After watching the game at St. Andrews on Sunday afternoon – and the previous 6 or so games under Hodgson – I’ve come to the conclusion that Roy is suffering from an identity-crisis. He thinks he is Rafa Benitez.
Watching Liverpool on Sunday was like watching the same side from last season. Under Benitez, Liverpool regularly started away (and often at home) against ‘bottom 10′ sides with two holding midfielders; where Rafa had Mascherano and Lucas, Hodgson has Lucas and Poulsen. The effect is the same: Liverpool have plenty of destructive capability and hard-tackling but very little creativity. And like under Rafa, Liverpool started with one up front and one just behind in what is effectively a five-man midfield. Those two players were the same for both Hodgson and Rafa: Gerrard and Torres. Despite Sky Sports’ attempts at showing Liverpool playing a 4-4-1-1 – as part of the fledgling campaign to show Roy as being infinitely better than Rafa – it was 4-5-1 – Rafa’s favoured formation since Torres signed. During Sunday’s game, from midfield to attack, Liverpool were overly-cautious, looked short of ideas and as the game wore on began to look nervy at the back. It was like watching the whole of last season compacted into a single game. We can only hope that Meireles (and the returning Cole) will instigate a change in this department.
As for defence, few things have changed either. Konchesky has replaced Insua; Skrtel seems to be favoured over Agger, and Carragher and Johnson remain. Few could argue with what is a pretty solid backline but the new man has experimented very little with what is mostly Rafa’s old side. It’s as if he’s afraid of what came before.
One thing Hodgson has changed is moving from zonal to man-marking. But as the one major alteration you have to wonder whether it was a wise choice at all. After all, this is not just a team but an entire club that has had to switch from 5 years of zonal-marking to man-marking near enough over night. The effect has luckily not been too detrimental to Liverpool – yet – but the side does look much more ropey when defending set pieces than it used to. However, changes needed to be made to the way the side plays and gradually the players will get used to defending set pieces in a different way.
Sadly, the one massive thing that Roy hasn’t changed from last season is the turgid, boredom-inducing football. And as much as that is in part the players’ responsibility, the manager has to be the catalyst; it is often a strong manager’s personality that comes across in the way his team plays. Last season, Liverpool played some mind-numbing stuff. So far this season – and perhaps the first 15 minutes against Arsenal aside – nothing has changed (and moving on half the reserves and youth team is proving nothing to anybody.)
Rafa was moved on to instigate change, to introduce a new man, with a new methodology; new tactics and his own ideas. Rafa was moved on because last season his tried and tested formulas that had worked so effectively for the 4 seasons previous failed last season. So if things are to truly change – and if the change in management is not going to be a wasted opportunity – then Hodgson needs to shake off his case of mistaken identity, implement some serious changes and enforce his own will and personality on the club. Until he does, no amount of cash from whoever owns LFC will make any difference to the way the side performs.
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If you thought last season was bad, we aint seen NOTHING yet! bottom half finish….i guarantee it!.
The club is run by inept morons, they had months to choose the next manager, and they come up with this FOOL!.
WHEN he gets sacked, lets hope we get it right next time!.
The problem is not that Roy believes he is Rafa – it’s that he cannot be Rafa.
Media and fans have criticised Rafa for the whole of last season for failing to challenge for the title – and then for falling outside the top-4 places.
The question is what do we expect from Roy? I think most fans are willing to give Roy time to have an impact, but whether that means accepting a Liverpool side below the Champions League this season seems at this time to be an open question.
Roy must succeed in instilling confidence and belief in a Liverpool team that seems to no longer believe in winning. In order to achieve this, he also needs to persuade the key players on the team that as a manager he is not Rafa but certainly Rafa’s equal.
mate, you have such a shallow understanding of the modern game that you embarass yourself with articles like this….
rafa played a 4-2-3-1 which, despite your lack of knowledge of such, is actually considerably different in the way it presents to the opponent than a 4-5-1 or 4-4-1-1….
plus, any system is dependant on the players actually being competent on the day….we played a 4-4-2 with gerrard in the middle against city and we were as bad as against brum….
then you go on slating him for not turning over and recreating what you yourself call “a pretty strong backline”….then have a rant about the wisdom of making a change to man marking when the whole side is used to zonal for the past five years….
i think if this (writing football-related articles) is your hobby, you should find another one.
What a load of Drivel, Rafa got players on the cheap or Bosman/free, and many Reds attacked Rafa, for choice of players and tactics now after a few games you are starting to have a go a Roy for the same things when will you all realise no matter who the manager is we will struggle until we have new owners, the last 4 seasons we have have brought more money in thru transfers than we have spent this means we are paying for inept owners can you get this through your thick heads, I for one wanted Rafa to stay but will back Roy I just wish people would relalise that it is not the manager or the players that have created this situation but the OWNERS
Im more concerned with the fact that the media will jump on “its just like Rafa Benitez” bang wagon and under media scrutiny hes not used to Roy will attempt to change everything – we’ll suddenly be playing 442 and even getting panned 3-0, 4-0 or 5-0 or winning 3-0 erratically on a weekly basis…
Id rather steady 1-0 wins building confidence than knee jerk tactical changes or erratic unsustainable results.
