For the past few weeks there seems to be this continuing theme that has been going on amongst Liverpool supporters, the Hodgson vs Benitez debate. Now I completely understand that when a new manager takes over he will be compared to the previous manager, but we are now in November and the debate is continuing to rage on and doesn’t look like stopping.
I love Benitez for what he did at the club and how he gave me (apart from my daughter being born) the best day of my life when we won the Champions League in 2005. However, like many others, I did feel towards the end of his reign that it was time for a change. Sometimes no matter how much you love or like something, it can become stale, and unfortunately for Benitez I think that this was the case.
Roy Hodgson has come in, and it hasn’t quite worked out the way we and I’m sure Roy would have wanted it. But we as supporters need to get off his back slightly and stop comparing him to Rafa every 5 mins. Now I know that Roy hasn’t exactly helped himself with his continued set of bizarre comments in the press, but we all know that certain things that are said in an interview are not as black and white as they are made out in the newspapers and magazines which they are published. And although Rafa is a legend, he was by no means perfect and he himself continually made comments in the press which we all at times wished he had just kept his mouth shut.
Rafa created a legacy, a legacy which has started to crumble. Hodgson has only just started his legacy and it has started pretty badly but that’s not to say it will not get better. But comparing the two in my eyes is ludicrous, because you are comparing what a man did in 5 years to what a man has done in 5 mins. And many of us supporters have failed to realise that. We seem to have created this childish debate where as whatever Hodgson does whether it is good or bad, Rafa has done better. I like the rest of you cannot understand some of Hodgson’s signing and Hodgson’s tactics. However, there were many players and many tactics during Rafa’s reign that I also could not understand.
We seem to be continually jumping on Hodgson every word and putting a negative spin on it. The other day Hodgson apologised to Rafa in his press conference, which to me was a very good and grown up thing to do. After looking at forums and twitter, I could not believe the amount of people who had turned an apology into a sly dig.
Why do we continually want to drag Hodgson down? Why do we turn our backs on the manager in his time of need? We go on about us being the best fans in the world, the Liverpool way, being a giant family, but are these the actions of a those supporters?
Hodgson was never going to come in and pull off the same magic that Rafa did when he arrived so it was always going to be difficult, Rafa was and still is a Legend at this club, but he has gone now, he is at Inter and has a new project to take on, as do we with Roy Hodgson, and it’s time for us to accept this and put an end to the Hodgson vs Benitez debate.
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STELLA WDM RESULTS
Hodgson did apologise. But when an apology is a complete 180 degree turn after you’ve made digs against a guy who made absolutely no comments against you, it does seem like a cynical ploy to get the fans on your side again.
I could understand if Benitez made some cryptic comment against Hodgson or Roy himself made just a couple of veiled digs. No, it was complete belittling of his achievements and also an underhanded attempt to get the fans against Benitez by drawing Dlaglish into the argument.
Having said that I think we should just concentrate on tomorrows game and scour for a truly world class manager for the long term because Roy is definately not the right man.
I guess we all need to grow up and move on, starting with this guy. 🙂
I love this article & you have spoken my mind. I really hope all fans will support Roy, give him chance, give him time, when he get his players right, his tactics right, we will be a strong force again. It is not fair to criticise him after only few months. Maybe after few years…..
i dont unerstand why people are praising rafa so much.he won the champions lg beacuse of steve g..he won the fa cup cos of steve g.am not saying everything he did fr the club was wasteful.Rafa is a better taction than hodgsen agreed..look wer is chelsea now with livpool..look wer is manu.arsenal..look at their squad depth..u cant even comapre..tis is soly cos of rafa..he bought 60 players and still we hv no suad depth..its all bcos of rafa..stop beign an idiot like typical united fans..we are kopties give hodgson time
Hodgson is a fool. He takes unprovoked swipes at rafa and rijkaard when he himself has no clue about the tactics, players natural positions and talents of players like pacheco kelly ayala amoo etc. Why is he pursuing benitez’s formations and tactics if he is that smart a manager? no ask him anything and he’ll tell you that he won some scandinavian league title some 20 years ago so he has enough experience
The problem rafa has was d same as roy. They like recruiting irrelevant stars to the club. But in terms of tactics, Rafa has 100% & Roy 5%. we hope dat henry will get us d Joshua 2 lead us in dat promise land. ONE LFC 4EVER
I’m totally and utterly tired of this debate but until the Benitez baiters in the English media and the fans that were happy to see him go, just let him go and stop blaming him for everything Hodgson does wrong, then this debate isn’t going to end. The man has left, and he left us in a pretty decent state. What has happened since then has nothing to do with him whatsoever.
David 100% in agreement.By the way the so called mini revival is all because he is using Rafa’s sytem of pressing further up field.YNWA
GIVE ROY A CHANCE SO THAT HE WILL GET US ASHLEY YOUNG BEFORE HE WILL BE SACKED.
IN: JUAN MATA,ASHLY YOUNG, HULK,COENTRAO,STEVEN DEFOUR,LASS, DEMICHELLIS,FRANK RIJKAARD. OUT:JOVANOVIC,JOE COLE, KONCHESKY, CARRAGHER,AURELIO,ROY HODGSON(TO AC MILAN)
Since madrid legend could be sold 2 shalke 04. Why not poor accuracy, no awareness, handball & own goal master”CARRAGHER”2 else where 4 prosperity. ONE LFC 4EVER
To d best of my knowledge rafa said nothing about lfc until hodgson came in with his comments. So who should b checked?
obviously Roy wasnt, not until he found out that he was messing with the wrong guy