In defence of Torres

Fernando Torres has been criticised quite a bit of late. In the aftermath of the Wolves defeat, I've read comments ranging from calling him "shit" and "lazy" to suggesting that he should be sold ASAP because he "lacks heart", that he looked "disinterested", etc. while Jamie Redknapp was quick to lay the blame on our star striker’s performance on SKY Sports.

I’ve checked the stats and they make interesting reading. In his seasons at the club, Torres has scored the following percentages of the entire team’s League goals:
2007-08...36%
2008-09...18%
2009-10...30%
2010-11...24% (to date)

If we were to beat Bolton 2-0 with Torres scoring both, he would have 30% of our goals this season –identical to his ratio from last season. So in spite of his apparent lack of form, after 17 games Torres has every chance of achieving a similar percentage as last season.

What’s even more interesting is the split between goals at home and away. Last season, Torres scored 28% of the team’s League goals at Anfield. This season he has 27%. This would appear to support the view that Torres’ comparatively smaller goal tally is proportionate to a reduction in goals scored by the entire team. In other words, the team is scoring fewer goals but Torres is contributing a similar proportion of the goals that are scored.

Away from home, Torres netted 33% of last season’s goals but has only 17% this campaign. That appears to be a significant drop but the fact we have scored so few goals away from home means that if Torres were to score the team’s next away goal, that percentage would shoot up to 29%.

I understand the frustrations over his seemingly stroppy body language, his inability to hold the ball up, his sloppy passing and overall lack of an obvious contribution. However, I think it is unreasonable to expect him to be scoring more goals when the team is attacking less effectively and collectively scoring fewer goals. It’s not as though he is missing huge numbers of chances. He’s just not getting any.

Liverpool 0 Wolves 1

I'm not going to focus on Hodgson's shameful attack on Liverpool supporters during his ill-fated reign at the club. Nor am I going to focus on the latest incomprehensibly poor performance by Liverpool in deservedly losing at home to the team that prior to the match sat bottom of the League having taken a single point from 8 away games and lost their last 7. I'm not even going to focus on the dreadful tactics which included inviting the opposition to attack, launching aimless punts upfield from the back and upsetting the entire midfield to pander to Steven Gerrard.

The thing I want to focus on was Hodgson’s comments during his post-match interview on SKY when asked if he would empathise with supporters feeling it is unacceptable to be losing at home to the League’s bottom team.

“Well I think that’s very dangerous. You know, I think that if fans are going to do that they’re going to be in for a lot of disappointments in a lot of clubs over the years.

“I don’t think one should be so disrespectful of other clubs to say it’s unacceptable to lose to a team that’s in the same League as you. I really don’t accept that for one minute. I think you have a duty to your fans to give good performances and do the very best you can but I can only hope that the fans like myself have to accept that the performances don’t match up to your hopes and expectations.”

If any further evidence were needed that Hodgson does not belong at Liverpool FC, this statement shows he simply does not comprehend the requirements of his job.

Let me be absolutely clear: It is never ‘acceptable’ for Liverpool Football Club to lose at home to the team that is bottom of the Premiership table. It is even less acceptable when the defeat is completely deserved based on the home team’s performance. It is even more unacceptable when it is not an isolated incident following home defeats to Blackpool and Northampton Town, a fortuitous draw at home to Sunderland, and utterly spineless away defeats to Man City, Everton, Stoke and Newcastle amongst others.

The fans determine what results are acceptable and what are not; not some trumped up journeyman who thinks his 35 years in management mean he knows more than supporters of a great institution that has existed for over 110 years.

Arsenal fans would call home defeats to Hull City and West Brom “unacceptable”. Chelsea fans would call a home defeat to Sunderland “unacceptable”. I would agree that Arsenal and Chelsea should be reasonably expected to beat those teams at home, just as Liverpool should be reasonably expected not to lose at home to Blackpool and Wolves. Any results which fall below fans’ reasonable expectations are ‘unacceptable’. Sometimes (e.g. Newcastle United) fans' expectations can be unrealistic but those of Liverpool supporters are based on the levels of performance we have experienced in recent years - albeit slightly watered down after a disappointing last season - and as such are completely reasonable.

A single unacceptable result doesn’t necessarily mean the season is bad or that the manager needs to be sacked. However, in the context of this season, Hodgson has delivered a series of unacceptable results and performances and the overall performance of the team under his management is unacceptable.

I felt Hodgson should have been sacked after the Merseyside derby and could even have gone earlier. Having been granted a stay of execution, I felt he could and should have been dismissed after the horror show at Stoke and certainly after the defeat at Newcastle. Now there is absolutely no excuses for not removing him from a position where he is causing significant damage to the team, damage to the club and offence to the supporters.

Hodgson should be sacked immediately. Failure to do so will constitute negligence by the Liverpool board and they must be held to account for that. From this point on, if Hodgson is not removed, the fault for each bad result will no longer rest on Hodgson's shoulders but on those of the men who continue to employ a man whose incompetence is proven.

Over to you, Tom Werner and John Henry...

Return of Rafa? Not for me

Rafa’s dismissal from Inter Milan and his immediate return to his Wirral home has instigated a mass of speculation and calls for him to be reinstated as Liverpool manager.

My views on Rafa as Liverpool manager are well documented here. I loved the guy and fully supported him. I believed and still do that he is a truly talented football coach and his record as our manager stands up to scrutiny despite a disappointing last season – which by the way looks like being far better than the current season.

Rafa’s dismissal was a farce and a truly great mistake by the dickheads then running our football club.

That said, I’m not an advocate for going back.

To me, the advantages of reappointing Rafa are:
1) He knows the club, the fans and our expectations.
2) He knows most of the players and has a proven track record of getting the best out of them whilst playing a style of football that is, for the most part, enjoyable to watch.
3) We have seen him in the post so have a good idea of what to expect from him. Having seen his best seasons and his worst, we can reasonably expect to see seasons that fit somewhere between the two and possibly towards the top end if he is supported by the board.
4) He’s not Roy Hodgson.

However there are a number of reasons why I would be wary of his return.

Firstly, few managers return to a club and achieve success the second time round. Since the start of the Premiership we’ve seen Howard Kendall and Kevin Keegan attempt to recapture former glories at Everton and Newcastle respectively. Kendall narrowly escaped relegation on the final day of the season with the Toffees while Keegan quit (shock!) at the start of a season that saw the Toon slide out of the top flight. Arguably, you could say Harry Redknapp achieved success when returning to Portsmouth, first by keeping them up and then by winning the FA Cup. However, where are Pompey now? That’s right, Redknapp’s reckless spending left the club financially crippled to the extent that after he had jumped ship to Spurs, the South-coast club became the first in Premiership history to enter administration and dropped like a stone.

I’m not suggesting Rafa’s return would lead to consequences as dire as that but clearly the evidence suggests reinstating former managers is not a recipe for success.

Secondly, Rafa’s final season was accompanied by a firestorm of negativity. The media were gunning for him. The LMA, or Fergie and his mates, hated him. Ex-Liverpool players were slagging him off left, right and centre. The owners and board all wanted him out. A number of players, including Gerrard and Carragher wanted to see the back of him. Torres was also reported to be disillusioned with him. Whatever the percentages, the fans were split and a significant number were truly glad when he was shown the door.

This negativity wouldn’t simply dissipate if Rafa was to walk back into the club. Those who underappreciated him before would question the sanity of the decision. Gerrard and Carragher would have major issues with the reappointment. Torres may be off whatever but this could be problematic for him. The media, the LMA and the ex-players would have plenty to say about it. The fans who wanted him gone won’t suddenly do a U-turn. All that negativity would return and at the first bad result the cat calls would begin again.

Despite Hodgson doing a far worse job than Rafa ever did, we simply haven’t had that negativity emanating from external sources this season.

Obviously given the choice, I would take Rafa and all the sniping at him over Hodgson and Andy Gray telling us what a fantastic job he is or is going to do at Anfield despite the mounting evidence to the contrary. However, I believe there is a third option: appoint a different coach or the required quality who doesn’t bring with him all that baggage.

My third issue is as a returning manager, would Rafa face reasonable expectation in his first campaign? Inheriting a total mess of a club in 2004, he was afforded time and patience by the majority of supporters to put his own stamp on the club. Returning now, he would inherit a pretty big mess. I suspect that people would expect him to immediately resume where he left off as a minimum and not tolerate any deterioration from that level. But Rafa would be returning to find two of his players, Aquilani and Insua, out on loan, some of his youth prospects sold, Mascherano gone and a playing staff that includes Christian Poulsen, Paul Fucking Konchesky and a misfiring Joe Cole. He would also inherit a team that now defends set pieces with man-marking and a goalkeeper and back four who have been trained to hoof the ball up-field at every given opportunity. Rafa would need time to sort out that mess but would he be afforded it? Would people blame his predecessor’s mistakes for every bad result as they did for Hodgson? I doubt it.

My fourth issue is this: Rafa didn’t get sacked from the San Siro for footballing reasons. Indeed, he had just won the World Club Cup with them. He was sacked for what he said in the press conference after winning that trophy. To the world’s media, he criticised the club’s owner. That everything he said was valid is irrelevant. You cannot slag off your employer in such a public fashion and expect to retain your job. Moratti has ridden the crest of a wave in recent years, profiting from the punishments meted out to Inter’s main rivals for match fixing by being handed a number of unchallenged Serie A titles and last season winning the treble with Mourinho at the helm. His stock among Inter fans has never been higher so to suddenly have his name dragged through the mud by an employee was simply unacceptable. In the middle of an injury crisis-induced slump, Rafa’s position was far from secure and it was either a foolish miscalculation or a deliberate attempt to be dismissed by the Spaniard.

