A long way from the Cottage
When I wake from the current nightmare that is rapidly becoming Liverpool FCs season, I’m not sure what I will be faced with. Is it a team that will average one point per game over the course of the campaign? Is it a team that is in dire need of a tremendous shake-up? Is it a team that will not feature the names Torres, Gerrard & Carragher in the near future? I’m not entirely sure, and I’m beginning to think that our current manager has the same dilemma.
The fact that most of the debate and conversation still largely surrounds the ownership issue, the most obvious topic is somewhat over-looked – the team. Six games played in the Premier League, we have gathered a rather disturbing six points. The quick witted amongst red’s fans will say we still have twice as many points as our neighbours from across Stanley Park, but not since the mid 80’s could we say that this could be a benchmark worth looking towards.
Chelsea are already nine points ahead of us, that lot from outside Manchester have twice as many points as we do, while Arsenal & Man City are five clear. Yes, i know its only six games into the season, but im not sure how long Roy’s “bedding-in” period is going to last. He claims to have seen positive signs recently that things are moving in the right direction – a home draw against Sunderland doesn’t exactly fill me with great confidence for the challenges that undoubtedly lie ahead, nor do most fans see it as a positive sign Roy. New manager or not, I don’t think any red’s fan would have settled for six points at this stage. We are not Wigan, we are not Wolves, we are not Blackpool.
How many managers in the Premier League would like a Torres, Gerrard, Reina, Johnson, Cole, Meireles or Agger in their team?. The manager speaks of high expectations, expectations that he feels are unrealistic… message to Mr Hodgson: WE ARE LIVERPOOL FC. We are not Fulham, Mid table finishes are not in our dictionary. Yes we know a change in ownership is required, yes we know a new stadium is needed but these ‘needs’ were also present when the club finished second a couple of seasons ago.
I feel despite an ever growing wish list of desires, this group of players can achieve more. The names listed above are all international calibre players. Yes we do carry some passengers in our squad, we all know who these players are, but the senior players needs to re-double their efforts, shake off this creeping inconsistency and start to deliver for our club and its loyal fans. Has Roy the necessary motivational and man-management skills (like one Mr Martin O’Neill) required to help achieve this? Does he have the attributes to help lift what many in the media, and many football fans see as a club struggling to escape the second tier of premiership teams? I’m not sure. The nightmare may not be over yet.
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he was sold to us as a better more stabalising force than rafa.
i expect from him what i expected from rafa. to over perform with a squad that has been ripped to shreads in the last three years to pay the interest on the loans those yanks took out to buy us.
the media still dont get it but their looking even bigger fools all the time.
I totally agree. We are being painted in a lot of the press at the moment, as being knee-jerk fans; of not giving the manager enough time but is that really fair? Mascherano aside, it’s the same first team as last season. In fact, if you include Cole and Meireles, we’ve actually replaced Mascherano and gone some way to finding a replacement for Alonso who we lost last year. So, in effect, our first team should actually be slightly stronger than last season.
The playing squad is more than capable; the problems run deeper, and Roy is seemingly struggling to rectify them.
well said david!
agree with david tyrer 100%
Roy will be gone as soon as we have new owners. hoepfully that will be before he relegates us!
Just think this time in a months time we could bethe richest club in the world with a new manager and £200m to spend in January.
pliz fire the hopeless fella before its too late.another thing,filed jay spearing together with raul in central mid.then use stev g on the rite side,with jonjo on the left,lets play cole behind tores.we must bench the rigid useless and flairless kuyt,sell him in january.
Hodgson has chosen to go for experience over experimentation in the transfer market and in his team selection. He can clearly be seen to be choosing to take a short term approach to management (Ngog is the only youngster/fringe player that gets a look in) so why should we be taking anything else when looking at his results??
He’s not giving us results, good performances or a young team to watch, and in fact the manger even seems content with what is being delivered on the pitch, so why on Earth should we remain positive about Hodgson’s management of our team??
he does’nt have anything to lose why not just have a go?
he bought mereiles but does’nt know where to play him so plays him on the right wing.
lets fergascum get away with calling torres a cheat without sticking up for him. friendship more important than lfc.
sorry roy lost me after that.
Why if Rafa had been in charge we would be expected to challenge for the title but since Roy has come in the expectation is now to finish 7th or lower. I thought the whole reason Rafa was removed was to bring in a new English manager who knew how to handle the players and challenge for the title or at the very least finish in the top 4. Roy is not the man, the team is playing rubbish and he calls them ‘great performances’- I can see liverpool finishing mid table at best and what is alarming is teams like Sunderland come to Anfield and dominate for large parts of the game.
Sometimes I wonder… if Roy Hodgson was fired today, and LFC was left managerless till January, would we be playing better?
I can’t say for sure that it wouldn’t be an improvement.
My expectation of Roy is zero because he never was and still never is god enough to manager Liverpool FC.
