Two Games for Hodgson To Save Himself at Liverpool after Yet Another Debacle

Woeful, unimaginative, embarrassing, disgraceful, pathetic, shameful.

All adjectives thrown Liverpool's way from various media outlets on Sunday evening and Monday morning following the—insert your own word from above—defeat at home to Blackpool.

And rightly so.

Liverpool sit a truly disastrous 18th in the Premier League after seven fixtures, having won just once—another dire performance which yielded a 1-0 win over newly-promoted West Brom—and amassed only six points.

The Reds have failed to win a domestic game since the end of August and have indeed won only once in all competitions since then, in the process being knocked out of the League Cup by fourth-tier League Two side Northampton Town.

Add to Liverpool's on-the-pitch failings the protests, disenchantment and even hatred towards the club's owners by the supporters and it's easy to see why Anfield is not a happy place to be right now.

Roy Hodgson joined as Liverpool boss at the beginning of the season and already knew he would have a difficult task ahead of him. In addition to having to negotiate Europa League qualifying matches borne of a poor seventh-place league finish last season, Hodgson also had to try to persuade a number of players to stay at the club including striker Fernando Torres and midfielder Javier Mascherano.

In the end Mascherano left but Torres, as with most other star names such as Pepe Reina and Steven Gerrard, all stayed and reaffirmed their commitment to the Liverpool cause.

However ex-Fulham boss Hodgson has been unable to tap into the undoubted talent these players have, to transform Liverpool into a strong unit, or indeed even a remotely solid one.

Another problem for Hodgson has been his summer recruits for the club. Liverpool fans are yet to really see the best of either Raul Meireles or Joe Cole—but with both players being played out of their preferred positions is it really any surprise?

Hodgson has not settled on a formation or playing system yet and seems to be trying to instill a counter-attacking mentality on Liverpool's players, but indeed he seems incapable of setting the defensive tactics up properly at present. Liverpool have shipped nine goals in the last four domestic matches and have kept only two clean sheets in the league up until now.

Martin Skrtel is clearly struggling for form at the back, making the exclusion from the team of Daniel Agger—at least up until his recent injury—all the more perplexing. Christian Poulsen, brought in to at least partly offset the loss of Mascherano, has looked well off the pace of Premiership football and has yet to dominate a single match from the heart of Liverpool's midfield or even adequately protect the back four, as is his base job in the team.

Fabio Aurelio and Paul Konchesky have both struggled with injury in the early part of the season leaving Hodgson without a regular left-back; already six players have filled the position for Liverpool this season, none with any particular distinction with the possible exception of Martin Kelly.

The positioning of Raul Meireles out on the right side of midfield is a perplexing decision to say the least. An energetic central midfielder with an eye for a pass, Meireles seemed the perfect foil for captain Gerrard when he was signed in the summer. However he has been used playing off Fernando Torres for several games before his recent switch out to the wide areas of the pitch, neither of which positions are best suited for his talents.

Joe Cole is another who has been shunned from the central areas of the pitch in recent weeks; while international players such as Torres, Kuyt and Gerrard were returning from injury and international duty Cole was given a few games playing off the lone forward in the role which he craves, and while he admittedly did not set the world alight there were at least signs that, with the right approach of play from Liverpool, he could be a great asset for us in that position. However since his return from domestic suspension he has been moved to the left side again, relying on moving infield when the game allows to become effective in creating chances.

With (yet another) international break now coming up, Hodgson has two weeks before Liverpool's next fixture to sift through the train-wreck of their recent performances and try to come up with something which will improve both the overall play of the team and certain individuals' performances. Perhaps he should start by playing them in their proper positions?

Liverpool have just played three of their last four matches at home, failing to win any of them, and now face a much tougher couple of games to be played away.

Two matches which could, feasibly, kick-start Liverpool's season—or send Hodgson into a downward-spiraling free-fall on what might be an incredibly short stint as Liverpool FC manager.

Next up for the Reds is arguably the biggest match of the season—the Merseyside derby.

Hodgson dares not lose this match. Not on the back of Liverpool's recent form. To go to Goodison Park with the mentality and attitude which has marked Liverpool's recent performances would be akin to strolling into an airport with a toy explosive. Everton, fresh from their first victory of the season, will be stronger in the fight, more expansive in their play and hungrier for the victory and will tear Liverpool apart.

This, from a Liverpool point of view, is beyond unacceptable—this would be the beginning of the end for many, many fans.

Liverpool must, absolutely must, be more resolute and organised in defence, attack with greater menace and most importantly not wait until halftime, or until they are losing, to kick-start their performance on the day. A derby match is always a fiery affair but this year promises to be even more so than usual with Liverpool lying in the relegation zone (oh how I cringe merely writing that sentence) for the first time since 1984 and with Everton a mere one place ahead and level on points. Indeed, Wolves and West Ham—the other two sides in the relegation zone at present—play each other the day before Everton and Liverpool do battle, and victory for either of those two would ensure that BOTH Merseyside rivals start the match in the relegation zone, with Liverpool 19th and Everton 18th.

Defeat for either side in this match would signal a weekend in the drop zone with over one fifth of the season gone—unthinkable for those in Red.

Four days later Liverpool travel to Italy for a crunch Europa League tie against dark horses Napoli. With two draws to their name in the group stages so far, Napoli are well-placed to launch a bid to top the group, something they will go some way towards achieving should they beat Liverpool. Napoli beat big-hitters Roma this weekend in the Italian league to move up to third place, with just one defeat so far this season. Liverpool meanwhile have struggled away from home in 2010/11, with victory at minnows FC Rabotnicki and Turkish outfit Trabzonspor their only happy memories of traveling thus far.

Should Napoli defeat Liverpool and Utrecht, so strong at home, defeat bottom-of-the-group Steaua Bucharest, Liverpool would find themselves out of the top two places in Group K—therefore out of the places to qualify for the next round.

Would two defeats in the next two games be enough to see Hodgson out of the Liverpool job just three months after joining? Possibly not.

But seeing Liverpool languishing in 19th place in the Premiership, out of the League Cup and out of the qualifying spots in their Europa League group would generate an absolutely unbearable amount of pressure on Roy Hodgson from the Liverpool fans, and quite possibly by some of his own players too.

Throw into the mix that by the time Liverpool face Everton, the deadline for Liverpool owner Tom Hicks to repay the club's loan to bank RBS will have already passed, and there could feasibly therefore have been some significant news on the club ownership front.

Should a new owner be finally appointed in or around that time, seeing Hodgson's work to date would surely not fill them with confidence.

Roy needs to act quickly—he may be out of time already.