Hodgson Paying For Rafa's Mistakes

You have to have a degree of sympathy with poor old Roy Hodgson. He is only seven league games into the season and some sections of the normally patient Liverpool fans are already calling for his head. Roy is suffering the fans backlash of years of frustration with Rafa's signings, negative football, and peculiar team selections and the constant turmoil of the American Ownership.

Liverpool could be in real trouble as a result of all of this mismanagement. We could be witnessing another Leeds Utd here. It may seem a bit far fetched, but the longer the bad results go on then the more realistic the possibility.

Rafa has left behind a poor squad. No replacement for the constantly injured Torres, no wingers, only one decent full back, a quality keeper, one world class midfielder, one world class striker and that's it. The centre back area and the central midfield area are the only part of the squad that they have with cover. Rafa had plenty of money to spend and signed a ridiculous amount of players and this is the squad he left behind. Players like Lucas, Ngog, Kyrgiakos, Babel and even fans favourite Kuyt are just not good enough for a top side.

Jaime Carragher is past his sell by date, Glen Johnson is a great attacking full back but cannot defend. Agger is constantly injured and Skrtel looks accident prone at times. Mascherano is gone and Gerrard and Torres look disillusioned. Reina is class but there is only so much a keeper can do if the rest of the team is not performing—just ask Shay Given about his time at Newcastle.

If Liverpool lose Gerrard and Torres to injury then they are in massive trouble and that's a possibility, as Torres is injury prone. Rafa has left the Liverpool squad in a terrible state. The youth system produced no one of real quality during his time there and he wasted 20+ million on Aquilani after getting full control of the transfer funds. He signed Aquilani as a replacement for the world class Xabi Alonso whom he fell out with and forced out over the Gareth Barry transfer saga.

Hodgson has made a bad start to the season and has made some poor signings himself. Konchesky is a average full back, Poulsen wasn't good enough for the Italian League. Meireles and Cole may turn out to be good players but they were not the positions that the team needed filling.

Liverpool needed two wingers. Now they have Poulsen, Lucas, Gerrard, Meireles, Cole, Maxi, Shelvey, and Spearing in midfield. ALL of which prefer to play in the central midfield role. The club is crying out for width as it was when Rafa was in charge. Rafa played Kuyt and Babel at times as wide men, neither of whom are good enough for a top premiership side. Kuyt is a failed striker who works his socks off and gives everything for the team but he lacks quality and his second touch is usually a tackle. Also Rafa totally mismanaged Gerrard. A player who is considered one of the best central midfielders that England has ever produced was constantly played out of position. Gerrard's frustration at this was apparent to everyone.

Liverpool were terrible to watch the majority of the time under Rafa Benitez and were far too negative at home. Some fans will point to the 08/09 season where they won 10 out of their last 11 league games to show that Rafa wasn't negative but these were the exception to the norm.

Rafa threw away the clubs chance to win the premiership that season by been so negative at home against the likes of Stoke, West Ham, Fulham, and Hull. Teams that they should've been beating. By the time he let the shackles off the team at the end of the season it was too late.

Others may point to the Champions League Final or the FA Cup final and yes these were great games but most of the time the team was terrible to watch. Liverpool fans have had to suffer boring football for years now. Firstly under Houllier and then Benitez even though both managers managed to produce exciting cup finals. They must be desperate for a more positive approach.

The constant drama with Gillette and Hicks off the field doesn't help. The clubs financial difficulty and the lack of progress on a new stadium will definitely add more frustration to the fans and pressure onto Roy but Rafa cannot use it as an excuse for his time at Liverpool.

He has tried to blame everyone but himself but he had plenty of time, plenty of signings and money to build a squad and now Hodgson is suffering for his bad signings and mismanagement. Hopefully Hodgson will get a similar amount of patience and support from the fans that Rafa got but somehow I doubt it !!