I do, however, have higher expectations of the team. Our first 11 is stronger than most of the teams in the Prem and we should be in the top 6 at least. Most Prem managers would cry out for the players we have.
For Roy to say that he expected our start to the season is a joke. If we had a half decent manager who could inspire our players then we would be much higher up the table.
Just like Rafa did before him, Roy is using the ownership issue and debt issue as a smokescreen for his obvious managerial deficiencies. Ok, it’s no lie that we need money to bring in some quality but the players we have are top 6 material.
New owners, new manager and a handful of quality players in that order.
If Hodgson was sacked today then the media would milk it and make the board out to be even bigger fools.
In reality though, sacking Roy would be in everyone’s interests. I’ve always said that we needed a younger more energetic managerial to inspire the team – instead they gave us some unsuccessful, overrated decrepit idiot.
lee did you want rafa out and who would you replace roy with?
Guys, what is this noise about Roy all about? The fella is not guilty. He was brought in to keep us in the league,not to win, complain about lack of money, broken promises but to be told what to do, whpo to buy etc.
He is happy to be at LFC, he is a bit disjointed as he does not know how to deal with these big players, the vocal fans. He can’t deal with tjis pressure.
Purslow and Martin Brought-on-from the bridge could not handle Rafa honesty and details in rembering all discussions and promises (Rafa liked to make to many notes).
So don’t expect anything from Roy other than hope we get new owners soon who will bring their man or even Rafa back. Otherwise Torees is gone, Stevie G can now eventually say ” You have to excuse me” and we are left alone…
@ Dj
Yes, I wanted Rafa out. He should have gone sooner really. The guy lost the plot in the end, wasted a lot of money, overcomplicated things and strangled the life out of the team and opened his mouth too much. Too stubborn for his own good and we would never have won the league under him.
As for Roy’s replacement. Martin ONeill is a free man and would do a much better job but there are other managers out there who could also do a job. Deschamps was linked, Rijkaard, Hiddink, the Atletico Madrid coach. Ok some of those turned us down and may not want to coach us but even Kenny would have been better than Roy – and I didn’t want Kenny to manage us either.
Roy has plenty of experience but what success has it brought him. He got sacked from Blackburn which says it all.
I agreed that Roy may not be the right person to lead us to title. During the game at Sunderland, he just stood there quitely at the sideline holding his chin. No instruction, nothing. He should play 4-4-2, the tactic he knows well and its evident during ManU and Sunderland games our play improved when Ngog came in to partner Torres
Lee
You see I think some of our fans are too thick to know what actually took place over the last 5 years.
Rafa was removed because he challenged the board at every point and he clearly tried to hold the board to their agreements and promises.
Unfortunately some of our fans are to prepared to listen to sky sports and read the garbage written in the newspapers. It was clear things were being released to the press from inside the club to undermine Rafa.
You come across to me as one of those fans. I believe Rafa over performed with the squad in the last 2 years especially when we see what was happening upstairs. With regards money spent I could argue that to, but I think you only see want you’ve been programmed to see.
From the start I wanted Rafa to stay, so I didn’t really want Roy as our manager, but he is our manager now and I wouldn’t ridicule him like you have above. Unfortunately I also don’t think he will succeed, but he’s all we’ve got at the moment.
All those managers you mention wouldn’t touch us with yours, let alone manage us. M O’Neil has just left AV because they were selling the players from under him, and he would come here for more of the same? On what basis do you suggest Kenny would do better? Would he be given more money?
I did point out to those fans on these forums to be careful what they wished for. You got what you wished for, but now you don’t like it.
DJ, I got what I wished for in that we got rid of a manager who was clearly struggling for ideas at the end. I think if anyone was stirring it up with the media then it was Rafa – he made us a laughing stock with his little rants etc, like the one that lost us the title. I didn’t see the board forcing him to come out with that….and I certainly don’t buy into all that ‘he didn’t want to sign Keane’ rubbish.
A) he had the money to sign him, b) he spent well over the odds, c) he treated him like rubbish and when he started scoring he got rid without replacing him. He hacked off Alonso by almost forcing him out for the inferior Barry only to be surprised to see him leave a season later. He brought in Aquilani to replace him who was always crocked only to be surprised that he spent much of last season on the bench…and he still never brought in a striker to help Torres out.
Add that to his idiotic managerial decisions, poor man management and boring football and he deserved the sack.
As for Roy, I didn’t wish for that – Rafa is a better coach in my opinion and his record proves it. That doesn’t mean I want Rafa back, that just means that he’s not good enough and we need to bring in someone fresh who can inspire the players.
By the way, I don’t live in the UK and don’t buy newspapers let alone read them.
My comments are based purely on what I have observed from simply watching the game, the players and the manager.
Theres no doubt Rafa made mistakes but he made them the same way as every other manager has. Rafas gone so LFC moves on & as supporters so should we. Roy has already made mistakes why did he leave it so late for a striker in the T/Window? Did he have the funds or is he working under a similar situ as Rafa? YANKS OUT.