Pack your bags Roy

[BigChief]

PC Plod, maybe a few rotten eggs then. But no tomatoes!

Danny, we live in a "NOW, NOW NOW" culture and understandably its hurting as Roy is costing us valuable points. But NESV knew our club was f*cked before Roy joined, so they're putting a plan together to strengthen us. It won't happen this season, and Roy's self-destruction is not hurting us that much as we were never going to qualify for CL spots anyway (Uefa spots aren't that great a financial incentive).

I would like to see Roy gone in Jan and hopefully Coyle can do us a big favour by beating us. But I'm seeing green shoots in what NESV are doing and have my confidence in them for now (unless they ladle us with debt - scary thought). Roy's shenanigans are just a distraction for me, and hopefully the players realise this is only a temporary stage for us while we get a CEO in place.

[Neil Young]

theyre not footballing people and theyve admitted as such. one thing we all have to accept is that nesv dont understand tha game, they dont understand its nuances, the tactics, the evolution of the game.

it would be like me watching baseball. i dont know enough about the game to know whether the game im watching is being well played or not.

my only indicator is the score and we know that the score isnt always the best evaluation of how a match went. i dont know the strengths and weaknesses of the players. i know what home runs are but thats it. i know nothing about the strategy of batting, fielding or pitching.

in short i have no idea what im looking at. we take the piss out of birds not understanding what the offside rule is but do you think john henry knows what it is ?

You're not seriously suggesting that knowledge of the offside rule is a prerequisite for the owner to be able to make sensible decisions about running a football club?

Maybe I've been brainwashed by little dave hedgehog but I think the owners are being badly underestimated around here at the moment.

[BigChief]

You're not seriously suggesting that knowledge of the offside rule is a prerequisite for the owner to be able to make sensible decisions about running a football club?

Maybe I've been brainwashed by little dave hedgehog but I think the owners are being badly underestimated around here at the moment.

I think Werner knows one or two things about football, seeing as he's been a Liverpool fan for 20 odd years (granted an ooter). I hope they are being severly under-estimated for all our sakes.

[el matador]

we all know that hodgsons tactics dont suit a team of this stature and that his game plan was successful in the 70s. you watch football everyday and have been doing so for x years.

you have a decent understanding of football and how its played and more importantly how liverpool play it. therefore with all that experience you are well placed to prepare a critique of hodgson and his philosophy.

if i ask you to watch baseball for 3 months or so and then prepare a tactical report on where the current yankees manager has got it right or wrong, do you think you could ?

i know for a fact that 25 years experience of football and several of coaching prepares me to evaluate our current situation. in no way could i do that for the yankees after 3 months.

the offside thing was just an example.

[Pablo]

You're not seriously suggesting that knowledge of the offside rule is a prerequisite for the owner to be able to make sensible decisions about running a football club?

Maybe I've been brainwashed by little dave hedgehog but I think the owners are being badly underestimated around here at the moment.

So do I. We won't know for certain for a little while yet, as they've kept themselves to themselves (sensibly) so far, but some of the assessments of them I've read on here so far include:

- They don't know the offside rule.
- Christian Purslow is still telling them what to do.
- They clearly don't care about the club because they haven't sacked Roy yet.
- They are completely out of touch with the mood of the fans (doubtful after the Liverpoolfc.tv phone in)
- The only difference between NESV and H&G is that now we just have **** owners with no debt, compared to **** owners and loads of debt.
- They don't care if our best players stay or not.

Now admittedly most of these were Arn or Craig , but even so I think we're being very harsh towards them in general, and certainly underestimating them, when they have done very little wrong so far.

[Rich]

I think Werner knows one or two things about football, seeing as he's been a Liverpool fan for 20 odd years (granted an ooter). I hope they are being severly under-estimated for all our sakes.

That's not Werner. The LFC fan is lower down in the organisation, not sure what role he has at LFC (if any).

[Lecter]

Roy Hodgson at the mercy of ill winds in his struggle to stay afloat at Liverpool

Tony Barrett
Last updated December 30 2010 9:00PM

When Derek Redmond hobbled towards the finishing line with a torn hamstring at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona before being helped by his father, his limp immediately became one of the most memorable in sporting history.

Should Liverpool allow Roy Hodgson to stagger on until the end of the season in the knowledge that he is not wanted by the club’s fans and in the face of the decline that he is presiding over, Redmond could have an unlikely challenger.

The question of how long he can limp on as manager was made inescapable on Wednesday night as Liverpool slumped to a 1-0 home defeat by Wolverhampton Wanderers, a match in which the Anfield crowd turned on Hodgson in the most public manner imaginable. Against this backdrop of poor form and even worse relations with the Liverpool support, The Times examines the areas where Hodgson may find his salvation.

