Roy Hodgson "I was unlucky at Liverpool"

Have just read on the BBC website that Roy thinks he was unlucky at Liverpool.

Was he really? Or is he deluded and blinded to the reality that unfortunately he just wasn't good enough?

Was it bad luck or bad tactics?

Has kenny made a difference or has the luck just changed!

Guess we will see today. My heart says a win, but my head realises that even a draw will be difficult.

Welcome to the board

I think Roy was out of his depth at Liverpool. His tactics were shocking at times. Kenny has certainly made an impact, but after a couple of dodgy results last week they need to be on top form today against a Utd team trying to keep Arsenal at bay.

Cheers Y I Man, great board, keep up the good work!

The board is brilliant. Please feel free to invite your friends over as well
We have a chat box facility which we put on the big footy matches, it will be on for the match today and the banter is great

I wouldn't say he was unlucky, Roy Hodgson's problem was that he came in and tried to make Liverpool play like they were Fulham when they were battling against relegation, no disrespect to Fulham intended.

Under Rafa Benitez Liverpool were all about applying pressure when they weren't in possession, then attacking at pace. The players were used to this and it had been (fairly) successful. Roy decided that when we didn't have the ball we'd sit back & invite teams onto us. With '2 banks of 4' there's no way the opposition would get through right?! If we did win the ball it would get played to Fernando Torres, who'd have no support and would more often than not lose the ball when faced with 2 or sometimes 3 defenders. His attitude was urine poor at times, but when you go from being an attacking striker who creates chances & gets bundles of chances created for him to a target man with no support then you can kind of see why he was miffed.

Admittedly, we had a poor season before Roy came in, but instead of having us play like a potential top 6 team, he had us playing like relegation fodder, which resulted in us BECOMING relegation fodder. In the end I think the job was too big for him, and it didn't help that he had the shadow of the King looming over him. I still think Hodgson is a good manager and that he'll keep West Brom up, but a lot of his 'misfortune' at Liverpool was his own doing.

UndisputedY2D2 has nailed it pretty much in his post. (gives me hope that the football board on here will be different to the atrocious one on the bbc).

Hodgson and LFC were a mismatch from the start - no disrespect to teams he has done well at, but 'plucky underdogs' is his level, and he's actually quite a good manager at that level. Sitting back, soaking up the pressure and hitting the big man up front early with his wingers (usually inverted) scampering up quick in support. He didn't have a 'target man' at Liverpool as such - Torres is not suited to this type of game, although I think given the right attitude he has the skillset to adapt. If Carroll had been here from the start, it may have been better for Roy, but I think he would have met an end sooner rather than later.

The thing that really annoyed me about the man though, was his constant shifting of the blame, and he is still at it. First it was Rafa's fault for leaving a poor squad. Then it was the players for not being good enough. He called the team vs Northampton the 'B' team - and to think it was his man-management skills which he was lauded for in the press Then once NESV (now FSG) bought the club, it was the previous owners fault, then he had a go at Purslow over transfers, the guy who employed him in the first place, proving that he would backstab anyone to absolve himself of blame. Then lastly, and this was his biggest and most crucial mistake, he blamed the fans. Nail. In. Coffin. And he was supposed to be Mister Niceguy? Nope, he was anything but.

Good post liverbnz, it's about time you got here!

I used to cringe whenever Roy Hodgson had a microphone put in front of him, some of the stuff he said in his time at LFC just had you shaking your head in disbelief.

And I swear if I hear him say "I'm one of the most well respected managers around" one more time after a bad performance or a defeat I will lamp him!

He won the LMA manager of the year award don'tya know? 35 billion years in the game

Distant memory now. Onwards and upwards.

If he played key players in their positions it may have helped him. Miereles has shown what he can do when he isnt stuck at right midfield! He has had 1 good season in his entire time in the premier league and that was last year. Everywhere else he has been poor at best

liverbnz wrote:Distant memory now. Onwards and upwards.

Amen!

davidl1061 wrote:If he played key players in their positions it may have helped him. Miereles has shown what he can do when he isnt stuck at right midfield! He has had 1 good season in his entire time in the premier league and that was last year. Everywhere else he has been poor at best

Miereles starting position was RM on Sunday, and I thought he was fantastic for the first hour. It was Hodgson's rigid formations that hampered a lot of our players. Miereles drifted inside an awful lot on Sunday and it caused United all sorts of bother as nobody was picking them up.

