Pack your bags Roy

[SB]

I keep checking in fully expecting to see that he's been sacked but not yet I'm afraid

[Bender]

Fully expect Bolton to get a result against us and Hodgson to go.....we could end up in the bottom 3 on saturday

[EwarWoo]

Just happened to have a glance at the Echo and was shocked by how many anti-Roy stores they have linked on the first page for LFC. Something must be afoot surely?

[Shaggy]

JimmyRiceWriter Jimmy Rice

Sat in an empty press room at Melwood ahead of Roy addressing media: http://yfrog.com/h74sjnj
31 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

[Rich]

Great photo

[Exiled_red]

I think its fair to say that the mainstream press have finally caught on.
A selection of today's headlines...

Express - Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson leaves Kop suicide note
Independent - Hodgson left to fight for future as owners' doubts grow
Daily Fail - THE FIRING LINE: Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson on the brink
Mirror - Hodgson has two weeks to save himself
Telegraph - Liverpool fans' backlash leaves manager Roy Hodgson twisting in the breeze
Guardian - Roy Hodgson in peril as anger of Liverpool fans alarms owners

At last

[Shaggy]

Most predictable climbdown ever....

"Liverpool fans are at their best when things aren't going well. I think we can count on them for support"

[Shaggy]

Joe Cole is injured again.

[The_weatherman]

Joe Cole is injured again.

Wow, poor guy, serious?

[Lecter]

Dave Prentice: Liverpool FC boss Roy Hodgson’s failure to communicate
Dec 31 2010 by David Prentice, Liverpool Echo

Comments (18)Recommend (6) 1 2 3 4 5 6 next

Roy Hodgson 300
ONE of the more recent ‘pearls of wisdom’ to have been introduced into top level football is that when a manager ‘loses the dressing room’ his job will shortly follow.

It’s total nonsense. Premier League footballers are subject to the same mood swings as all of us.

Actually, witnessing the behaviour of Mario Balotelli and El Hadji Diouf recently, top flight footballers are probably flakier than most.

Managers fall in and out with players all the time.

Everton striker Duncan Ferguson was sent home from training in October 2003 after delivering a few “home truths” to his manager.

The pair almost came to blows and he was sent home in disgrace, his career seemingly in tatters.

Two months later he was back in the squad, scoring at Old Trafford. He had the armband back on his bicep by February and the following season he reinvented himself as a Champions League place clinching supersub.

Carlos Tevez fell out of love with the Manchester City hierarchy, Wayne Rooney was disaffected at Old Trafford.

Now they’re both fighting it out for the title.

And David Beckham was bombed out by Fabio Capello – until he won over the Real Madrid manager at club and later country level.

The evidence is clear. If you ‘lose the dressing room’, you can win it back again.

But losing the fans is different.

Once a bond is broken between a fanbase and a boss it becomes almost impossible to repair.

Which is why Wednesday night’s sarcastic chants at Anfield were so hurtful – and so significant.

Reds fans don’t turn on their managers. They never have done.

Even Graeme Souness, who lost an FA Cup tie to Bristol City, oversaw a Goodison derby humiliation and brought players like Istvan Kozma and Paul Stewart to Anfield – then sold his story to The Sun – never received abuse from the terraces.

That may have been partly due to his stature as a phenomenal former player and captain of the side, but the fact remained the fans didn’t turn on him.

The parallels between Souness’ final season and Hodgson’s first are many.

For Bristol City, read Northampton Town.

For home defeats by Sheffield United and Norwich, read Blackpool and Wolves.

For Julian Dicks read the hapless Paul Konchesky.

And while the eminently decent Roy Hodgson hasn’t sold an interview to The Sun, he doesn’t have the previous as a magnificent midfield general either.

You could sense the frustration welling up on the Kop in midweek.

The fans wanted to express their frustration at the performance and the manager, but they didn’t want to undermine their club.

So they did the only thing they felt comfortable with.

They didn’t chant “Hodgson Out!” they didn’t sing “You Don’t Know What You’re Doing!” They resorted to gallows humour.

But while the delivery was different, the message remained the same – the fans have lost faith, if they ever had any, in their manager.

And I believe that’s an irretrievable situation.

The reasons for their faithlessness had just been paraded in front of them.

Liverpool didn’t just lose to the Premier League’s bottom club on Wednesday, they meekly surrendered.

The match statistics were appalling.

Wolves, a bottom of the table team who had snatched a 1-0 lead at Anfield, went on to enjoy more second half possession than the side chasing the match.