The fixture list

Liverpool’s next match is at home to Bolton Wanderers. Only once in the past decade has the fixture produced anything other than a home win. Statistics provide little comfort, however, when you have just lost to Wolves at Anfield for the first time since 1984.

Bolton’s visit threatens to be uncomfortable for Hodgson in more ways than one. Not only does he run the risk of being targeted by the Liverpool fans once more, he will also come up against a manager who is making the most of the resources available, which Hodgson has been singularly unable to do since taking over at Anfield.

In terms of quality, Owen Coyle’s squad falls some way short of the one Hodgson inherited, yet Bolton are six places above Liverpool in the Barclays Premier League, having lost three games fewer. The transition of Johan Elmander from one of the division’s least prolific forwards into its fourth-highest scorer contrasts sharply with the decline of Fernando Torres.

Even if Liverpool beat Bolton, the rest of January’s fixtures are littered with potential pitfalls. Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park on Wednesday would be a tricky assignment at any time, but with Liverpool’s away form being so abject that only that of Wolves and Aston Villa is statistically worse — Blackpool have won five times as many away games as Liverpool this season — a victory there would be a turn-up for the books.

Next up are Manchester United at Old Trafford in the FA Cup before games against Blackpool, Everton and Wolves, three teams who have beaten Liverpool already this season. Just to provide a sting in the tail, January is completed with the visit of Fulham, Hodgson’s former club, to Anfield.

Spending his way out of trouble

The January transfer window may be about to open but a spending spree is unlikely in the extreme, with Fenway Sports Group (FSG), the club’s owner, Damien Comolli, the director of football strategy, and Hodgson having said that the first month of the year is far from the ideal time to conduct a squad overhaul.

Furthermore, there is already much disquiet at Anfield over Hodgson’s dealings in the transfer market in the summer, with only Raúl Meireles considered a qualified success out of the seven players he signed. Paul Konchesky’s stock is so low that his substitution was cheered by the home supporters on Wednesday night, Joe Cole has struggled so badly that he can no longer command a place in a poor Liverpool side and Christian Poulsen has disappeared from view because the feeling that he is not good enough seems now to be shared by the man who signed him.

Backing Hodgson in the transfer market would not only be risky, it could fly in the face of John W. Henry’s vow to bring young, hungry players to the club if the manager sticks to his philosophy of recruiting experienced — and therefore older — players.

Allies at the club could come to his rescue

The prevailing feeling is that Hodgson’s position is not under immediate threat but Liverpool’s owners are aware of the feelings of the club’s fans towards him. Perhaps most importantly, Hodgson is not FSG’s man and it owes him no loyalty. On a recent phone-in show on the club’s TV channel, Henry and Tom Werner, the owners, were peppered with calls from angry fans demanding Hodgson’s removal, prompting the programme’s presenter to stress that he was not their appointment.

The men who took Hodgson to Anfield, promising class and dignity but not success, have departed, Christian Purslow and Martin Broughton no longer being in charge after the takeover. Hodgson is very much a man alone; those in the boardroom who employ him did not recruit him and those in the stands who could determine his fate do not want him.

The players could rally, regroup and bail him out

The Liverpool players are yet to give up on Hodgson, yet they are marooned in mid-table, only three points above the relegation zone, with a negative goal difference and having lost more games than they have won. Heaven only knows how bad things would get if they decided, like the club’s fans, that he is not the man to take Liverpool forward.

There is, though, mounting disillusionment about Hodgson’s approach among certain players, Torres’s frustration at the role he is being asked to play proving the most apparent.

Cole is unhappy at the lack of opportunities to play in his favoured position, just off the front man. Daniel Agger and Hodgson have failed to see eye to eye almost since Day 1 and Glen Johnson is not overly enamoured with his manager, having been singled out for criticism by him this season.

The ship that Hodgson was supposed to steady is far from being a happy one.

Middling fortunes
1.2 Liverpool’s goals per game average this season: twelfth in the Barclays Premier League

10.8 Average shots per game attempted by Roy Hodgson’s side: eighth best in the division

6,205 Successful passes: the seventh highest in the top flight

77.6 Percentage of accurate passes played by Liverpool, placing them eighth in the table

Source: Opta

http://www.thetimes....icle2858908.ece

Meek surrender represented a shocking betrayal of the fact that this is Anfield

Tony Cascarino Analysis
Last updated December 30 2010 9:00PM

I sat down to watch the game on Wednesday expecting Wolves to be pummelled. Not sure why, though.

Perhaps because I remember Anfield as it was when I visited it as an opposition player: an intimidating, deafening, awe-inspiring place. Now they should update the famous “This Is Anfield” sign to something more appropriate. This Is A Library, perhaps.