Ultimately, my concern is that Rafa’s track record shows he publically fell out with and criticised his employers at Valencia, Liverpool and Inter Milan. Whatever the justifications in each case, it paints a picture of a man who is not ultimately a team player. If the aims of the club are not aligned to him own or if he feels he is being criticised for things outside of his control, he is quick to set the record straight publically. Why on earth would our new owners consider appointing a man like that?

As a football coach, I think Rafa is a genius. As a man, he has some serious flaws that ultimately compromise what he is able to achieve as a football coach.

Liverpool FC needs a coach who will work in harmony with the people now running the club. That doesn’t mean being a ‘yes’ man but it does mean engaging in rational debate and negotiation behind closed doors and not engaging in public bouts of insubordination. Liverpool FC needs a coach who will unite the club’s supporters and ex-players in the media. We need a coach we can all believe in and who has the right forward-thinking approach and tactical expertise to validate that belief.

Who? I’ve heard the usual names banded about (Hiddink, Mourinho, Rijkard, etc.) as well as some up and coming names like Porto’s Villa Boas. I don’t need to put names forward. No one is going to consult me during the recruitment process. In many ways, I’d prefer someone up and coming whom I haven’t necessarily heard of. After all, I’d never heard of Arsene Wenger before he turfed up at Arsenal, or Rafael Benitez before his Valencia team wiped the floor with us in 2002, or Jose Mourinho before he did that ridiculous touch line celebration when his Porto team knocked Man Ure out of the Champions League.

Perhaps Villa Boas fits the profile best or perhaps someone whose name I have yet to hear.

If Rafa returned, he would have my full support but I don’t believe it is a possibility and nor do I think it would be wise.

Transfer window approaching...

The January transfer window is fast approaching. Normally I'd be saying we should be targetting this or that player or we need a player for X position but this time my desires are simple: Don't give Roy Hodgson a single penny to spend.

Despite the presence of Daniel Comolli to ensure Hodgson doesn't fritter away another £10m on also-rans and never-have-beens fast approaching retirement, the fact remains that while Hodgson remains manager, there is no point in purchasing players who do not fit in with Hodgson's prehistoric tactics. If we then bought players to fit in with that God-awful style, as soon as the dinosaur is given the boot he so royally deserves and we appoint (please God!) a decent manager, those new signings will look as out of place as a Jehovah Witness at a swingers party.

Keep the money and make it available for the new manager in the summer.

2010 Review

In all it’s been a truly lousy year on the pitch. The most rewarding games were probably Tottenham (h) on 20 January when we broke our January jinx and won a League game against Champions League rivals despite missing our so-called big players; Everton (h) on 6 February when we battled to a 1-0 win despite having the Greek sent off early on; Benfica (h) on 8 April when we reversed a harsh away defeat by thrashing the cynical cheats with Fernando Torres looking like the player of a couple of seasons ago (before succumbing to injury yet again).

The most disappointing games were Atletico (h) on 29 April when we were denied a third European Final appearance under Rafa by a late away goal in extra time; Wigan (a) on 8 March when we put in one of the most abject performances under Benitez’s tenure with Steven Gerrard proving indisputably that he is a liability in central midfield; Man City (a) on 23 August when Hodgson’s limitations were laid bare and every game since.

The biggest achievement of the year was undeniably the sensational ousting of Gillett and Hicks. This also wins the Most Bizarre Football-Related Experience Award as I could never have envisaged following a court case by text updates online.

The biggest disappointments of the year have to be the sacking of Rafa Benitez closely followed by the appointment of Roy Hodgson and on numerous occasions the absence of reports of Hodgson’s dismissal. Also contenders in this category are the signings and subsequent performances of Christian Poulsen and Paul Konchesky.

The best players were undoubtedly Pepe Reina and then probably Lucas Leiva who – while far from being the most talented, at least put in a shift in every game and has improved throughout the year. After that it has to be cult hero Sotirios Kyrgiakos and then maybe Ngog and Meireles who have shown promise but as yet remain players with potential. Those players aside, everyone else has disappointed in some way or other.

The biggest disappointments were Steven Gerrard who has lived off his reputation for the entire year; Fernando Torres who for a variety of reasons just hasn’t been the player that excited us so much in 2008; Jamie Carragher whose reputation exceeds his capability now that age has robbed him of what little pace he had before; Ryan Babel who is a joke of a footballer, and finally both Yossi Benayoun and Javier Mascherano simply for the fact that they sought pastures new despite being amongst our better performers in the first half of the year – not that I personally blame either.

It’s been a year in which my passion for football has been severely diluted. Whereas in years gone by, I would watch virtually any game, this year I’ve tended to stick to my own team. It’s hard to stomach others playing well when your own team is continually frustrating. Likewise, I haven’t been able to bear watching the majority of the Champions League games knowing that we no longer belong in Europe’s elite competition.

As a fan, I want to get back to talking in positive terms about team selections, formations, transfers, goals, assists and players’ form without needing to think about the motives or capability of the suits behind the team or about the suitability of the manager. All those so-called fans who slated Rafa for “throwing away” the Premiership title in 2008-09 would do well to remember that we hadn’t had it so good since the Premiership began and may not have it that good for some time to come. They weren’t happy with their lot then and now look at the mess we’re in. For those supporters, this is deserved but for the rest of us it feels like being the victim of theft.

My hopes for 2011 are that Hodgson goes as soon as possible; that we appoint a manager appropriate for Liverpool FC who will unite the fans, restore our belief that the team is progressing towards the level we expect, get us playing watchable football and bring about a significant revival in our fortunes; that the board will back the new man with funds to enable him to improve the standard of playing staff at the club; that Real Madrid pay us an obscene amount of cash for Steven Gerrard that is subsequently reinvested in an adequate long-term replacement; that Reina and Torres stay and rediscover their best form; that Carra rejoins “the best manager [he] has ever worked with”, Gerard Houllier, at Aston Villa just in time to see the Frenchman sacked, and finally, that I see games and results that enable me to fall in love with the sport all over again.

Shouting into the wind

I haven’t written a blog for a while and there is one simple reason: I’ve nothing original to say. I can continue repeating my assertions that Hodgson is completely unsuited to and making a terrible hash of the role of LFC manager and continue to add to the list of evidence supporting that view (which comes in faster than I can type some days), but I see little point. To me, this case was closed long ago. Quite simply, the man should not be in post at this time.

I understand the arguments for not yet dismissing him – none of which are based on him being retained based on his ability and potential – but I just don’t agree. I agree that we need to avoid having a revolving door to the manager’s office and that it is vital that our owners appoint a manager for the long term who shares their vision, can work their way and crucially who can deliver a significant upturn in our fortunes on the pitch. If they need time to find that man then by all means they should take their time. However, they do not need to retain the services of one Roy Hodgson until that search is concluded. They have a perfectly able interim manager in Kenny Dalglish who would surely achieve more with this set of players than the current incumbent (should that be ‘incompetent’?).

I’ve heard the argument that if Kenny did a good job for half a season before stepping aside, as soon as the new man hits a rocky patch there may be calls for the King to return permanently. To that I say it’s down to the board to appoint a new man that the fans believe in. If that happens, the fans will back him just as they did with Rafa. Roy Evans allegedly didn’t want Kenny back at the club as he feared calls for Kenny to oust him but even during Rafa’s worst season, I was not aware of a single voice calling for Kenny to be reinstated. The majority of true supporters unconditionally backed their manager while the fools laughably called for his replacement with Jose Mourinho(!) – as if the Portuguese would ever take a job where he couldn’t spend millions on top, top players in order to achieve success and then leave before his management strategy is exposed as being extremely short-term.

If the next man is the right man, he won’t have to worry about Kenny. If not, it will be Groundhog Day but that won’t be Kenny’s fault and nor will it be a direct legacy of making our most famous son interim manager this season.

Newcastle United is the prime example of how chopping and changing your manager during a season can have disastrous effects but in their case, they tend to sack managers just a couple of games into the season or when the team is actually achieving at the level it should be – whether the fans accept that level or not. There are plenty of other examples where changing the manager has had a positive impact. The best example was Chelsea a couple of years ago who replaced Scolari – who himself was only appointed in the summer – with Hiddink who revitalised the team and won them the FA Cup laying superb foundations for Ancelotti to build on the following season. While I think that level of success is beyond us, there is no question we are underachieving under Hodgson and worse, the football is so dire and the man himself so despicably useless that I found myself celebrating that our game was snowed off last Saturday as it meant he couldn’t ruin another of my weekends.

He has to go.

Hou's the over-achiever?

I’ve been reading Paul Tomkins’ latest book Play as You Pay which, as well as proving the link between transfer outlay and League success, assesses all Premiership managers based on the resources at their disposals. On the whole, it enables fairer assessments of managers away from media or fan bias by allocating League placings to each team in each Premiership season ranked according to overall cost of squad with prices updated to reflect inflation by applying a Current Transfer Purchase Price (CTPP) to each player.

The evidence suggests that Gerard Houllier in fact overachieved in his time at Anfield – a theory directly opposed to my own objective belief.

One factor I am not convinced the book deals with adequately is the free transfer. In theory, based on the cost of Houllier’s average XI over 1998-99, the team should have ranked 10th making 7th look like an over-achievement. However, the squad Houllier inherited from Evans included Robbie Fowler, Michael Owen, Steve McManaman, Dominic Matteo, Jamie Carragher, David Thompson and Steven Gerrard – all youth players signed for a combined cost of £0.

According to the model, less should be expected of a Man Utd midfield of Beckham, Scholes, Keane and Giggs (combined cost of £20.9m – all of which was spent on Roy Keane) than of a midfield containing McManaman (£0m), Redknapp (£2.1m), Ince (£13m) and Berger (£10m) at a combined cost of £25.1m. Begrudgingly, I would say that Man Ure midfield is the greatest midfield four I have ever witnessed and while it contributed to winning the treble of Premiership, FA Cup and European Cup in Houllier’s first campaign at Liverpool that Liverpool midfield huffed and puffed and flattered to deceive.

