not lose by any more than one goal. Seeing us go on to win the game on the night was a pleasant surprise though, and I’m hopeful that we get to see more mentally tough away performances from Liverpool under Roy Hodgson.
The match against Birmingham was almost a repeat of the game last season under Rafa: a very hard fought draw against a team who are incredibly strong at home. We had more possession this time round but like our game away at Birmingham last season, we just didn’t seem to look that threatening up front. I expect a few more of these battling away draws from us this year and am hopeful that we can show a bit more creativity and fight at Old Trafford on Sunday. I know the Manchester City match left us all feeling unhappy but I actually thought we played decent in that game. We were a bit unlucky with hitting the post but at times we actually looked like a threatening team, and that in itself made our performance more impressive to me than in the goalless draw at Eastlands last season. Obviously a draw is much better than a 3-0 loss but at least this season we went for it, whereas in the 0-0 draw we were pretty much there to defend deep and hoof the ball away whenever possible.
I’ve seen some encouraging signs from our squad so far but at the same time the start to the league campaign has given us a bit of a reality slap. The new manager/new players excitement is now gone, and it’s obvious that Roy will need a bit of time to really turn Liverpool into his squad. Until then we may have to put up with a few more 1-0 home wins and goalless away draws but I remain optimistic that once we get Joe Cole playing regularly alongside Torres and Gerrard we will be able to boast arguably the best attacking trio in the league.
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Positives
Konchesky is a proper left back, the first for several years
Mirales looks very good, can’t wait to see him take some pressure off stevie
Joe Cole and Jovanavic will both do well for us
negatives
that game was there to be won
Torres needs help up front, we must hope it comes in january
Nothing to worry about just yet, just to grind out a couple of results. Win against the poxy mancs and we’re back. Must ditch Lucas to do that!Away with two holding midfielders, let’s get forward quicker and go for goals, get Torres fired up, i’d rather lose trying to win, than sitting deep and waiting for the inevitable. Let the reds loose Roy. YNWA.
I know joe Cole wants to play in a central role but until january, when hopefully roy will buy some QUALITY width, i think he should be deployed on the left wing and give young amoo a crack on the right, with raul and SG in the middle i think we could stay in the mix til xmas, then really go for it in the new year when my ideal starting line-up being: pepe
GJ, skrtl, agger, konch
turan, SG, raul, A young
cole
torres
well, a man can dream, can’t he?
pliz dont lie to us.roy is clueless.he is just like rafa.maybe ppl like him becoz he is english,but so wat.houllier was better than both rafa and roy.roy loves lucas and kuyt just like rafa.he brought us crap like poulsen just like rafa brought us dosena,voronin(and insulted us by giving this failure our great number 10 jersey).raul is the only one worthy of putting on that red jersey.and konchesky,my God.why not get taiwo instead.dont tell me we dont have money.sell lucas and buy taiwo.sell poulsen too,sell kuyt,elzhar,aqua,insua,maxi,kygiakos