Roy Hodgson: Wrong Manager, Wrong Attitude, Wrong Club at the Wrong Time?

It is surprising how many articles and words have been exhausted at the failings of current Liverpool manager, Roy Hodgson.

Fans are divided from those who chanted, “Dalgish...Dalgish” on last Sunday at Anfield to those who still have their chock-full fervor in the manager to get Liverpool home and dry.  It is almost like never can a manager inspire such a passion in such a short time and simultaneously, never can it go all wrong in a mere over three months tenure of  new manager at Anfield.

There are same kinds of questions about Hodgson’s underprivileged signings in every Red’s head. Many pundits and Liverpool fans themselves have started questioning his defensive and petrified football tactics on the field. The dealings with media, his post match answers,  backing the oppositions and making look like Liverpool has been playing against Barcelona week in week out have cost him the trust of many fans.

However, I just think that as bad his tactics could be, as bad as his signings are, Hodgson has failed to learn the most important lesson in any Liverpool manager’s successful reign. Understanding the fans and communicating with them effectively in the right manner.

A wrong manager? Perhaps yes. Hodgson has been very successful in managing the mediocre teams across Europe for his 34 years career. He failed to steer through a high profile club, Inter, to any success resulting in sacking in 1999. Although one might argue that he lacked big name signings to guide Inter to any glory.

The fact of the matter is Roy Hodgson is Roy Hodgson and will never be Alex Ferguson! He lacks that killer winning mentality of a top club manager.  No doubt that he will be able to get Liverpool out of the Relegation zone but has he manipulated our minds to such low standards that we should be happy looking ourselves out of the bottom three when he, himself, has dragged us there in the first place.

Wrong tactics? I think so. He failed to correct the errors lacking in the squad to get Liverpool back into the top four. In very short note letting Insua and Aquillani go, added with signings like Poulsen and Konchesky are not the issues to get ourselves into in depth as they are quite well known now.

Playing players on the wrong positions when the whole world knows it’s not getting him any results is one of his poor tactics. It has been known for the past two years that we need a backup striker.

He had two months to find one and there were good signs of good players wishing to come and play for the club but he made no efforts to get one of them. Finally Roy realised he doesn’t have any back up striker and made a mockery of the club running around with Babel to sign Carlton Cole on the 11th hour.

His has always been defensive tactics that gave him the success. His clubs, which he managed during his reign, hardly won with flamboyant score line.That is not the way Liverpool FC play football. They win the matches by scoring goals, not by trying to park their bus.

The most important issue needs to be addressed is that he has failed to understand the Liverpool fans. Liverpool fans are very loyal and we as long as possible do not loath to criticise of our own. Somehow Hodgson looks like he is the exception here because of the huge mistakes he has made, and accepted, till now.

Most considerably he hasn’t been able to make Liverpool fans feel he is one of their own. All those 34 years or so he has been political and a statesman. He has been showing wisdom in choosing his words carefully when speaking to the opposite person.  

He has been very polite and soft-spoken to his opponents. He is always careful not to appear criticising the opponents and rather praising them and not backing up his own club and the team. A few of them will see this as being honourable, however, it has shown its aftermath because the Anfield faithfuls think that he cares too much for the opponents and too little for Liverpool.

Right from the word go he started showing what he is, a diplomatic person. Hoping that Sir Alex Ferguson will forgive him taking the Liverpool job and he wouldn’t get offended have started alienating him from the fans.

On the Merseyside, we look this as nothing less than a sin!

Moving on from that comes the time when he couldn’t bothered to criticise his “good friend” Sir Alex Ferguson when he accused Torres of being a cheat. His attempt to rectify the mistake after a week did not help him either. I couldn’t have missed Rafa more here!

Liverpool fans can show all but a little respect for Manchester and in particularly for Sir Alex. As a manager it is required you to show a little respect for your own club and great supporters. He has been failing to understand how huge the club is and what matters here and what doesn’t.

Fuelling to the fire was when he showed criticism to the Liverpool fans for their protests against the owners. In the current time, with current circumstances, even stars from Hollywood have come down Merseyside to make a film protesting against the current owners. Criticising the fans for the protests is simply a suicide and no wonder why the Kop responded with “Dalgish...Dalgish” chants on Sunday.

Perhaps that was the reason that fans like me still believe sacking Rafa was the biggest mistake we ever made as a club. At least in those dire times on the pitch we were able to walk proudly thinking our manager has what it takes to defend our team and the club and stand up for it.

Because Roy Hodgson has been busy making friends with Sir Alex Ferguson, Tom Hicks and George Gillet and most importantly with the managers of opposition teams. You are asking for hatred and unlikliness when you try not to stand up for your people. A simple golden rule of leadership is always stand up for your own and he after 34 years haven't learnt it yet.

When you’re winning and making a successful progress, no one questions you and if they do they don’t matter because you’re a winner and that’s what counts. No one criticises you for criticising the wrong occasion or not criticising the right one. But when you show the performances like those against Northampton Town and Blackpool these things become monstrous deals.

Make no mistake. It’s not the spin or the lack of it which is missing. But a lack of empathy with what it means to be Liverpool. Hodgson has made big mistakes in that. The fans need a little bit of appreciation for their own team.

Supporting Liverpool FC is not just like another one of those hobbies for us. It is a passion, like a religion, to the fans and they, along with the players, need to be reminded after every game that they were good or great regardless of the defeat or win.

I have a simple analogy here. When a person applies to any job in the world, what do you see the first in his resume? What do you think about the person and his credentials by looking at 20 odd different employers in 35 years of his career?

Do you think that yes he is my man because he has a Himalaya of an experience or do you wonder why this guy has a bunch of employers and never lasted more than three years the most at any company? I will leave it to you to answer.

A coin has two sides for sure. The other side of appointing Hodgson could be also interesting. It is the whole board who had given up on the hopes of securing a better manager and players until the club gets sold out. So basically with the constraints of money, lack of willingness of other top managers to come, and the mentality of getting someone to steady the ship for the time being the board had appointed what they could.

Roy Hodgson is not who Liverpool need. Liverpool need a ruthless leader. They need a manager who has willingness to make DRASTIC changes and be not afraid of it. The one who removes dead players with passionate academy youngsters for the longer prospects. Most importantly, Liverpool needs a manager who is passionate about the club, not just about the football alone.

A person who loves the club dearly, not for what he gets paid to do the job, for just being there for the club. A person who understands fully what these fans want and expect of anyone wearing the crest of their club, on the pitch and off it.

Liverpool, as a football club, need some pride, some passion and a lot of commitment in their performances. These can only be instilled into the players with the right manager leading by front.

They need to get a manager who understands what it means to be part of such an historic club and what it means to have the Liverbird and You’ll Never Walk Alone cast on your heart.

No prizes here for the right guess for the candidate!