If you actually looked at what that United midfield was worth rather than what was paid for it, I would probably have cost at least three times more Liverpool’s and as such expectations of that United midfield were greater than those on the more expensively assembled midfield at Liverpool.

A Liverpool team featuring Steve McManaman (£0m) is stronger on paper than if he was replaced with Vladimir Smicer (£9m) while Michael Owen (£0m) made the team stronger than Milan Baros (£4.7m) or El Hadji Diouf (£17.9m). The Owen Houllier inherited was worth around £50m CTPP while Fowler was sold for £15.1m CTPP a couple of years later so surely to base expectations on the fact that Liverpool fielded two free strikers is misleading.

Houllier inherited a very decent squad of players that needed tweaking rather than the wholesale changes he brought about. He allowed decent home grown players to be sold or given away and replaced them with inferior foreigners with little or no resale values leaving a team with assets of limited value on the pitch and no money to reinvest.

His overachievements were getting the job in the first place and then hanging onto it for as long as he did. Reminds me of the current manager.

Stoke City 2 Liverpool 0: No more

Paul Tomkins is a writer for whom I have enormous respect and who often influences my views on LFC matters but inevitably there are times when I don’t agree with him. I couldn’t disagree more with his recent assertion that “the 20 game mark appears to be the fairest time to draw further conclusions” on Hodgson’s tenure. Coming after the win over Chelsea, the comment smacked of knee-jerkism.

As good as that result was and as good as the three results preceding it were, the performances have remained abject. Had a single good result been obtained with a poor performance amongst a run of generally good performances, it wouldn’t be an issue but the reality is we have been dreadful in every one of 22 fixtures under Hodgson with the exceptions of the Rabotnicki and Blackburn home games.

In a single match you could argue that end justifies the means but you cannot say the same about a run of 22 games. Football fans are not solely interested in the final scores. If they were, they would check teletext or SKY Sports online an hour after games and not waste 2 hours of their lives actually watching them.

I know nothing about fishing but I would guess that for lovers of that pastime as much as they might enjoy the ‘thrill’ of catching a fish, equally integral to their experience are the peace, tranquillity and the feeling of being outdoors. If a fishing enthusiast was forced to fish in a stinking cesspit with a group of drunken yobs playing loud music and shouting obscenities in the immediate vicinity, would you expect him to be happy if he still caught a fish?

The whole experience of watching Liverpool play is being ruined by Hodgson. There are few if any opportunities to appreciate a good passing move by my team. Moments of goalmouth excitement and anticipation are rare. The confidence that we’re going to win the game never comes. It feels like waiting in a really, really long queue when you don’t even know if the kiosk will be open when you eventually get to the front.

As it is, on most occasions when we’ve fished in this cesspit we’ve caught nothing and on the rare occasions we have caught something it has been barely edible.

After the latest debacle at Stoke, Hodgson has to go now. Come on, NESV, act!

Wigan 1 Liverpool 1: Yet another total Hodge up

After the Merseyside derby, Hodgson looked as though he was beyond the point of salvation. Slightly fortuitous victories over Blackburn and Bolton changed nothing. An awkward and undeserved third consecutive victory over Napoli did not alter opinions. Then victory over Chelsea finally sowed the tiniest seed of doubt into the minds of the man’s detractors. Yes the football was as ugly as Harry Redknapp in drag and slightly less exciting than pulling a cheap Christmas cracker, but with four successive victories and a rare defeat of the Premiership Champions, could it be that this style of football might be effective enough to actually improve on our 7th placed finish last season? Particularly when a win over a Wigan team sitting in the relegation zone could have put us at least 5th in the table – a remarkable turnaround after our recent spell in the bottom three.

If Hodgson has been successful at anything during his tenure as Liverpool manager, it has been lowering, nay demolishing expectations and he moved swiftly to ensure that anyone contemplating giving him support was immediately dissuaded.

An 8th minute lead after a spritely opening was quickly forgotten as Hodgson reverted to type, instructing his team to retreat into their own half, hoof long balls to no one and invite Wigan to attack for the remaining 80 minutes. That Wigan scored was no surprise. That they only scored once was a sign of their own lack of quality.

After it seemed the penny had dropped regarding Christian Poulsen, Hodgson brought the useless tosser on at half time. True Meireles was struggling as a central midfielder being played on the right wing but even struggling, Meireles is twice the player Poulsen is. Poulsen is shit and Hodgson wasted nearly £5m on signing him. Having seen him struggle in previous League games, bringing him off the bench here was an act of gross negligence – a sackable offence in itself.

Wigan were there for the taking yet Hodgson with his small club mindset was happy to take a point.
“It would have been harsh on Wigan had we won it and they can probably feel the 1-1 result flatters us more than them,” said Hodgson.

The man makes these statements as though commenting on something over which he had no control. Why did we allow a situation where defeat would have been harsh on Wigan? Why didn’t we put in a performance that would have resulted in Wigan deservedly losing? Surely Hodgson can join the dots and see that the likes of West Brom, Sunderland, Blackpool, Bolton and Wigan can all feel as though they deserved to win against us - clearly indicating that our approach in these games is the reason. In fact, the only team this season that deserved to be beaten by us on the day was Blackburn. Chelsea dominated us last week and but for failing to take their chances and the brilliant finishing of Fernando Torres, they would have won.

Hodgson then went on to bemoan the size of his squad. “You can put it [the result] down to Napoli, Blackburn, Bolton and Chelsea with a small squad of players.” Small squad? Hang on there, Hodgson, would this be the same squad that you were saying was too big not so long ago?
“We were unbelievably over-staffed when I came to the club and truth be known, we still are over-staffed,” said Hodgson back in September.

It’s quite clear that the man gives no thought to what comes out of his mouth either before or afterwards. It’s just one garbage statement after the next.

I said after the Chelsea game that he shouldn’t be sacked even if we lost to both Wigan and Stoke but I’m now reneging on that position. When I wrote that, I just didn’t expect us to totally revert to how we were playing before our recent run and for the manager to be so culpable in that.

He is a meandering buffoon and I’m just so exhausted with the debate around whether to sack him or not. This ship has now sailed. Hodgson has to go. The only question is when rather than if. To me, the answer is as soon as possible. I no longer care that some will call his removal harsh. He will cause more damage than good the longer he stays.

NESV need to carefully select Hodgson’s successor and in the meantime put Kenny in charge or even Sammy Lee – neither could do worse than the fucking idiot in situ right now.

Liverpool 2 Chelsea 0

Well, that was unexpected!

What does it mean for Roy? Well basically it gives him some breathing space. Even defeats to both Wigan and Stoke in our next fixtures wouldn’t lead to his dismissal after this run. It hasn’t always been pretty but after 4 wins Hodgson has earned some respite from the pressure he brought on himself.

It doesn’t change my opinion that he is the wrong man for the job. Today’s performance was at times good but at times less so. From an attacking perspective, it seemed as though the best parts of the performance stemmed from talented players clicking and doing what they were capable of rather than as a result of any sort of tactical plan. By contrast, from a defensive perspective, we appeared to be well drilled and clearly adhering to the manager’s instructions. That impression is entirely consistent with everything we’ve come to understand about the manager’s approach. Today that worked but I don’t believe such an approach will ever deliver the League title or would restore our experiences of regularly scalping Europe’s biggest giants as was the case under Rafa.

More sophistication is required if we are to progress to any level that I would consider acceptable.

That said, today it worked. There were mitigating circumstances. Deprived of Lampard and Essien and with Drogba severely inhibited by illness, this was probably a weaker Chelsea team than any Rafa faced in 26 matches over 6 years. Clearly things went for us today. Torres delivered the goods while Chelsea’s forwards fluffed their lines. Reina was fortunate with a couple of saves in the second half – one where the shot hit him as he made himself big and another where the ball amazingly rebounded off the crossbar – as Roy’s defensive tactics completely gifted Chelsea the initiative.

However, credit must be given to Hodgson. He looked down and out after the derby. He seemed beyond the point of no return. Somehow (and it mystifies me) he has won each of the four games since. In each game, the opposition played surprisingly poorly but, as the cliché goes “you can only beat what is in front of you” and Hodgson’s team has done so. Defensively we are seeing signs of improvement and one of the biggest positives today was the performance of Martin Kelly at right-back. He will ensure a continuing Scouse (and English) heartbeat at Anfield after messrs Carragher and Gerrard hang up their boots. It was also pleasing – though a tad risky – to see Shelvey and Spearing brought on ahead of more established yet underperforming squad players. Meanwhile N’gog did great after coming on and my Man of the Match was Lucas who was absolutely fantastic. Seeing Lucas today was like watching Mascherano on form. This was his best performance under Hodgson and it seems that Roy has finally twigged that Lucas needs to be in his first XI and Poulsen needs to be on Mars or further away if possible.

I’m actually buzzing right now. That is the first time since Hodgson took charge.

To be clear, I support the team; not the manager. I don’t want to see the brand of football Roy advocates and I don’t believe that Roy’s brand of football can deliver the successes I crave as a supporter. However, given the choice, I would rather win than play well. If Roy can continue to deliver wins – however ugly or fortunate they might appear – perhaps there will come a point where I have to concede his methods are more effective than I thought. I still don’t believe that will happen but then I didn’t believe we would win today.

I don’t want Roy as our manager but for as long as he is in post I want him to change my mind.

Liverpool v Chelsea: Preview

I know some people have actually been wanting us to lose matches just to ensure Hodgson goes. I can empathise but for the Blackburn and Bolton games, I’ve just wanted us to pick up the points to stave off the scarily real threat of relegation. In truth, I wasn’t unhappy when we were 1-0 down to Napoli in mid-week after another inept display and when Stevie G’s one-man show saved us from another fine Hodge up I had mixed emotions. On the one hand, I didn’t want our proud European record taking another battering and I certainly enjoyed Gerrard’s performance, despite his total disregard for tactical discipline and team work, but on the other hand, I wondered whether this might hand another stay of execution to our inept manager.