Corners are usually a reliable guide to which team is pressing for goal the most.

Wolves led 4-2 at half-time.

Was there a second half cavalry charge from the Reds?

No. Wolves added four more unanswered corners in the second period.

Perhaps most tellingly of all, Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina had more touches of the ball than Liverpool centre-forward Fernando Torres.

The Reds fans took note – and while they will be back at Anfield on Saturday, for an infinitely tougher test than a visit of Wolves, and they will get behind their team, the first hint of any setback will see them turning on their manager again.

It’s been a problem in the making ever since Hodgson arrived at Anfield

“What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.”

It’s a famous film line, spoken by a man who refused to sacrifice his dignity.

And life has replicated art at Anfield, with Roy Hodgson cast in the role of Cool Hand Luke.

Regardless of the results on the pitch – and they have been damning enough – it is Hodgson’s inability to connect with the fans off it which caused concern right from the outset.

It seems like whenever Hodgson speaks, his courteous unwillingness to cause offence is doing just that – amongst his own supporters.

Fans were dismayed when the Reds boss allowed Alex Ferguson to accuse Fernando Torres of diving.

That the charge was patently absurd wasn’t the point.

Allowing your fiercest rivals to wrongly point the finger at one of your own was seen as an affront.

Fans were irritated when the Reds boss tried to tell them they hadn’t seen their side soundly beaten in a Merseyside derby, but had instead been the victims of an undeserved mugging.

Liverpool fans know their football – and they don’t like being taken for fools


And that irritation turned to anger when the Reds boss appeared to publicly accept that Fernando Torres could soon be targeted by Manchester United.

“I am not naive enough to believe that there won’t be any danger and we will never lose a player like Torres. I understand these things can happen. I don’t believe we will lose him,” said Hodgson.

All very honest. All very candid. All very non-confrontational.

But not what any Liverpool fan wanted to hear.

Contrast that statement to Rafael Benitez’s reaction to suggestions Barcelona may target Javier Mascherano the summer before last.

The then Reds boss cut short a family holiday to rage: “Mascherano has no price. Barcelona could not afford to match his value to Liverpool Football Club. We do not want to sell – not even for 50million euros.”

Rafael Benitez, a manager with a faltering command of English language, connected with his supporters.

His famous “Fact” press conference might have jarred, but it underlined an unwillingness to kow tow to Manchester United. Roy Hodgson has never demonstrated that defiance – other than to chastise dissenting fans for failing to support their team on Wednesday night.

That simply underlined that the Reds boss has lost his supporters. And I can’t see a situation where he can win them back



Read More http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liver...#ixzz19gJS1abj

[Lecter]

Not usually but apparently tomorrow's is early.

It's snowballing now. Daily Post 'off the fence'

Ben Thornley has been slagging him off for months and openly saying its time to go since November

[Shaggy]

He has been he's never been as no-nonsense as that.

[Lecter]

This is what the NESV media arm are saying nothing new really.

Roy Hodgson Asks Liverpool Fans to Set Aside Hostility While Reds Settle Into New Style of Play

Liverpool fans are not used to watching their team struggle, especially at the hands of Wolverhampton, who sits at the bottom of the Premier League standings. And when Reds' fans are upset, they'll let you hear it.

Liverpool head coach Roy Hodgson has heard enough jeering, however, and he's asking the fans to lay off, according to the Associated Press.

"Ever since I came here the famous Anfield support has not really been there," Hodgson said. "I can only hope we do have good supporters and I hope these fans become supporters as well because this is a time when the club needs support."

According to Hodgson, the Reds are still trying to adjust to a new style of play, and the players are starting to feel pressure from the fans' high expectations.

"We are not deliberately losing these matches or deliberately not playing to the best of their ability," Hodgson said. "Now is the time for people to really try to help us along because it is not through want of trying."

The Reds have posted just two wins in their last six games and are 12 points behind Champions League places. If they fall against sixth-place Bolton on Saturday, Liverpool could drop into the bottom three in the Premier League standings.

With more than half of the season left to play, Liverpool has time to make up for their losses, but the fans have been calling for a leadership change. During the match against the Wolves, Reds' fans chanted for Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish to replace Hodgson at the helm.

Though he's urging fans to set aside their hostility, Hodgson understands that the pressure comes with the territory.

"I don't like hearing those things of course because I want to do the best job I can do, I'm working as hard as I can, so I can't say it's something I really appreciate but at the same time I am not in control of those things and it's the Kop's way, the Anfield way, of showing that they are not happy at the moment with what the team is doing.