I watched it on sky and the line up had him in the centre with kuyt and maxi on the wings, wasnt really paying attention to where he kept appearng on the screen

davidl1061 wrote:I watched it on sky and the line up had him in the centre with kuyt and maxi on the wings, wasnt really paying attention to where he kept appearng on the screen

The moral of that story is: don't believe anything u see on sky.

As Kenny says, it's the players that are important and how the work with each other. Formations are only numbers.

Nice little tactical analysis of the game vs united if anyone is interested.

http://tomkinstimes.com/2011/03/liverpool-vs-man-utd-in-depth-tactical-analysis/

Well I for one appreciate you getting rid of him!(Baggies fan)

In reality,I think that a club a size of Fulham/Ourselves is what suits his managerial abilities best,and the style he wants to play in.I think once it was made clear Dalglish was interested in the job he wasn't going to be accepted by fans,though he did himself few favours on that front,and the players didn't seem to want to play for him,whatever the reason.

I think Liverpool wanted to return to the days of free-flowing,attractive football which from what I saw on sky they were deprieved of under Rafa at some points in his reign,He was probably right man-wrong time.

Liverbnz, I only thought he was in the centre as everytime he got the ball he seemed to be in the centre, this is the problem with not being at a live game, you dont get the bigger picture!

davidl1061 wrote:Liverbnz, I only thought he was in the centre as everytime he got the ball he seemed to be in the centre, this is the problem with not being at a live game, you dont get the bigger picture!

I wasn't at the game either mate, but when we were defending - which is when formations only ever really matter - he was defending the right side. Then once we would break he would often drift in from the RHS, but usually late enough in the move for him not to be picked up by any of the central players (Smalling/Brown or Carrick/Scholes). Evra (best full back in the world ®) didn't track any of Miereles' runs which is why he found the freedom he did. Maxi did the same from the other side, but with less success.

Mat wrote:Well I for one appreciate you getting rid of him!(Baggies fan)

He was probably right man-wrong time.

Wrong everything I'm afraid. His style of football would have been accepted if it was to produce results. It didn't and it never would at Liverpool with the set of players at his disposal. He needed to adapt to the players, not the other way around, as they need to play to their strengths. Neither is his style of play comparable to that of Rafa's. (see Y2D2 post above for clarity). Roy has bombed at every big club he has been at, as he failed to change his approach. Average at Inter, awful at Liverpool and atrocious at Blackburn by effectively relegating them only a few years after the were crowned PL champions.

As for the players not playing for Roy. That isn't true either (bar Torres) - seek out the reaction after the Bolton win not long before he got the boot. Player effort was much less in Rafa's last season, than it has been any time this.

Roy Hodgson was unlucky at Liverpool......

Unlucky because he was never really accepted by the fans
Unlucky because the fans never supported him because of this.
Unlucky because he was stabbed in the back by Steven Gerrard and Kenny Dogleash

So he was unlucky, unlucky that he joined a club where he would be so disliked from the off!

Unlucky because he struggled with a club bigger than a relegation battle.
Unlucky because he made terrible signings; Poulsen, Konchesky.
Unlucky because he blamed everybody other than himself, including the fans.
Unlucky because he conceded losses every time.

The only reason people are using this whole backstabbing thing as an excuse is because he is English, and the darling of the media because he got Fulham to the Europa League final. If he was foreign, the media would have been on the side of the fans.

Hodgson deserves no sympathy, he had a job for life at Fulham and jumped ship, Liverpool where and still are in a bad place, he wasnt the right guy from the off. Hes not to blame tho. Its the guys that hired him to blame

the-gaffer wrote:Hodgson deserves no sympathy, he had a job for life at Fulham and jumped ship, Liverpool where and still are in a bad place, he wasnt the right guy from the off. Hes not to blame tho. Its the guys that hired him to blame

He is not to blame for the situation we are in, but he is at fault for worsening it.

invincibleILeak (CL-6WF) wrote:Unlucky because he struggled with a club bigger than a relegation battle.
Unlucky because he made terrible signings; Poulsen, Konchesky.
Unlucky because he blamed everybody other than himself, including the fans.
Unlucky because he conceded losses every time.

The only reason people are using this whole backstabbing thing as an excuse is because he is English, and the darling of the media because he got Fulham to the Europa League final. If he was foreign, the media would have been on the side of the fans.

And yet he manages to beat your lot eh?

And yet he manages to beat your lot eh?

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Funny, I thought that the referee played a bigger part in them beating us than Roy Hodgson.

He was unlucky their is players who never kicked their own backsides for Roy who would run through brick walls for Kenny. It's disgraceful their wages still come from the same place. It wasn't just Roy they let down but also and more importantly the Liverpool fans.