To me, Hodgson should have gone after the Derby if not before. However, I understand that the timing wasn’t right due to the takeover of the club. John W Henry simply couldn’t dismiss the incumbent manager within days of taking over the club. He has rightly been taking his time to look at all aspects of the club and put in place a board before taking any major decisions. Having been spared by circumstances, Hodgson was walking a tightrope and defeats in either of our last two League games could and should have pushed him off.

Fortunately for him, both games were won – in the case of the Blackburn game, deservedly so but the Bolton game was certainly won in spite of Hodgson; not because of him.

While I remain 100% convinced that he needs to go as soon as possible, I maintain that it would be wrong to sack the man after a win. Doing so would enable the critics to argue that he needed time to implement his methods and that the win was evidence of things starting to click. That such claims are complete bollocks is irrelevant. The new owner does not need the media slating him and painting him as trigger-happy. The club, meanwhile, does not need any more negative press and Hodgson’s successor (who would presumably be foreign) doesn’t need the media against him because they think their English pal was not given a fair chance.

I fully expect us to lose at home to Chelsea today and regardless of the three wins preceding it, that defeat should be enough justification for the new board to call time on this most disastrous of appointments. Critics may still argue that it is harsh to sack him so soon but those critics are the same misguided fools who lay the blame for all our ills at Rafa Benitez’s door. Those same idiots will not be swayed any time this season.

I would simply point to Hodgson’s record in the League this season which would read: Played 11, Won 3, Drew 3, Lost 5 and with a Goal Difference of at least -5. Nothing can change the fact that it is simply not good enough – not by a long way. Throw in the arguments that every performance bar 1 has been dreadful; Roy’s summer transfer dealings served only to weaken the quality of the squad and resulted in millions of pounds being wasted on average players at the wrong ends of their careers, and Roy embarrasses himself and the club every time he gives an interview or press conference and you have clear and compelling justification for his dismissal.

Should the new owners opt for a lenient approach with the bumbling boss, at least the appointment of Damien Comolli as Director of Football Strategy should ensure damage limitation. People’s reactions to the appointment has been typically ignorant. From questioning the need for such a role to criticising the man himself, the reactions have all been negative. “I don’t know what a Director of Football does!” I heard a moron exclaim this week as if that statement somehow decries the role. If you don’t know what the role is, don’t comment on it. How can you have a view on something you don’t understand? Fucking idiot.

Someone else (a Blueshite) said “Oh yes, he’s the one who signed Darren Bent for Spurs” – the insinuation being that he is therefore crap because Bent was a flop at Spurs. That Harry Redknapp couldn’t get the best out of Bent doesn’t mean he’s a bad player and he has since proven to be an excellent signing for Sunderland but citing Bent alone is clearly taking a one-sided view. The man was also responsible for the signings of Tom Huddlestone, Aaron Lennon, Jermaine Jenas, Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Dimitar Berbatov, Gareth Bale, Luka Modric, Heurelho Gomes, Roman Pavlyuchenko and Vedran Corluka to name but a few. Most of those are currently key players in the Spurs’ team whose “successes” Harry Redknapp graciously milks the over-the-top plaudits. Meanwhile the signing and resale of Berbatov netted the club millions. It’s quite clear that Comolli played a significant role in reviving Spurs’ fortunes and it is to be hoped he will do the same for us.

What he will do is ensure that even if Hodgson is still in situ when the transfer window opens, we won’t be frittering away sums like £8 million on shite like Christian Poulsen (£4.6m) and Paul Konchesky (£3.5m) who, at 30 and 29 when signed have little or no resale value. We can expect to see a return to Rafa’s more sensible policy of investing in young players whose sell on values will increase so that even if they don’t cut it in the first team, we can generate income to reinvest in new players. For example, compare Hodgson’s £8m spend with the following players whose combined fees cost Rafa a similar amount: N’gog (£1.5m), Insua (£1.3m) and Lucas (£5m). For a combined value of £7.8m we signed 3 players worth an average of around £5-8m each. That’s good business.

Liverpool 2 Blackburn Rovers 1

This was not a case of Hodgson’s masterplan finally bearing fruit. There was a totally different tactical approach in evidence today. Now if Hodgson has experienced his road to Damascus moment then fine, let’s see where it can take us. Personally, even if he has suddenly (35 years after everyone else) grasped the advantages of a high tempo and pressing in the opponents’ half, I doubt he’ll suddenly become a master exponent of fine attacking football and an expert in the use of tactical substitutions and as such I think any progress we’ll achieve under him has a glass ceiling that would make a claustrophobic midget feel anxious.

However, a win is a win. The new owners can’t sack him after a win – not that win anyway – and after we have pleaded for a single glimmer of light, we would be in the wrong to demand his head after he has finally belatedly provided one (and it is only a glimmer).
Revert to type and fail to win at Bolton and he can go with my blessing and my boot up his arse.

For context, I watched the game with a Blackburn fan who told me their supporters are really unhappy with Allardyce and they’ve been terrible so far this season. When Nzonzi went off he conceded the game as with Samba and Nelson also missing they’d “lost their only hope of scoring”. Blackburn were as poor as any side I’ve seen at Anfield and their own supporters apparently think they’re in danger of relegation. On this evidence I can see why.

Therefore, I’m relieved at getting 3 points but won’t get carried away.

Sacking Hodgson is not a rash decision

To anyone with the view that we can't sack Roy yet because it isn't the Liverpool way or because sacking a manager in October is normally a sign of a fickle board making panicked and irrational decisions, I say the following:

Yes, conventional wisdom dictates that it is risky to change managers mid-season and that it is folly to sack a manager after just 8 games (or 15 if we include those games that apparently no longer matter but which were equally dire to watch). However, we find ourselves in exceptional circumstances. Hodgson isn’t underperforming in any small way. It is not a case of minor niggles or harsh criticisms causing disgruntlement amongst a pocket of supporters. Hodgson has literally been a disaster in every possible sense and the dissatisfaction amongst supporters is unprecedented for our club. Meanwhile, Hodgson is telling us his aims for the club including, crucially, the style of play, are vastly different to ours – i.e. he wants to deliver something that we don’t want. Why give him time to achieve that?

One of the arguments for appointing an Englishman was that he would understand the unique history and culture of our club. If Hodgson had any inkling at all he would understand that the position of Liverpool manager exists to make the supporters happy. Hodgson has made us more miserable than ever and you have to go back to Graeme Souness to find a Liverpool manager who has alienated the supporters more.

The only risk attached to replacing him now is that we replace him with an equally disastrous replacement – in which case what have we lost? Chelsea didn’t fare too badly when replacing Scholari (who wasn’t a complete disaster) with Hiddink and City look a lot better for having replaced Hughes with Mancini last season – certainly they were no worse off.

The sooner this regrettable chapter in our history is closed, the better.

No More Mr Nice Guy

Can we stop repeating that Roy is a “nice guy”? It seems to be a meaningless media soundbite that is at odds with what I am witnessing.

Taking the joy of watching attractive winning football from millions of people and instead giving them lousy football, misery and a fear of relegation does not strike me as particularly nice. Arrogantly dismissing suggestions that your approach might not be working and talking about compensation being owed in the event of your being dismissed essentially for gross negligence in leading a team with stellar expectations into the relegation zone isn’t “nice”.

There’s no shame in taking on a job in which you believe you can be successful but turns out to requires greater capability than you possess. There’s no shame in thinking you can meet the expectations of the supporters only to discover you are not capable of doing so. There’s no shame in doing your best in that job but failing. However, blaming your failure on others and criticising the expectations you have failed significantly to meet is shameful.

Here’s a quote from a genuine nice guy who also happened to be called Roy:

“I have felt over the past three or four weeks that things have not been working out. That was always uppermost in my mind. I dispute my record is one of failure. At any other club it would be a success but not at Liverpool. Our biggest regret is that we could not achieve success for the people who work at the club. I would like to pay tribute to the players at the club. I know they are capable of winning something."

That was Roy Evans when announcing his decision to resign as manager of Liverpool FC. If Hodgson really wants to be considered a nice guy, it’s time we heard something similar from him.

Stop talking shit, Roy

If Hodgson really wants to convince people he can prove to be the right man to manage Liverpool Football Club despite all evidence to the contrary, I would suggest he needs to keep his mouth shut. In his latest press conference, he said the following:

“It’s a sad day for everything if after a bad start of six or seven games people think the solution is to find someone else with a magic wand. We all know a magic wand solution doesn’t exist."

I’ll give the man the benefit of any doubt that he doesn’t actually know how many league games we’ve played (it’s definitely seven, not six) but I don’t accept the suggestion that people are judging him solely on seven league games. League results have been disappointing but the performances in all fourteen games that Hodgson has presided over in all competitions have been dreadful and that is principally down to Hodgson’s tactics and, to a certain extent, team selections.

No one is looking to find “someone else with a magic wand”. We just want someone who recognises the difference between Liverpool Football Club and Fulham Football Club. Liverpool are expected to win pretty much every single game – especially at home. Fulham are happy to take points wherever they can get them and never does defeat result in a public outcry. Liverpool are expected to dominate possession and attack opposition. Fulham are expected to be difficult to break down but are ultimately there to be beaten. Why is Hodgson apparently the only man who can’t see his tactical approach to games is completely inappropriate, ineffective and the key cause of our “bad start”.

“I would be very disappointed if after such a short time – and having been given such a short time – to do the job people decided they wanted to get someone else in."

I would be very disappointed if Hodgson was allowed longer to entrench our team’s position in the relegation zone. I was disappointed when he was given the job, to be honest.

