Hog wash!

Why Last years Manager of the year had to leave Liverpool.

Time up

Wednesday’s 3-1 defeat of Liverpool at Ewood Park by Blackburn rovers proved to be the final nail on Roy Hodgson’s already nail studded coffin. Truth be told most Liverpool fans started sharpening their knives as soon as news came around that he had replaced club controversial Spanish manager Rafael Benitez back in July 2010. 

The arguments that were put to the table back then have rightfully stood to be true to date.
He has an awful away record
His teams are not out going enough in attack
He will never attract star names

He started off with some fairly easy Europa league matches which made his critics quite but only for a while. The fact that he won Manager of the year the season before made him such a London journalist favourite that when ever he erred the same journalists were quick to point the finger on the team that Benitez left behind but never upon the manager.

The same team that almost beat Arsenal on the first day of the season if it wasn’t for an uncharacteristic last minute own goal by Pepe Reina. The same team that can be credited for starting Chelsea’s slump after comprehensively beating them at Anfield. The same team that should have beaten Tottenham if it wasn’t for wasteful finishing at White Lane. This is clearly a team that deserves much better than 12th place in the premiership table. Liverpool has the fourth most expensive squad in the league and man for man still has ‘better quality players’ than Bolton or stock city who seat pretty above them in the table

Hogdson never really inspired the Fans with his signings with players such as Konchesky and Poulsen whom to be honest were never considered to be Liverpool material from day one. And when fans keep hearing that the club is being linked with the likes of West hams Charlton Cole, it’s easy to see why he was never going to make it.

Roy was never a bad person, in fact he is still considered to be one of the few nice guy managers out there which in this case acted against him. As the saying goes ‘Nice guys finish last’. He is failure to defend Torres when Sir Alex alluded to him diving and also media allegations of his possible purchase angered a lot of Anfield faithful. In stack contrast to his predecessor Benitez that would never have happened. Benitez lived and breathed the club. He connected with the club and made it his own. That is exactly what fans want from a manger-passion. He had none.

His away record was abysmal to say the least. And that was even before he joined Liverpool. We all knew how he approached away matches with a hint of pessimism which has never been the Liverpool way. And true to form, Liverpool only won once on the road and drew twice to get 5 points from a possible 30 points. 

What next?

Financially Liverpool had already began to feel the effect of his managerial insufficiency. Yes, The fans voted with their feet which had to catch the club owners attention. A record 35,000 attended the clash against Bolton whilst even less took there time to travel to watch Liverpool against Blackburn rovers. Dwindling attendances meant less money for the club and which was never going to be good for business. Even I must admit that i was never too keen on watching Liverpool games either when Roy was in charge.

The Kop had long made up its mind and were quick to call out kop hero Kenny Daglish name when ever things started going horribly wrong. And so it was that there wish were granted on Saturday in order to give this legend a second chance to safe our season from the horror movie it has become and make teams give Liverpool the respect it deserves.