Pack your bags Roy

[Cormack74]

Think this is the article a mate had referred to that I was looking for(Thanks JHP for mentioning it in another thread).

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11669_6489026,00.html

American John Henry, who took over at Anfield last month with his company New England Sports Ventures, says there are no immediate plans for a change in management, and when asked if under-pressure Hodgson was the right man for the job he told Sky Sports News: "He certainly is at this point."

However, the owner added: "I can't make any promises about the future for anything in the organisation because two months ago I didn't know that much about English football.

"We tend to stay with our managers and our general managers. Roy didn't build this team so I think he has been unfairly criticised this year.

"I think it is my role at this point to support him in every way, to make sure he has the resources to accomplish what he wants to accomplish. There is no change that is imminent."

[DannyMan2006]

Cormack I've seen many a chairman spout similar. To put it bluntly it all comes down to results and in a lesser light style of football.

Roys getting the former now, I'm not sure he'll ever get the latter. But personally I feel this season is about results only. 4th at all costs. It can not be underestimated how important 4th place would be for recruitment and taking the next step.

If Roy can turn 18th place into 4th or higher then he deserves immense credit. Especially in the face of such pressure from the fans and certain parts of the media. Personally I'd be happy to eat a large slice of humble pie.

I'd still get a younger man in the summer though. In fact, if I thought 4th was beyond Roy I'd get rid of him now. Mind, I'd have binned him after Blackpool.

[Cormack74]

Cormack I've seen many a chairman spout similar. To put it bluntly it all comes down to results and in a lesser light style of football.

Roys getting the former now, I'm not sure he'll ever get the latter. But personally I feel this season is about results only. 4th at all costs. It can not be underestimated how important 4th place would be for recruitment and taking the next step.

If Roy can turn 18th place into 4th or higher then he deserves immense credit. Especially in the face of such pressure from the fans and certain parts of the media. Personally I'd be happy to eat a large slice of humble pie.

I'd still get a younger man in the summer though. In fact, if I thought 4th was beyond Roy I'd get rid of him now. Mind, I'd have binned him after Blackpool.

Don't disagree with any of this but I do feel the tone of Henry's comments would suggest that RH will be given all of this season if not all of next too.

If (as Henry implies) Roy is making the best of things with the players that he's been left it's not unreasonable to consider that Henry might see how he fares after he's had the opportunity to get his own players in.

Of course if it's now Commoli who's doing the recruitment the situation that I've described becomes more complicated, in which case we're probably going to be back where we are at present.

[Fredo]

He's bought himself more time with the results of late. Not sold off whatsoever but he deserves a bit of breathing space. PC's have been better, he's still learning it even at 63.

[TheElephantMan]

Nothing has changed as far as I'm concerned. We've gained a little in confidence and we're almost playing to a level which we always knew we were capable of. We haven't won a game convincingly this season, we're grinding results out. Chelsea were unlucky today, we rode our luck big time. A fantastic three points, but this isn't the turning point - just a very fortunate outcome.

[Scratch]

Nothing has changed as far as I'm concerned. We've gained a little in confidence and we're almost playing to a level which we always knew we were capable of. We haven't won a game convincingly this season, we're grinding results out. Chelsea were unlucky today, we rode our luck big time. A fantastic three points, but this isn't the turning point - just a very fortunate outcome.

Load of bollocks...the first half we had them pinned against the ropes, and the two goals were fully deserved. The second half we decided to sit back and soak up the pressure, and their only chance was the Malouda effort that was straight at Reina, but we still had chances to get a third with Kuyt and Maxi and N'gog getting taken out when in a possible 1on1 with the keeper.

Fortunate? Rode our luck? Give over.

[kris90210]

Credit where it's due. Hodgson has turned us around. The performances have improved without question. If we can keep this run of form up until January, then hopefully the addition of a couple of new faces will give us the boost we need to push for a top 4 place.

Regarding tactics. Interesting that we beat Chelsea's 'progressive' 4-3-3 with 4-4-2.

[Shaggy]

The run needs to keep going. He was brought here to improve us, yet we still only have 15 points from 11 games - which is absolute ****e - and we're 9th. Roy may well be "enjoying 9th" (nosebleed for Hodgson?) but I'm sure it's still lower than we were at any stage last season. I see one or two people getting carried away but we're still in a ****e position. A good bit more to do yet.

[Fredo]

Load of bollocks...the first half we had them pinned against the ropes, and the two goals were fully deserved. The second half we decided to sit back and soak up the pressure, and their only chance was the Malouda effort that was straight at Reina, but we still had chances to get a third with Kuyt and Maxi and N'gog getting taken out when in a possible 1on1 with the keeper.

Fortunate? Rode our luck? Give over.

At one point in the 1st half, possession was 39% 61% Chelsea. We always played on the counter, that's Roy's style. Torres was the difference, both his goals were a master class of their own. Chelsea should have scored at least twice second half, one effort hitting the bar.

Still, it was great to see Roy's theory of 3 or 4 weeks ago being tested; that is that he inherited a **** team.