“I don’t seriously believe that’s the problem at the moment. It’s more complicated. I know I can turn the situation around. But I will have to be given support and the patience to do it.”

I absolutely 100% believe that the main problem is Hodgson. “Complicated”? It’s as simple as the tactics he insists on employing. As for insisting he needs “support and the patience” to “turn the situation around”, sorry but you’ll get support if and when you demonstrate an understanding of the reasons the team is failing so badly and literally a single piece of evidence that it is within your capability to do this job. If someone says “I can walk on water but you have to believe I can do it before I can show you” your response would be something like “Fuck off, you weirdo”. Hodgson is not being asked to walk on water; just to press in the opposition’s half, drop Poulsen and restore Agger to central defence.

Everton v Liverpool: Not a preview

Has there ever been a Merseyside derby of so little interest to Liverpool fans? With everyone’s focus fixed so firmly on events in the courts of London and Dallas, the fact that our football club actually has a football match pending has been largely ignored.

Perhaps had we been at or near the top of the league and playing some scintillating football, interest might have been slightly greater but given that I fully anticipate another tastelessly bad performance courtesy of Hodgson’s archaic tactics accompanying Everton’s easiest derby win in over a decade, in some ways the courtroom drama has provided a welcome distraction.

I’m sure Hodgson must be grateful to have the spotlight firmly pointed elsewhere as he flounders in a job that should never have been offered him.

However, the truth is that all of Liverpool’s current woes on the field, including the presence of Hodgson himself, are symptoms caused by the tragically inept reign of Messrs Hicks and Gillett. Even in the face of Liverpool supporters to a man (and woman) telling him to ‘jog on’ and despite a British Judge ruling that the club was effectively sold legally on Wednesday, the bastard Hicks refuses to fuck off.

Now we find ourselves in day 3 of a saga that has converted average ‘working class’ football fans into students of international case law, business finances, leveraged buy outs and aggressive takeovers as well as scouring the Guardian newspaper’s live blogs and even reading and responding to articles in Forbes magazine.

Ultimately, Sunday’s football match is worth just 3 points. The conclusion of this ownership saga could be worth 9 given the threat of points deduction if RBS call in their loan at 4pm today. A 9 point deduction could be the catalyst for relegation. A 3 point credit will be irrelevant to our long-term future if Hicks somehow retains a stake in Anfield.

Bragging rights? Look at the mess we’re in. What can we possibly brag about?

Sunday’s football match is little more than an unwelcome distraction to the real business taking place in boardrooms and courtrooms around the globe today. Doesn’t that just say it all.

What is Sammy Lee's role in all this?

On a slightly different note, can anyone tell me what value Sammy Lee brings to the club?

Sammy has worked under Gerard Houllier, Sven Goran Eriksson, Sam Allardyce, Rafa Benitez and now Roy Hodgson – managers with very different ideas on how the game should be played and whose very different playing styles were imprinted on their teams apparently irrespective of Sammy’s presence. By contrast Alex Ferguson has been able to remain at or around the top of the English game by regularly changing his coaching assistants to import the latest ideas in the European game – clearly they played differently when Brian Kidd was number 2 than when Carlos Quieroz was there, for example. Shouldn’t a coach have some imput into the playing style? At the very least shouldn’t Sammy be telling Hodgson that the way we are currently playing is (a) crap to watch, (b) ineffective unless the aim is to lose, (c) completely unacceptable to Liverpool fans and (d) the principle reason we are in the relegation zone and out of the Carling Cup at the first attempt. He may be saying that for all we know but if the message isn’t getting through, he can’t be very assertive.

Sammy’s CV shows he was in the coaching set-ups in the awful final years of Houllier’s tenure, the much criticised tenure of Sven, the season that led to Sam Allardyce's departure from Bolton, the hugely disappointing final season of Benitez’s reign and now the disaster-in-progress that is Hodgson era. That’s without mentioning his ill-fated stint as Bolton’s manager. I fail to see how he is qualified for this job.

Don't get me wrong, I certainly don’t blame Sammy for the state we're in; I blame Hodgson for the rotten performances and the Americans for the wider mess. However, I would like to think that Sammy was at least pointing out the serious and obvious errors in Hodgson’s approach rather than idly watching this mess unfold. Otherwise, why is he there?

How do you solve a problem like Roy Hodgson?

I would say to anyone calling for Hodgson to be sacked, forget it. The current owners and board are not going to sanction a dismissal this close to D-day given how much it is going to cost in compensation and doing so would be an admission of their own incompetence in making the appointment in the first place.

However, gardening leave is a viable option and we could slot Kenny in until we have new owners ready to pay that compensation and appoint a proper manager.

Of course if Hodgson had a scrap of dignity or self-awareness he would tender his own resignation at this point but if the man can't see that Poulsen is shit, Meireles is not a winger, his tactics are completely detrimental to success and aren't getting the best out of any of our players, it's a fair bet he won't be able to see the writing on the wall - in BIG FUCKING LETTERS.

This has to stop.

"Give the man time!"

I keep hearing suggestions that we should all give the new manager time to get the team playing the way he wants. I don’t think anyone is disputing that this process does take time and of course it would be unrealistic to expect the integration to be complete by now. I think the real issue is whether anyone wants to the team to be playing the way the manager wants.

Granted, we can only make assumptions at this time as to what that might be but there seems to be some pretty solid evidence on which to base those assumptions. All the feed back from people who watched Fulham under Roy, the performances so far this season and the post-match comments from the manager himself suggest the style Hodgson is aiming for is not radically different from what we’re seeing. Why else would we be seeing such performances which are so different from a tactical perspective to those which we saw even last season?

Are people saying we should give the manager time to get the team playing the way he wants or time to convince us that the way he wants the team to play is acceptable? Because if you don’t think that way of playing is acceptable, why would you give the man time to get the team playing that way?

I feel Hodgson has had long enough to give us an insight into what to expect from him and his team moving forward. Shit tactics. Awful performances. Insane team selections. Embarrassing press conferences. Time for Hodgson to go.

Hodgson: Wrong Man

Calling for the dismissal of a Liverpool manager is not an action to be taken lightly. Doing so after just five League games is an open invitation to others to label you impatient, irrational, unreasonable or a ‘knee-jerker’. Wishing to be fair and objective, I feel as though it would be inappropriate to say that I believe it would be in the best interests of Liverpool FC if Roy Hodgson was not its manager. I feel as though I have to ‘give him time’ and that to not do so would be considered unreasonable.

The truth is, if I hold back it’s because I think others think I should and I don’t want to be judged as a rash, irrational knee-jerker. The truth is I did not believe Hodgson was up to the job before his appointment so I don’t think I should be accused of negativity for continuing to hold that belief in the absence of any evidence to the contrary. That doesn’t mean I want or have wanted him to fail. In the earliest weeks of the season, I was even encouraged to the point where I thought he might prove me wrong to doubt his credentials. I do believe he is capable of improving things from where we are today and I acknowledge he has been hindered by a tough opening fixture list but I do not believe he will improve things to the point where I believe the team is performing as well as it could under a different manager. I’m realistic enough to accept we can’t attract a top class manager but at this point I think we would fare better under Dalglish or even Hughes, O’Neill or, dare I say it, Moyes. I’m not saying I want any of them to be the next manager but the point is I think there are others who could do a better job than Hodgson has to date.

That isn’t a reaction solely to his first eleven games in charge. I am not (as someone suggested) labeling him a bad manager after one ‘bad’ season (not that we’ve even reached October yet). Hodgson has had a management career spanning 30 years and his CV is there for all to see. I’ve never thought him a bad manager but nor does he strike me as anything above average. As much as I would like him to achieve whatever can constitute success at Liverpool, past precedents don’t suggest that will be the case.

We can only hypothesize as to what situation we would be in under different managers and it’s possible we might have had the same number of points but I very much doubt another manager would have us playing the same way. It is that method of playing that prevents me having confidence that things will turn around. To me, Hodgson appears to be attempting to recreate the playing style that brought him ‘success’ at Fulham and I don’t think it will work given the different statures of the clubs and expectations of the fans.

I fully acknowledge that he has inherited a truly difficult situation but I feel his decisions on tactics and transfers are actually making things worse.

While there will always be occasional shocks, certain outcomes are predictable based on past precedents. It was always highly unlikely that Hodgson was going to succeed where Benitez had failed. If Sam Allardyce replaced Alex Ferguson, we could all predict with reasonable accuracy that he would ultimately fail in the job whether or not he was given time to prove that to be the case or not. If feel that while giving Hodgson time might be fair because ‘you never know’, ultimately we’re postponing the inevitable. If he isn’t removed by a new owner beforehand, I believe that sooner or later there will come a point where the majority of the supporters want him out. That’s my opinion but I’ve followed the sport long enough to trust my instincts.

Having never been a pioneer or innovationist during a managerial career spanning over 30 years, it is reasonable to dismiss the possibility that Hodgson’s negative tactics are ahead of their time. If they are therefore established tactics, it would be reasonable to assume that if they were conducive to success, at least a reasonable number of ‘big’ clubs would employ them. However, it is fair to say that none of the big clubs in the big leagues are currently achieving any sort of success with such methods which suggests that these are not the optimum tactics for ‘big’ clubs to employ.

So why is Hodgson employing them? You could understand playing so negatively away to Man United (although ironically in that game the only time we competed was after we changed our tactics in response to going 2-0 down but as soon as we leveled we reverted to the previous tactics and threw the game) but can anyone understand the benefits of allowing the team to be dominated at home by the likes of West Bromwich Albion, Steaua Bucharest and a Northampton side sitting in 17th place 3 divisions below the Premiership?