You have to agree that apart from the first home game against Rabotnicki, the football has been pretty turgid. Once again we look to be frozen with the fear of losing, rather than look to win games with authority. I wonder how many other top 6 sides will go to Birmingham without an attacking intent and determination to gain 3 points. That game against Robotnicki, even though they were poor, showed a level of movement and desire for the ball that I have not seen at Liverpool for many a year. Lets hope that with Cole back and Meireles they inject that missing element to make us the attacking force we once were.
Frankly, Hodgson is simply not good enough to be Liverpool manager! Our defence under his guidance is playing poorly and exposing Reina to too many attempts on goal. He is tactically inept and makes changes far too late when things are going badly, which is practically every game so far. I hope and wish I am wrong but I cannot see Liverpool finishing higher than 15th this season!!! We could even be facing a relegation battle. Purslow has a lot to answer for!!!
How much time has Roy had with the full squad to instil confidence, a winning mentality, man-marking, probably a new system? Right, not that much. How come some people expect instant success? I for one will do with not losing until Roy thinks the players got his point. We simply don’t have the quality in abundance to go to places like Birmingham, play gung-ho and believe to outscore the opponent.
At least Roy does not focus on off-field matters and politicking the way Rafa did. He may well get our team firing on all cylinders and surprise a few people.
even if morinho comes no way this squad can be changed to winning squad(without investment)…and roy is far better than benitez in tranfer dealings ,experiance and knowledge about the game..benitez was such fool..he replaced alonso with lucas and buyd an injury prone injured player (aqua)..roy knows that this team cannot win anything unlike benitez who thot we were goin to challege 4 title…even there is no quatity signin roy made quality signings…joe and raul…3 more good signings in jan and we will start competing just like the old days…lets hope we somehow stick together without much injuries untill jan…
pantomyme – just what are YOU ranting about. I’ve got a feeling you post comments using different guises. so for the one you’re using now I’ll just say you’re talking through the rear end of the pantomime cow!!!
The major defernce between roy and benites is lucas is a third choice midfielder for roy if the entire squad is fit wheras benitez always played lucas in midfield even if the entire squad is fit defeat after defeat….and also he realised insua is not a worldclass lb and realised babel is a striker rather than a winger..and he knows wat he needs to change livpool to a title winning team…
Is this the same author who penned an article claiming Lucas was the best thing since slice bread and everyone should get off his case. Where was the destructive capability and hard tackling on Sunday because I didn’t see it. A second rate Scotsman out played them both
Differnces between benites and roy
1)babel a striker rather than a winger
2)insua not fit to play fr livpool
3)man to man markin instead of zonal markin..wich we suffered very much in the beginin of last year season
4)letting gerrard play midfield knowing lucas is not the man to control livpool midfield(injures and suspension till now have forced roy to so but it will different in cumin matches
5)REALISING EUROPA LEAGUE IS NOT A MAIN TARGET THAN A TOP FOUR FINISH WHICH BENITZ FAILED TO REALIZE(REMEMBER THA FAMOUS TORRES SUBSTITUTION???
6)giving younsters chance to shine
7)realising many junk players dint have career at liverpool
8)and finally understanding the value tradition and history of liverpool rather tan simply buyin players and selling
Silver Fox – didn’t see any other destructive capabilities and hard tackling from any other Liverpool player on Sunday either – so as the writer of this article said in the other article Lucas will always be singled out for blame. BTW where was “your great friend” the scout when we signed Lucas – on his holidays!
vinod – all true but how come we still look and play exactly the same? think thats what the writers getting at. Hes not saying he hates Roy. I for one am a bit worried cos Roys looks a bit worried. LFC fans give (well usually) players and managers a good chance
@bob
when you say bungling benny got players on the cheap/bosman do you mean torres, alonso, mascherano, keane, crouch, aquilani, johnson, kuyt, bellamy, morientes…need i go on? look, rafa ballsed it up, accept it, move on and look to the future, too many liverpool fans live in the past! the past is totally irrelevent no matter how glorious! or crap, as recent history has shown!
Roy is a stop gap, he has about 6 months to sort it out, if not, once that money comes in, which will be by this time next month, if we still look pony, he’s gone, and rightly so. we dont have 2 years to get used to roys mid table system, nor does he have 2 years to implement it. Pepe, steve and nando will be long gone by then.
We need to spend big in jan arda, gomez, young, a proper left back and a proper ball winning mf in the masch mould, and we should sign macia players , not hodgson players.
Hes on a hiding to nothing , and id be surprised if he was around next summer. sorry roy, back to mid table dross for you .
Kev your’e right there wasn’t many tackles from any of the out field players but you miss the point Lucas and Poulsen’s job was to tackle and break up play to allow the others to do their job so if you don’t get past first base….. yes I’m biased against Lucas because he is not good enough for LFC I came to this conclusion after giving him a season and half. By the look of it Poulsen is going the same way
Silver Fox – point taken mate but none of the other players (Reina apart) were doing their job either. So you now have missed the point putting the blame on a player you admitted you are biased against. Critisism were its due eh.
Kev do you think Lucas is good enough for LFC