"As the manager, you take responsibility for that, so I have to take that criticism on the chin."

http://www.nesn.com/2010/12/roy-hodgson-asks-liverpool-fans-to-set-aside-hostility-while-reds-settle-into-new-style-of-play.html

[Lecter]

He has been he's never been as no-nonsense as that.

All journos have to be careful about overstepping the line (particularly for a local paper like the Post that traditionally have good links to the club)

It doesnt matter now there is no line

[Lecter]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/dec/30/liverpool-fans-react-roy-hodgson

'Roy Hodgson outburst is the straw that broke the camel's back'

After Liverpool's season plumbed new depths with the 1-0 defeat at home to Wolves last night, supporters reacted fiercely to another disappointing result in an already turbulent campaign. Criticism of the manager, Roy Hodgson, on messageboards was fierce, particularly after he suggested the fans were not doing enough to help his side during games.

Fans reacted badly to Hodgson's comments. On the fan site, Red and White Kop, under a threat called "New low – Roy blames the fans", condemnation of the manager was universal. "This is the straw that broke the camels back," said a poster called Benimar Col. "To be fair to Roy he never had wholesale fans support, however hes done everything in his power to blame everyone else for the failings and to alienate the fans, he must think we are clueless when it comes to football, hes now i would guess 99% against him."

Another, andyrol, wrote: "Jeez. how thick is the man 'the players arent playing like they have before' er yeah and who's fault is that. an awful lot of other clubs would have had protests after matches to get him sacked after the derby 'smile' and/or the blackpool defeat, we as a match going support have not done anything but vocally back the team, up until about 60 mins of last nights game. even then the 'hodgson for england' chants encouraged a 'liverpool, liverpool' roar twice as loud. the man cant say anything right never mind football matters."

"Says more about him than us to be honest, if throughout your entire tenure you've managed to produce such drivel both on and off the pitch that you've never managed to see the 'famous' Anfield support maybe you ought to be looking in a mirror for the reason?" said Doc Evil.

There was a slight ripple of agreement with Hodgson's comments, however, with lachesis pointing out that negativity at Anfield has been festering for a while now. "Irrespective of the current position and manager, he is right," he said. "The team were booed when we drew with West Ham and Lucas [Leiva] was booed a few times as well. The current climate and circumstances are irrelevant to the comments which are correct (apart from when we have a 'big' game). But because it's Roy saying it, he will be shot down. Having said that at some stages this season when we've been down and out the crowd has actually got up and had a go, but usually it's a token effort lasting a few minutes at most."

Elsewhere fans were baffled by Hodgson's team selection. "Gerrard, Lucas, Raul Meireles and Kuyt," said Phantom Limb. "How was that ever going to look balanced? Raul and Lucas have looked decent over the last few months but were playing in a shape that they just didn't look comfortable with. Kuyt looked confused, popping up on the left flank from time to time. The absence of Maxi was equally confusing."

"It was clear that for most of the game they were all a bit confused and I have never seen chaos like it at Anfield for the last 20 minutes," said Entertaining@Home. "We had no shape – players were literally all over the place – midfielders were in defence, defenders were up front, strikers were out wide. It was incredible. Honestly never seen anything like it."

On the club's official site, Lizboy10 suggested the players should take responsibility for the poor performances too.

"Thats the bottom line unfortunately. Too many on these boards want to dream and tell their mates we have good players when plainly we dont. We only have 6 players we can move towards the top 4 with. With a new manager who can motivate FT, those players are FT, Stevie, Pepe, Raul, Johnson and Dan Agger. After that we have little quality. We ALL accept Roy must go but these players are poor and like I said we will only move up the table by losing the huge amount of dead wood we have. Ngog and Kuyt last night were absolute dross."

On the Liverpool Echo's website, the mood was similarly downbeat. aldostash said: "He shouldn't be sacked. If he had even an ounce of self-respect or dignity he'd do the honourable thing and hold his hands up and say he's not cut out for the job. You can't do the job without support from the terraces and Roy will never get that. He can't even command support from the players let alone the fans. He's breaking hearts staying in the job any longer."

Questions were also raised over who should replace Hodgson if he does exit Anfield. supadave said: "The only concern I have with sacking Roy is – who do we replace him with? I hope this is being looked into by NESV and they find someone who can take the club forward. I fear they won't make a change until the summer."

But it was this from alwaysred that summed it all up: "I am sorry to say that's the worst performance I have ever seen in 37 years."