Even if this method did bring positive results – which hasn’t been the case so far – it makes for a dire spectacle. Ultimately, football is a spectator sport and people watch it to see their team in possession, attacking the opposition, being creative and scoring goals; not retreating behind the half way line, meekly surrendering possession, looking bereft of attacking ideas and consistently looking second best.

Our revival hinges on the sale of the club to a buyer who will invest significantly in the playing staff and, of course, the stadium. If that doesn’t happen, our best players will leave and nothing that happens between now and then will make any difference. However, we have to hope it will happen and if it does, our revival would be easier if we have retained our best players. My concern is that while Hodgson persists with these tactics, Torres will get fed up of being starved of service, Agger will get fed up of being omitted from the starting XI or told to hoof the ball when selected, and Reina will get fed up of being overworked with scant rewards for his efforts. Meanwhile fans will turn away in their droves making LFC a less attractive proposition to any potential owners.

In the interest of fairness, I have attempted to cross-examine my own thinking to ask whether I am being harsher on Roy than I was with Rafa given that I was delighted when Rafa replaced Houllier but dismayed when Roy replaced Rafa. In Rafa’s first season at Anfield, he got a lot wrong and if I had been looking for evidence that he was the wrong man for the job, I could have found plenty. For example, playing Salif Diao ahead of Alonso in away games at Chelsea and Everton; handing debuts to two Spaniards at the Reebok Stadium; signing Josemi, Nunez and Morientes, and losing to teams like Crystal Palace and Burnley. If I’d had an agenda, I could have cited these (and more) examples to back up my argument. However, I did not. I believed in the manager. I was patient and continued to support him and the team. Should I therefore do the same with Hodgson?

In the case of Rafa’s first season, I reasoned that he was new to the Premiership and needed time to get to know the league, get to know his players and to overcome a language barrier to communicate his ideas to his players.

Roy doesn’t have the excuse of being new to the league or facing a language barrier. In fairness, he does need to get to know his players and perhaps the step up from Fulham to Liverpool takes some adjustment in the same way as moving to a new league.

I also thought Rafa inherited a weak squad and I don’t think that is true in Roy’s case. I think some of his selections and tactics are weakening his first team but there is more quality there than we are seeing. In any case, Rafa got some of the poorer players and the team as a whole playing better than in the previous season (albeit inconsistently) whereas Roy has so far got some of the better players playing worse and the team as a whole playing consistently badly. At least in that first season under Rafa, there were glimpses of a better future.

The other factor, at the risk of sounding ageist, is that Rafa joined us as one of the brightest managerial prospects in Europe. He was fairly young, modern-thinking and had his best years ahead of him. He had time on his side to learn, adapt and improve. If Roy needs time at the age of 63, when will he be ready?

Everything about Roy’s strategy appears geared to short-term improvement (e.g. clearing out promising young players, trimming the squad and recruiting ‘experienced’ players) yet we aren’t even seeing short-term improvements in terms of results or performances.

I haven’t ‘turned on the manager’. I never wanted him in the first place. I think it was a mistake to appoint him and so far things are actually turning out worse than I expected.

I won’t be marching to Anfield chanting ‘Hodgson out!’ or burning effigies of the man. For a long as he is in the post I will hope he gets it right and proves me wrong to doubt him but I just do not believe that will happen and I do believe that the sooner he is replaced, the better our prospects will be for the future. I think I should be able to say that without being accused of negativity, knee-jerking or being part of a ‘Hodgson out’ brigade.

Man Ure v Liverpool Preview

I rarely approach a fixture between Liverpool and Man Ure confident of a Liverpool victory. Under any circumstances, I would always take a draw ahead of kick off such is the fear of losing to that lot. However, I have never approached one of these fixtures with such certainty that we will lose. Other than accepting that in any game of football, either team can win, I believe a Liverpool win is so unlikely it is not even worth considering. What’s more, I think our chances of getting a draw are so unlikely it is not worth considering.

I will be watching braced for goals flying in past Pepe Reina. My fear is this could be United’s easiest and possibly biggest win over us since the Premiership began.

Apparently our team will be: Reina, Johnson, Skrtel, Carragher, Konchesky, Poulsen, Meireles, Maxi, Gerrard, Cole and Torres. I would prefer Lucas ahead of Poulsen and Agger ahead of either Carra or Skrtel (probably Skrtel on this occasion) but otherwise that is probably our best line up. However, compare that with the line up that famously won 4-1 in this fixture a couple of years ago.

Carra was fantastic as a makeshift fullback while Hyypia was majestic in central defence alongside Skrtel. Aurelio was by far superior to Konchesky. Johnson appears to be struggling with Hodgson’s negative tactics. He is clearly a better player going forward than defending yet Hodgson has restricted his offensive licence and left us with a weak defensive fullback with fragile confidence. He won’t be as sturdy as Carra was that day. Gerrard is not the same player as he was back then and that day we had Mascherano in the centre of the park. Alonso missed the game so Lucas played alongside Mascher. It’s only now that I really appreciate what a great central pairing Alonso and Mascher were. Poulsen and Meireles are not in the same league.

I do applaud the removal of Jovanovic from the first XI though it's difficult to see Cole being effective in such a fixture.

I don’t necessarily agree with those who think Kuyt’s absence is a blow for this fixture. I can see pros and cons when comparing him and Maxi in terms of what they bring to the team. Given that Hodgson doesn’t play the pressing game that brought the best out of Kuyt, I can’t see us being weaker for his absence while Maxi might help us retain possession a little better.

It’s all largely irrelevant though because United have the stronger first team and the stronger squad. The only way to beat teams that on paper are stronger is to outwit them tactically. This is why we don’t have a chance. Hodgson’s tactics so far have been exactly the same whether we were playing Arsenal, Man City, West Brom, Birmingham or Steaua Bucharest - Two banks of four sitting in our own half in front of the keeper; happily conceding possession in order to congest the areas in front of our six yard box; playing long balls into the channels for the two isolated front men to chase, and no substitutions until the last 10-15 minutes. It’s not just the negative and unwatchable tactics that I object to so much; my biggest gripe is the total lack of variation and flexibility. It’s like the final years of Houllier’s reign all over again. True, Houllier achieved success at Old Trafford on three occasions using those tactics but the game has moved on. United will be happy for us to force them to play in the channels as they have players who can operate well in those areas and who can deliver a telling cross.

We’re fucked. I would take a defeat of less than 4 goals as long as Michael Shithouse doesn’t get on the score sheet. It’s so sad that it’s come to that sort of thinking.

Keeping up with the Moyeses

I was talking with a Bluenose today and, as much as it pained me to say it, I had to concede that I think they have a better midfield than we do. That was unimaginable a couple of years ago when we began the 2007-08 season with Alonso and Mascherano as the preferred pairing and Sissoko, Lucas and one Steven Gerrard providing further cover. Now we are left with Lucas, Meireles, Poulsen and a much deteriorated Steven Gerrard. I’m optimistic that Meireles will prove to be a decent player but Alonso he is not. Poulsen looks every bit like a Fulham-type player and I’ve stated on numerous occasions that I think Lucas is a decent squad player but you can’t expect to challenge for trophies with him as a first choice midfielder.

Unbelievably, I find myself looking with envious eyes across to Goodison Park where they can field Cocoa the Clown (a.k.a. Marouane Fellaini), Steven Pienaar, Tim Cahill, Mikel Arteta, Jack Rodwell and Leon Osman. Rodwell in particular reminds me of a young Stevie G and more promising than anyone we have. I would swap him for Joe Cole in a heartbeat. Comparing Fellaini with Poulsen is like comparing Fernando Torres with Andrily Voronin. Pienaar is the equal of Dirk Kuyt but younger. Cahill has shown better form than Gerrard over the last year (and greater motivation). Phil Neville is of similar standard to Lucas. Will Meireles be better than Arteta? It’s debatable. Leon Osman is a decent workhorse who is perhaps more in tune with the English game than Maxi Rodriguez. Then there is that Russian dude (Diniyar Bilyaletdinov) whom I don’t rate so is therefore on a par with Milan Jovanovic. The potential aces in our pack are Pacheco and Babel but (a) our manager has yet to seriously use them and (b) his tactics would certainly not allow them to do the thing they do best – attack.

It gives me no pleasure to state this and I dearly hope I am wrong but I believe that without intervention such as new owners and/or the dismissal of Hodgson, Everton will finish above Liverpool this season – and get the better of the two derbies.

There, I said it. I hope I am wrong.

Birmingham v Liverpool Preview

I fucking hate Birmingham (the team, not the place). What is the phenomenon of bogey teams all about?

Over the years, we have unquestionably had a stronger team than Brum on every occasion we have played them yet inexplicably failed to beat them in a single League game during Rafa’s six-year tenure as our manager.

Looking back, part of the reason for that staggering statistic is that on each occasion we appear to have fielded a weakened team. Did Rafa under-estimate the opposition or were there mitigating circumstances which forced his hand?

What is clear today is that Birmingham present a very real threat to us and our aims for this season. The way the Premiership is panning out, you can clearly see there is the top four: Chelsea, United, City and Arsenal; then Spurs – all of whom clearly have stronger squads than us – then a group which contains ourselves, Everton, Villa and Birmingham (and could even be joined by Sunderland). As perennial underachievers, Spurs could (and probably will) drop back into our group but ultimately we are all just scrapping to be the best of the rest as those Champions League places look unobtainable.

Over the season, I would expect us to finish above Birmingham but not by much. For that to happen, I believe the successful integration of Meireles into the first team is essential. He will be on the bench today as St Andrews with Poulsen and Lucas holding the midfield. I’m not excited by the prospect.

These two were really poor against West Brom. It’s early days but to me, Poulsen looks a really uninspiring signing. He was a fringe player at Juventus and based on what we have seen so far, should be a fringe player at Liverpool. He is not an adequate replacement for Mascherano. Meireles is merely the replacement for Alonso that Aquilani was never given a chance to be.