You can't sit back and soak up pressure, defending in an around the penalty area like he did. We don't press high enough up the pitch and he's got to address this.

[Shaggy]

It was Houllieresque no doubt but beggars can't be choosers.

The second half we decided to sit back and soak up the pressure, and their only chance was the Malouda effort that was straight at Reina

Their only chance? They also hit the bar - that could have gone anywhere and was fortunate for us it didn't go in, plus the follow up that Carra heroically blocked. There was the other effort that Reina tipped wide (into the side netting, some Chelsea fans thought they'd scored), plus the incident when Pepe jumped over the ball and just managed to get back and nick it before they scored.

[Scratch]

At one point in the 1st half, possession was 39% 61% Chelsea. We always played on the counter, that's Roy's style. Torres was the difference, both his goals were a master class of their own. Chelsea should have scored at least twice second half, one effort hitting the bar.

Still, it was great to see Roy's theory of 3 or 4 weeks ago being tested; that is that he inherited a **** team.

You can't sit back and soak up pressure, defending in an around the penalty area like he did. We don't press high enough up the pitch and he's got to address this.

I swear that 39-61 stat was second half, cos i remember seeing it. Don't remember us ever being under the cosh in the first half tho?

Chelsea should have scored twice? Well then, so should we. I'll settle for a 4-2 win, no worries.

And if you'll notice, Carra kept trying to urge the back line up...don't think it was a desired tactic to sit so deep, just forced upon us by Chelsea.

And i think we proved you can sit back and soak up pressure, even against the free scoring Chelsea.

[Scratch]

It was Houllieresque no doubt but beggars can't be choosers.



Their only chance? They also hit the bar - that could have gone anywhere and was fortunate for us it didn't go in, plus the follow up that Carra heroically blocked. There was the other effort that Reina tipped wide (into the side netting, some Chelsea fans thought they'd scored), plus the incident when Pepe jumped over the ball and just managed to get back and nick it before they scored.

Forgot about the great save onto the bar. The effort Reina tipped wide would have struck the outside of the post, the view from behind the kick showed that. And Pepe jumping over the ball then gathering it in never resulted in a shot, so it's not like they were close to scoring?

But like i say, we could have scored twice as well. There was nowt wrong with sitting back on a 2 goal lead. Credit to the team.

[the rev leeroy brown]

I swear that 39-61 stat was second half, cos i remember seeing it. Don't remember us ever being under the cosh in the first half tho?

Chelsea should have scored twice? Well then, so should we. I'll settle for a 4-2 win, no worries.

And if you'll notice, Carra kept trying to urge the back line up...don't think it was a desired tactic to sit so deep, just forced upon us by Chelsea.

And i think we proved you can sit back and soak up pressure, even against the free scoring Chelsea.

i wouldnt bother mate. people like nigel are never gonna be happy unless we get beat.

we fully deserved the victory and our tactics were spot on. we have been leaking goals this year whilst struggling to score - chelsea are ( as you say ) free scoring this year. first half was a great team performance by us. second half was a defensive display and quite rightly so. any manager would have done the same second half.

we could have easily scored 2 in the second half and should have had a pen also. fully deserved win and i for one am not going to let the doom mongers on here bring me down today. 4 wins on the trot - bring on wigan!!!

[Fredo]

I swear that 39-61 stat was second half, cos i remember seeing it. Don't remember us ever being under the cosh in the first half tho?

Chelsea should have scored twice? Well then, so should we. I'll settle for a 4-2 win, no worries.

And if you'll notice, Carra kept trying to urge the back line up...don't think it was a desired tactic to sit so deep, just forced upon us by Chelsea.

And i think we proved you can sit back and soak up pressure, even against the free scoring Chelsea.

We were more comfortable first half because we were higher up the pitch. Not as high enough for my liking, but we started to press them at around the half way mark, meaning that we could win balls and counter attack quickly from then. Possession wise we were not that good though. Confidence shouldn't be an issue as from now on, we've shown in the past we can control teams like Chelsea much better than what we did last night.

It was a great result and one which saves Roy's skin and buys him more time. More ambition is needed, he's still got it all to do still.

[the rev leeroy brown]

The run needs to keep going. He was brought here to improve us, yet we still only have 15 points from 11 games - which is absolute ****e - and we're 9th. Roy may well be "enjoying 9th" (nosebleed for Hodgson?) but I'm sure it's still lower than we were at any stage last season. I see one or two people getting carried away but we're still in a ****e position. A good bit more to do yet.

9th on goal diff alone. joint 5th on points. sure were still not the finished article and sure we need to improve our league position, but 4 wins in a row with wigan stoke west ham all coming up.......this could be a good run of games that could propel us to close to the top 3. we're only 5 points adrift after what can only be described as a shockingly bad start.

people will get carried away - its what people do. id grant them this time on the back of a great win over chelsea. but hopefully they will realise we still are short of a good number of players and IMO still a change of manager - though roy is making it hard for the new owners to sack him on this 4 game run ( hopefully he can prove us all wrong )