Pack your bags Roy

[Kronenburg1892]

You have HD!

Lucky you. Whats it like? Any good?

Bigger and crisper crap.

[GTi]

The Bodge is about to get ripped to pieces on Talksport. Little fish in a big big mahooosive ocean.

[red g]

he is not a little fish, he isn't even a fish

[Lecter]

thisisanfield This Is Anfield
Roy managed to define irony in the post-match interview: "Utrecht played deep". Hahahahaha.

[Shaggy]

His mates are turning on him, at ****ing last.

Why Hodgson must face up to being rubbed out as Liverpool manager
By Steve Anglesey in Laptop with Martin Lipton
Published 09:56 15/12/10


He probably thought he was out of the woods.

But suddenly Roy Hodgson is back in a dark, dark place. And only a brave man, or an inveterate optimist, would suggest he will still be Liverpool manager in August.

While Hodgson appeared the ideal, safe pair of hands, choice to replace Rafa Benitez in the summer, lauded by players and board members alike, it has not turned out that way.

Watching Hodgson bizarrely rubbing his face during Saturday's miserable defeat by a Newcastle side who should have been sitting ducks after their own internal shenanigans was an object lesson in the effect of pressure.

That miserable away record of just five points out of 27 - relegation form, if he himself is being honest, and certainly not good enough to even think about earning a Europa League place next season, let alone getting back among the big boys of the Champions League - is just the beginning of Hodgson's problems.

It does not help that, unlike Benitez, there is no residual pool of loyalty for him to call on.

Where many Liverpool fans responded to those articles question the Spaniard and his longevity as though they were attacks on their own families - despite the fact that, as widely predicted, the axe did fall at the end of the season, thereby justifying all the arguments that it was inevitably heading that way - they are the self-same people propelling the demise of the new incumbent.

Criticising Hodgson seems like the new blood sport of choice on Merseyside, the antis growing in number with every passing week, the pros declining at an even more rapid rate.

Hodgson has not helped himself with mainly second rate acquisitions. While Raul Meireles has performed more than adequately, Joe Cole has yet to fire in the manner of which he is unquestionably capable, Paul Konchesky has looked exactly what you would expect from a player who has done the rounds of Spurs, Charlton, West Ham and Fulham without ever looking the real deal and Christian Poulsen has made Lucas appear like a global superstar.

The negative tactical approach, especially away from Anfield - as if Hodgson has not realised he is no longer at Fulham, where resources and expectations were so much lesser - has not helped, either.

Liverpool fans, with reason, believe they are a big club and should approach games in the manner of a big club, proactive and not reactive. Playing, seemingly, for a draw is not in their collective mind-set.

If Hodgson was hoping for two home games to take the heat off, Utrecht tonight and then the visit of Hodgson's old club on Saturday, he was swiftly disabused of that notion by the phone-in performances of Principal Owner John W Henry and his business partner and new club chairman Tom Werner.

Branding performances over the past year - including the first half of this season - as "unacceptable" was more than a warning shot across Hodgson's bows. It seemed, in fact, more like the opening salvo of a battle which can only have one outcome.

Having sat six feet away from the two Americans, across the oak table of a Bloomsbury hotel last month, my impressions were simple.

Henry and Werner will do whatever they can to make Liverpool great and and they will give their manager total support.

But Hodgson is not their manager. He is the one they inherited. And he will be the one they get rid of when they decide the time is right, to enable them to install the man of their choice, the man who will accept working alongside Damian Comolli.

And while Hodgson praised the Americans for the "patience", the only question now, it seems, is when that time is deemed to have come.

Should Fulham - who have not won away, remember, since Bobby Zamora's backside earned them three points at Portsmouth on the opening day of last season - triumph on Saturday then that time might be even closer than Henry and Werner originally anticipated.

No wonder Hodgson was more than slightly prickly as he held court yesterday, trying to avoid questions that went beyond the remit of a dead rubber in the Europa League.

"Once again I come here to do a European press conference, playing Utrecht when we are top of the table, and I find myself answering questions about owners and whether I am safe - it is a sad situation," said Hodgson.

"I came here to do a European press conference, which I am forced to do for UEFA, when really and truly I am doing a phone-in with you. That is the nature of the game, it seems to be the major preoccupation of the mass media because they want to see change."

He might have got away with that at Motspur Park but not at Melwood. Not when he is manager of Liverpool.

And if Hodgson cannot see that, cannot see the wider picture, then he is not the man or the manager I believe him to be. And probably, sadly, not the manager of Liverpool for too much longer.

http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/opinion/blogs/laptop-martin-lipton/Why-Liverpool-face-rubber-Roy-Hodgson-is-facing-the-Anfield-sack-Martin-Lipton-s-Big-Lunchtime-Read-article651405.html

[Craig_H]

About ****ing time.

[Lecter]

Istanbul_Kop Leo Pippeth
by JimBoardman
@ @JimBoardman Sitting next to dugout last night. Roy tellin strikers to come deep & collect ball, strikers sayin mids need to push up more...

[Slinky Skills]

You have HD!

Lucky you. Whats it like? Any good?

As has been mentioned already it's the same crap but much crisper!

In all fairness HD is a lot better but at a tenner a month extra it's pretty pricey.

[Cormack74]

Never thought I'd read a Martin Samuel article that I agreed with.

[-V-]

Its a sad situation. Part of me feels bad watching him getting slated everyday when he talks ****e because he's like a senile old man who doesn't have a clue.

Its a bit like listening to one of your grandparents talking total ****e but just nodding your head because you know they can't help it because of their age.

He needs to go before it starts to get very very unpleasant on a large scale. He's miles out of his depth and its going to be sad to watch an old man having mud slung at him from all angles of the media too

[Shaggy]

I also feel sorry for him, as much as I dislike the guy. It's never nice watching someone drown.

[PTP]

if i was hodgson - i'd be thinking there is blackburn job out there and west ham job coming up - resign, for the benefit of his own health and sanity - he can't handle the spotlight, it's like the eye of mordor is fixed firmly on him - the whole face rubbing incident, for example - is in danger of getting completley blown out of proportion and he may feel it is a personal attack - and i don't think he has the stomach or the bollocks to deal with it.....a mourinho or benitez, would take the piss out of it and do it on purpose when we next score and laugh it off....ferguson or wenger, wouldn't even acknowledge it - but i fear, now....all the cameras are going to be firmily fixed on hodgson waiting for it to happen again so everyone can point and laugh, and I think it will break him

[Rich]

eye of mordor -

I bet he deeply regrets leaving Fulham, in fact it'll be no secret soon, that he very much regrets leaving his little footballing sanctuary.

[-V-]

Spot on. He's clearly suffering and he needs to be put out of his misery. Like euthanasia but in football terms

[PTP]

eye of mordor -

I bet he deeply regrets leaving Fulham, in fact it'll be no secret soon, that he very much regrets leaving his little footballing sanctuary.

- wait...is it the eye of sauron?? haha