The other curious selections by Hodgson include the choice of Skrtel to continue his partnership with Carragher in central defence with Agger dropping to the bench now that Konchesky is able to relieve him from left-back duties. I hope this is a selection based on the opposition with 6’6” Zigic likely to provide a real aerial threat. Longer term, the centre-half pairing I want to see is Agger and Skrtel but if, as seems likely, Hodgson is going to bottle the decision to drop Carra, he has to recognise that Agger is a better defender and crucially a better footballer than Skrtel. Agger has to play.

I’m also uninspired by Jovanovic continuing on the left-side. So far I’m far from impressed with him. The way Hodgson sets out his team with the wide midfielders tucking in alongside the central midfielders behind the half-way line, the only way to prevent the front two from being complete isolated and accessible only by long balls is to employ wide players with pace and the ability to bring the ball forward. Jovanovic can run with the ball but he’s certainly not pacy and so far we’ve seen nothing from him in attacking terms. I would actually select Babel there but the Dutch whinger lacks the discipline to defend as deeply as Hodgson wants. Fuck it, I’d just sack Hodgson and employ a manager who doesn’t advocate such negative tactics.

I can see today’s game being a draw and before kick-off I would accept a point. Defeat would be disastrous – particularly with Man Ure away being our next fixture. If we see a bit of Torres magic, we could pull off a win but it’s more likely to be of a smash and grab nature. I expect lots of Birmingham possession and little in the way of entertainment.

Carra

I've just been reading through a debate on 'The Tomkins Times' website with many posters being critical of Jamie Carragher for his attitude. I think it's a little inappropriate to be criticising the player for his personality today on the day of his testimonial of all days.

I suspect that the frustrations over Carra originate from frustrations over his performances on the football pitch. I think most people would accept or overlook the stuff said by or about the player through the media if he was still playing in a winning team and performing at his peak level week-in, week-out. I think most of us would agree that as a player he has been in decline for well over a year now and his inability or unwillingness to try anything other than hoofs forward and back-passes make for unattractive viewing. My frustrations centre around his continued inclusion in the first team and seeming unassailable status within the club but I don’t blame the player for that.

I’m sure that Carra expects his to be one of the first names on the teamsheet and that he would not meekly accept being omitted but in that circumstance I would want and expect nothing more than for him to react defiantly and come back determined to take some shifting when recalled. Those were qualities I admired in Sami Hyypia during his last few years at the club. The moment Carra concedes he no longer deserves to be in our first team is the moment he needs to retire. My concern with Carra is that he might not react as professionally as Sami did when phased out and may cause dressing room unrest, undermining his manager and the teammates selected ahead of him. Ultimately, that is a situation Hodgson must manage and it will be one of the key factors that will affect my judgement of Hodgson over the next year or so. [I suspect it is a situation he will dodge by continuning to select Carra every game during his brief tenure as our manager but hopefully the man will surprise me.]

Regarding Carra’s personality on and off the pitch, I agree there are less attractive sides to his personality and that his autobiography suggests he believes he is a better footballer than most of us who have watched him week-in, week-out for 13 years would agree. However, as he also acknowledges in his book, his enormous self-belief enabled him to become the player he was. His aggression, determination and will to disprove his detractors are the same qualities that enabled him to shake off the ‘Jack-of-all-trades’ tag and usurp Hyypia as the team’s defensive lynchpin. Let’s not cane him for displaying the same characteristics that led him to drag his cramp-filled weary body off the Attaturk turf in order to execute another inch-perfect block tackle to prevent a certain Shevchenko winner for Milan in injury time.

I don’t need Liverpool players to be nice guys. I need them to be winners. I know plenty of nice guys and I wouldn’t trust them to represent Liverpool Football Club. Carra has served our club with distinction and deserves the recognition he will receive today. I’m not convinced he has been a fantastic ‘player’ for over 10 years but he has been a truly fantastic ‘servant’ who gave his all wherever his managers chose to deploy him and who, for at least three years, was a truly world class defender. That’s what I’ll be thanking him for today.

Transfer Deadline Day...!!!!

First my thoughts on Mascherano and Meireles. I was obviously sad to see Mascher sold but I had long since accepted it was inevitable. In fact, I was surprised to see him still at the club and in the team for our opening game against Arsenal. A few supporters have turned on him after reports leaked from the club suggested he basically went on strike ahead of the City game. However, I have since heard counter claims that he did no such thing and would have been willing to play if selected. Given my distrust of every official at our club at the moment, I am prepared to give the player the benefit of the doubt. Ultimately, I have sympathy over his situation. His wife couldn’t settle here on Merseyside and he didn't want to be away from his wife and family. Fair enough. Given the choice, I would rather live and work in Barcelona than on Merseyside with the rotten weather we have had here for the last four years or so. Plus Barca are currently one of the biggest clubs in the world, if not the biggest, and we are clearly a club in decline.

He has been a great player for us since joining from West Ham in 2007. He will be missed. However, there were weaknesses to his game that we now have the opportunity to improve upon. There is no one better in world football at breaking up opponents’ attacks than the terrier-like Argentinean but his distribution is limited and his goal record is pretty abysmal. Meireles will bring far more creativity and will score more goals.

Ideally, Meireles would have been the replacement for Alonso last year (or even Lucas this year in the first team) and would be lining up alongside Mascherano. Now it looks like a straight battle between Lucas and Poulsen to partner Meireles. Poulsen has looked decent in the second halves against Trabzonspor at home and away but I was extremely disappointed with him in our lousy 1-0 win over West Brom on Sunday. Lucas is a worker and would appear to be the natural successor to Mascherano but lacks that bit of quality in his passing.

I’m pleased with the signing of Meireles. At 27, he is unlikely to improve or enhance his value but we are getting a player in his peak years. I think he will improve our first team and bring a bit of control and quality to our midfield.

The one transfer certain to be completed today is that of Paul Konchesky from Fulham. I have to be honest and say this one leaves me with a sinking feeling in my stomach. I just don’t believe Konchesky will improve us. My feeling is that he is average at best and that Insua and Aurelio are as good if not better. With Insua qualifying as a home-grown player, it makes no sense to me to freeze out a young prospect and spend between £3-5m on an average 29-year old. Having said that, I concede that I have not watched Konchesky week-in, week-out and so I am not qualified to make a fair assessment on his ability. In fairness, I never thought the last full-back we signed from Fulham, Steve Finnan, would be anything other than steady yet he enjoyed two truly excellent seasons in 2005-06 and 2006-07 in which I would have said he was the best around. In fact in 2006-07 I voted him Player of the Season. I don’t expect to be giving Konchesky similar accolades in the next couple of years but if he can do a steady job then at least it would temporarily put an end to left-back being a problem position and allow Agger to return to central defence.

What I cannot accept is the decision to sell Lauri Dalla Valle to Fulham as part of the deal. This young lad is considered a hot prospect. We’ve already sold Kristian Nemeth to Olympiakos. These two were touted as potentially great strikers of the future. Certainly in Nemeth’s case, Hodgson can’t possibly have had a good enough look to make any balanced decision about the player’s future. Dalla Valle is only 18 and still has a long time to blossom. To me, this just smacks of Hodgson’s short-sightedness. As I’ve said before, he is not a club builder – mainly because he is never at a club long enough to benefit from the foundations he might lay. His sole focus is on the season ahead. He won’t be Liverpool’s manager by the time Nemeth and Dalla Valle would have been ready to challenge for first-team places so to him, a short-term signing like Konchesky is more useful. Twat.

It still baffles me why Insua has been so ruthlessly frozen out by Hodgson and my theory remains that the new boss is simply trying to distance himself from his predecessor by ditching a player whom many fans and pundits criticised Rafa for selecting last season. Given Insua will certainly be excluded from the 25-man squad announced after today, he will surely be sold if any bids come in for him and if not, probably loaned out for the season.

The writing appears to be on the wall for Nabil El Zhar and Damien Plessis. Both are over 21 and neither qualify as home-grown players. Neither, in honesty, are good enough to warrant a place in Liverpool’s squad so I expect both to move on today one way or another.

It is also very well known that we need a striker. We’ve been strongly linked with West Ham’s Carlton Cole. I think Cole is a cracking player but given Torres’ injury problems, to me it would make no sense to sign a player with an even worse fitness record. Having said that, I can’t see another striker in the Premiership whom I would rather sign. With Hodgson seemingly being obsessed with only signing English players, he fits that bill. I think I’d rather go for a less-well known foreigner with the potential to be a star of the future. We have also been linked with PSV’s Ola Toivonen. I’ve never seen the Swedish international play but I have to say his goal to game ratio looks pretty unimpressive given he plays in Holland. 24 goals in 50 games works out as a goal every 2 games. By comparison, Dirk Kuyt scored a goal every 1.4 games for Feyenoord and he has hardly been prolific in the Premiership. Ultimately, the most important thing is that we do sign a striker.

I also think we need a winger or two although I don’t expect to sign one today. There have been no strong links with any wingers. Personally, I would like to see us combine the striker and winger problem and sign Villa’s Ashley Young. Villa are in crisis and have no permanent manager. Their recent transfer business suggests they are no longer able or willing to be a spending club after a significant lay out in recent seasons failed to get them into the Champions League. I think a bid of £15m or so might be enough. Ultimately, that is just Fantasy Football though and it is something I would be shocked to see actually happen.

Reaction to the Europa League draw

The draw has given us Steaua Bucharest, Napoli and Utrecht.

In terms of who we could have been drawn against, it's a tough group but in real terms it should be piss-easy. Let's be honest, if we'd been given this group in the Champions League we would have been wondering if UEFA had confused us with Man Ure when rigging the draw (incidentally Man Ure have been given Valencia, Rangers and Bursaspor - pathetic!).