Roy Hodgson, the manager, had the cheek after the game to blame the fans for failing to provide “the famous Anfield support”. That’s your fault, Roy, not theirs. In fact, you’re lucky that they are relatively quiet, because of an instinctive respect for whoever’s manager, instead of bluntly chanting for your dismissal at the top of their voices, as would have happened at less tolerant clubs.

There are times when fans need to lift the players and there are times when it’s the team’s responsibility to inspire the fans. At this moment it’s up to the players and coaching staff to raise the mood at Anfield by producing performances in tune with the club’s attacking traditions and proud history of success.

If Hodgson’s Liverpool played anything like the Liverpool of old then the atmosphere at Anfield would be like it used to be.

But against Wolves, as often this season, Liverpool were pure dross. Totally dull. I was bored out of my mind watching them. No shots on target in the second half? How ridiculous. It took me back to when I played at Anfield with Millwall in 1988: we got a 1-1 draw but were battered. The expectation was always that if you were leading Liverpool at Anfield, you wouldn’t get out of your own 18-yard box, such would be the home side’s determination to equalise. They’d attack like mad, roared on by a fanatical crowd, because they were an aggressive, proud team.

Such a difference from Hodgson’s risk-free football, where full backs don’t get forward, midfield players sit instead of gambling by making runs to support the strikers, who are isolated, anonymous and wondering where chances will come from. The defence and midfield keep the ball for too long then release it aimlessly.

When it comes down to it, football is entertainment, like going to the cinema, and why should anyone cheer and get out of their seats when there is nothing remotely entertaining going on?

Produce an exciting team, Roy, then you’ll hear the “Anfield roar”. At the moment, you’re managing a team that’s giving us the Anfield groan. Me, I’d give the job to Ian Holloway tomorrow. A manager with charisma, craziness, style. Someone who plays football that makes your heart soar and the crowd sing.

http://www.thetimes....icle2858895.ece

[PTP]

****ing ssn just been talking about hodgsons apology and outside anfield they seem to have found three or four Liverpool fans that back hodgson and think he needs time and support!!!! where is the other side of the argument!!!! Why don't sky show those fans

[Neil Young]

we all know that hodgsons tactics dont suit a team of this stature and that his game plan was successful in the 70s. you watch football everyday and have been doing so for x years.

you have a decent understanding of football and how its played and more importantly how liverpool play it. therefore with all that experience you are well placed to prepare a critique of hodgson and his philosophy.

if i ask you to watch baseball for 3 months or so and then prepare a tactical report on where the current yankees manager has got it right or wrong, do you think you could ?

i know for a fact that 25 years experience of football and several of coaching prepares me to evaluate our current situation. in no way could i do that for the yankees after 3 months.

the offside thing was just an example.

Sure, I realised it was just an example.

I think you're forgetting the other side of the equation. If you had been running Liverpool FC for ten years and had enormous experience of and a management structure adept at running businesses, then don't you think that might offset some of your limited understanding about how the game is actually played? They don't need to understand the intricacies of the laws of the game, they don't need to be fans - they need to be able to make business decisions.

Lots of business people aren't consumers of the products or services their companies sell but that doesn't necessarily make them incapable.

[Exiled_red]

****ing ssn just been talking about hodgsons apology and outside anfield they seem to have found three or four Liverpool fans that back hodgson and think he needs time and support!!!! where is the other side of the argument!!!! Why don't sky show those fans

FFS how many fans opposing Hodgson did they have to ignore to find 4 people who back him

[Neil Young]

****ing ssn just been talking about hodgsons apology and outside anfield they seem to have found three or four Liverpool fans that back hodgson and think he needs time and support!!!! where is the other side of the argument!!!! Why don't sky show those fans

I think it's your job to haunt Anfield, looking for camera crews so you can be interviewed to give "the thinking fan's view" of the situation.

[Boogs]

FFS how many fans opposing Hodgson did they have to ignore to find 4 people who back him

They were Bitters with red shirts on desperate to keep him at our club

[PTP]

I think it's your job to haunt Anfield, looking for camera crews so you can be interviewed to give "the thinking fan's view" of the situation.

Im on my way!

[Neil Young]

Im on my way!

Good work, PTP.

[dww]

I actually think the claims in one article that Hodgson believes that there are no journeyman teams any more and that all team shave one match winner now is interesting. If he accepts that different challenges are faced now in the PL (not that I'm sure that I agree) then surely he must accept it is possible that new methods are required to counter them, surely?

United have shown that even with a less quality side proactive defending in midfield (Andersen and Carrick being particularly prominent) along with a bit of width is all that is needed to consistently counter pretty much all the teams in the division.

I can see the arguments against a caretaker but i don't agree with Lawrenson that we couldn't find someone who would do the basics well enough to improve our position during January.