Liverpool fans must be a collective of nervous wrecks with the type of football that they have been subjected to this season. What’s made more nail biting are the whole plethora of players that they’ve been linked to purchase in the January transfer window. Roy Hodgson isn’t, to many Liverpool fans, the manager that inspires majestic football or even the type who has well laid plans that will soon come to fruition. Maybe that last statement was slightly unforgiving and that the January transfer window will present the opportunity for Hodgson to bring in players who will reflect his ideology more coherently.
All we have are previous events and decisions to inform us of the sorts of players that will likely be turning up, kitbag in hand, at Anfield over the January period. The first player signed by Hodgson, but instigated by Rafa Benitez, was Milan Jovanovic who operated originally as a striker, but has been finding himself on the wing and more recently the substitute’s bench.
His second recruit was Joe Cole, who has been a disappointment after the potential he displayed at West Ham and Chelsea. But players such as Cole, after being injury stricken, require time to adjust and gain match effectiveness, he seemed a brilliant acquisition but has yet to produce. We’ll grant these two mentioned signings as unsuccessful so far.
The most notable signings during the summer were Christian Poulsen, Paul Konchesky, Raul Meireles and Fabio Aurelio. Poulsen was obviously an attempt to fill the void left by Javier Mascherano and not a very successful one by all observations. The loaning out of Alberto Aquilani absolutely baffled me, he was bought for £17 million and looked to be a player of quality, much of the same mould as Xabi Alonso, who could sit, dictate play and free Steven Gerrard. Liverpool will ultimately lose the player to Juventus, who will no doubt grasp at the option to make his loan permanent.
Meireles, for me, appeared a decent signing after having watched him during the World Cup for Portugal, he has a perpetual engine and while he may not be as technically gifted as one may wish, he still could act as decent defensive midfielder. The abundance of destroying players is probably the one downfall of Liverpool, as without Fernando Torres firing they lack goals and creativity.
This attacking deficiency should have been identified by Hodgson during the height of summer and given recourse to remedying. But thankfully for Hodgson, life is full of chances that present themselves to be either made the most of or squandered in haste. January is this chance to placate the fans and sign some truly superior players who will fabricate the kind of football that Liverpool requires.
There are so many reports day after day of tenuous calibre linking players to Liverpool that fans must either receive them with delight or utter dismay. How apprehensive are you over Hodgson having January to buy what he deems as adequate for the club? Will he mould a resurrection of fortunes or leave the club floundering languidly from game to game?
This article was first published on our partner site Football Fancast by Elliot O’Reilly. Make sure to check out the latest news, blogs and podcasts at FFC. – Ed
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and hopefully neither will sammy lee.
the thing with his signings so far..
jovanovic (29)
aurelio (31)
konchesky (29)
meireles (27)
cole (29)
poulson (30)
anything strike you as odd? considering NESV are looking at youth all roys signings are old. not only that cole and meireles are similar types of players (attacking central midfielders who are short and lightweight) they shouldn’t be in the same team one should be back up for the other. in effect, he’s signed 3 central midfielders (cole is NOT a winger) 2 left backs and a striker (jovanovic is not a winger). not only has he replaced masch (star quality) with poulson (average at best) he’s playing players out of position. meireles on the right, cole on the left!
cole, poulson, konchesky, jovanovic, meireles should never have been signed. aqua and insua should never have left. all we needed to do was re-sign aurelio, get a striker in, get a decent defensive midfielder as we’ve never replaced alonso and a WINGER! we don’t have any width!
Jovanovich was Rafas signing not Roys, Aurelio was let go by Rafa because he was offered a pay-as-u-play contract but he refused it, so Roy bought him and gave him a propper contract,Rafa was right not to give him one i mean how many games has he played this season?
I agree with the rest of your statement Roy loves his old players because he can just about handle them like a father figure who can’t handle the kids so he doesn’t buy young. Anyways the sooner we get shut of him the better and if Konchesky and Poulsen would follow him would be great……YNWA
IT IS THESE WRITES LIKE YOU WHO ARE KILLING LIVERPOOL.INSTEAD OF USING THE PACE U GET TO WRITE URGING THE NEW OWNERS TO FIRE ROY,U HAVE THE TEMERITY TO EVEN THINK THAT ROY SHOULD BE GIVEN MONEY TO SPEND IN JANUARY.WAT FOR,WHY GIVE SUCH AN IDIOT MONEY. IS IT BECOZ ROY IS ENGLISH AND CANT BE ATTACKED.WHY IS THE PRESS NOT OUT ON HIM,IS IT BECOZ HE IS FRIENDS WITH THE INFLUENTIAL FEGGIE,AND HAVE U ALL WRITERS BEEN BRIBED TO SEE NO EVIL,HEAR NO EVIL AND TALK NO EVIL? U ARE KILLING LIVERPOOL THEN.THE NEW OWNERS SAID THEY WILL LISTEN AND LEARN.INSTEAD OF U GUYS EDUCATING THEM ON WAT A POOR MANAGER ROY IS,U EVEN SUGGEST THAT HE SHOULD BE GIVEN MONEY.NOW BE RELEVANT ALL YOU WRITERS,ATTACK ROY HODGSON FORTHWITH LEST WE IDENTIFY YOU AS AN ENEMY OF LIVERPOOL.
Roy Signing vs Benitez:-
ROY:-
Konchesky – average left-back.
Poulsen – Worst than Lucas..Struggle to adapt EPL games nad toughness.
Joe Cole – Show glimpse of talent. Also struggle to find form. Unlucky and got injured.
BENITEZ before sacked:-
Jonjo – Young players.Promoted to 1st team and talented midfielder. More like Gerrard-type. Good Addition.
Jovanovic – Agree to join Liverpool before Benitez got sacked. So he’s benitez signing.
Striker BUT used by Roy as winger.
Use a Striker once during Europa League, and SCORED. Also got pace and Physical Advantage.
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Luckily we got Comoli to assist Roy in January transfer. If NOT, we’ll get average players who are not good enough for Club.
May my Dream come True :: ” Roy Got Sacked “
I keep trying to have faith in Roy because I do think the lack of patience in football is unfair.
But, Roy’s apparent lack of self belief is worrying. He’s negative in his words and in his tactics. The team seem to have no sense of direction on the pitch. People can repeat that he needs more time over and over but with the team he’s inherited (not the best but a top 6 side at least)the level of performance has been awful and as we are now a third of the way into the season this cannot be an excuse any more. He had a chance to go out and play positive football against Wigan and Stoke yet he reverted back to negative. The worrying thing is we don’t look like a good team playing badly, just an average side altogether.
It has got to the point when I am shocked when we’re winning games (granted not very often). Its depressing checking the table for Sunderland results. For the first time as a Liverpool fan I feel no confidence in the team. That Liverpool spirit returned against Chelsea, but the euphoria was premature.
I just hope, if oy stays, he can find a way to return that Anfield spirit..
after the game against chelsea, i was willing to give roy a chance to redeem himself but after last two games, its quite obvious roy has to leave..the sooner the better…
we shud bring in rijkaard, he is unemployed right now, he has experience of managing a big club and he plays positive attacking football…
I think it’s one thing to play good football and be unlucky with result. It’s another thing to play sucking tactics and lose. The kind of football/tactics roy deploy will not even if the starting 11 were gerard’s and torres’s