We played Steaua back in 2003-04 and drew 1-1 away with a goal from... Djimi Traore (in the right end too!) before winning the home leg 1-0 with a goal from Harry Kewell. All I really remember from the games was the crap pitch in Bucharest.

I don't know much about Napoli except they have a crap left-back who goes by the name of Andrea Dossena.

Utrecht could be tricky but realistically, we would expect to beat Ajax, PSV or Twente so we shouldn't be losing sleep about playing an inferior Dutch team.

Basically, if we want to take this competition seriously, we should sail through that group with a very healthy goal difference.

Trabzonspor 1 Liverpool 2

I’ve been a bit critical of Roy over the last week so to be fair, credit to him for steering us into the group stages of the Europa League. I didn’t fancy our chances before the game and once we went a goal down in the fourth minute I was certain our European season was over before September. In truth, it should have been and would have been but for wasteful finishing by the Turkish side but having reached half time level on aggregate, all credit to Roy for masterminding a second half comeback.

While it’s not true to say we were as good in the second half as we were bad in the first half (we would have had to be pretty fucking good for that to be true!) we certainly showed massive improvement and were the better team. The hostile home crowd became more and more hushed and the confident home team saw the wind in their sails rapidly decreasing. It had something to do with the away side retaining the white round thing for longer than it takes to say ‘Trabzonspor’.

Quite how the same set of players who reacted the football like it was a bomb in the first half were suddenly transformed into an outfit resembling a professional football team in the second half is anyone’s guess but that was the reality.

In particular I noticed that for the second game running (of those he has started), Poulsen looked a different player after half time. Kuyt meanwhile, having looked sluggish in the first half and been majorly at fault for the Turks’ opener, was the star man after the interval showing purpose and the sort of limited energy we have come to expect from him in his previous four (trophyless) years at Anfield. Johnson was certainly more involved after the break but for the most part was hugely frustrating gifting the opposition possession of the football at virtually every opportunity. How ironic that the one time something he tried did come off resulted in our equalising goal as his cross was put into his own net by Kacar. N’gog was another who was good and bad in equal measure. He really should have scored – particularly from his free header early in the second half – but he also was unlucky not to score from a couple of efforts he created for himself with some clever movement and trickery. The jury is out as to whether he will ever be top class but with no other cover for Fernando Torres, the young Frenchman is certainly worth his place in the side.

As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, the true test of Hodgson’s capability to fill this most demanding of roles will begin in earnest with the games against West Brom and Birmingham. Against the Baggies, a win is mandatory but it must also come with goals, the lion’s share of possession and a creative and energetic display. I would normally take a point at Birmingham but with Man Ure away next up, there is a real possibility we could leave Old Trafford sitting in the relegation zone. Therefore, I would hope for a win but would take a point IF the performance is better than those we have seen in the first halves against Arsenal, City and Trabzonspor.

I have yet to be convinced, and given that Hodgson will probably have to do more to convince me than any of his predecessors, I may never be convinced. However, I will give Hodgson some kudos for a win in a difficult fixture with an under-strength team after the worst possible start.

Well done, Roy. Keep proving me wrong!

Trabzonspor v Liverpool: Preview

I see we are without Torres and Gerrard for this game. On paper they are our two best players but on form they are not so it's debatable whether their absence truly weakens us. However, I think psychologically it might weaken our players and boost the opposition.

In any case, Turkey is a hard place to play as the away side - as proven by our 2-1 defeat in Besiktas in 2007 before we beat them 8-0 at Anfield. With just a 1-0 advantage, I'm not confident. If we can score over there, I'd back us not to concede 3 but my gut feeling is we will be out of Europe on Friday morning.

Man City 3 Liverpool 0

I was so dismayed by our game against City. That we lost 3-0 is not my major concern but to for City to win convincingly without needing to play well themselves was simply inexcusable. What we saw of the team in Red was complete and total ineptitude. The inability to retain the ball for more than three passes or to show any evidence of being able to play as a cohesive unit is inexcusable.

You can certainly criticise the players for their failings but overall this defeat stemmed from the manager’s team selection and tactics.

The gulf between City and Liverpool is now gargantuan as illustrated by the fact the combined cost of the players on their substitutes bench (£93m) cost more than our entire squad combined (£91m). You simply can’t hope to beat them on their own ground without a very clever tactical approach.

What did Hodgson do? He went with an archaic 4-4-2 formation. He did so with two ‘forwards’ playing as wingers; a central defender (our best one) playing out of position at left-back, and two strikers who are accustomed to playing as lone front men thrown into an unrehearsed strike partnership. The tactics appeared to be to launch the ball quickly from the back into the channels for Torres and Ngog to chase down. It was as crude and ugly to watch as it was ineffective. It was clear we were a distant second best yet Hodgson seemed incapable of affecting the game from the bench. His first substitute was made in the 78th minute by which time we were 3-0 down. His only tactical change in the game, assuming this was down to him, was getting Kuyt and Jovanovic to swap wings and that had zero impact.

I’ve heard some mitigating arguments that Mascherano’s impromptu strike and Cole’s suspension forced Roy into using the unfamiliar formation but that I don’t believe it for one second. Had Mascherano been available for selection, surely he would have replaced Lucas in the line up. Are we to believe that the Argentinean would have lined up alongside Lucas with Gerrard deployed in the hole and Ngog dropping to the bench? Certainly that is how Benitez would have lined up but Hodgson? I doubt it. The evidence was there in the game against Arsenal. Hodgson saw his strongest midfield pairing as Gerrard and Masch. We would have gone 4-4-2 with or without Mascherano. Had Cole been available it would have been 4-4-1-1 with Cole in the hole behind presumably Torres and with Ngog on the bench.

Even in the absence of Cole, Hodgson had better options than to go with 4-4-2. He could have used Maxi Rodriguez on the right enabling him to put Kuyt in the hole, on the left with Jovanovic playing behind Torres, or in central midfield (where he played for Argentina in the World Cup) releasing Gerrard to play in the hole. Alternatively, he could have used Pacheco in behind a striker. Had he not given our £17m ‘hole’ specialist Aquilani away for the season for nothing, perhaps the creative Italian could have been used there. I’ve no sympathy for Hodgson there.

The one factor for which I do have some sympathy for Hodgson is the fact that his squad is just not of a good enough standard to go to places like City and win – even though people seem to expect us to because of the respective statures of the two clubs. City have spent over £100m on proven world class players in successive summers. We have made profit in successive summers as our first team and squad have been progressively weakened. Jovanovic (free transfer) is not of the calibre of David Silva (£26m). Poulsen (£4.55m) is not of the calibre of Yaya Toure (£24m). Cole (free transfer) is not of the calibre of James Milner (£26m). You simply can’t expect a team with nothing to spend to outperform a team spending vast sums of money (£292m net since the Sheikh bought them). Not that people seem capable of adjusting their expectations. People still think we should be sweeping these teams aside with free-flowing attacking football rather than utilising our limited strengths as best we can – hence why Rafa attracted so much criticism last season.

Before the game, Andy Gray was purring with delight over Hodgson’s team selection, praising him for going with an ‘attacking’ 4-4-2 using Gerrard in his ‘best position’ of central midfield. Gray even got his little digs in at Rafa claiming our former boss would never have used this formation and would definitely have played an extra midfielder with Gerrard in the hole (even though Hodgson would have played Cole there had he been available). Gray was right about Rafa but the point is Rafa wouldn’t have lost this game 3-0. He was unbeaten at Eastlands in the previous 5 seasons. Isn’t it better to take what some perceive as a ‘negative’ approach and draw 0-0 than to adopt a so-called ‘positive’ approach and get annihilated?

Gray also claimed before the game that Hodgson’s decision to man-mark when defending corners would improve Liverpool’s defending of set pieces. Clearly Micah Richards would beg to differ after planting a free header past Reina who was distracted by the unmarked Tevez (who would have been offside had zonal marking been used without players on the post) to get a touch on the ball. In all of our games so far, including those against part-timers Rabotnicki, we have looked vulnerable from set-pieces. Bring back zonal marking!

We’ve known Gray talks shit for years but finally we have a manager willing to prove that is the case by doing all the things that Gray said Rafa should have done and our team is shite because of it. Will Gray continue to praise Hodgson if we are in the relegation zone in a few weeks time? How can he without proving himself to be the world’s biggest hypocrite?

Wipe the egg from your face, Mr Gray, and the shit from your breath.

Man City – First XI v Liverpool

Joe Hart £0m
Micah Richards £0m
Kolo Toure £16m
Vincent Kompany £6m
Joleon Lescott £22m
Nigel De Jong £17m
Yaya Toure £24m
Gareth Barry £12m
James Milner £26m
Adam Johnson £7m
Carlos Tevez £25.5m

Cost of first XI = £155.5m
Average cost per player = £14.1m

Shay Given £8m
Zabaletta £6.5m
Vieria £0m
David Silva £26m
Wright-Phillips £8.5m
Adebayor £25m
Jo £19m

Cost of bench = £93.0m
Average cost per player = £15.5m


Total cost of squad = £248.5m
Average cost per player = £13.8m

Liverpool – First XI vs City

Pepe Reina £6m
Glen Johnson £17m
Jamie Carragher £0m
Martin Skrtel £6.5m
Daniel Agger £5.8m
Dirk Kuyt £9m
Steven Gerrard £0m
Lucas Leiva £5m
Milan Jovanovic £0m
David Ngog £1.5m
Fernando Torres £20.2m

Cost of first XI = £71.0m
Average cost per player = £6.5m

Brad Jones £2.3m
Sotirios Kyrgiakos £1.5m
Fabio Aurelio £0m
Christian Poulsen £4.6m
Maxi Rodriguez £0m
Dani Pacheco £0m
Ryan Babel £11.5m

Cost of bench = £19.9m
Average cost per player = £3.3m

Total Cost of squad = £90.85m
Average cost per player = £5.0m