Hodgson Hits Rock Bottom at Anfield as HIS Liverpool Side Lose at Home To Wolves

Back in October, it seemed like Liverpool had sunk as low as they possibly could under unwanted boss Roy Hodgson.

After the embarrassing home defeat by Premier League newcomers Blackpool, a woeful performance in the derby at Everton - the defeat which left the Reds 19th in the table - was the straw which broke the camel's back for many fans; a camel which from the very beginning had only the thinnest and most brittle of spine's anyway.

Fast forward a couple of months and, almost inexplicably, Liverpool have sunk to new depths under Hodgson. Improved from the dark days after the derby though the league position might be, with Liverpool sitting in 12th place at the mid-way stage of the season and just three points off the relegation zone, Roy Hodgson today completely lost the fans and indeed any credibility he might have retained after a six-week spell of relative improvement on results, especially at home.

However all of that has now come crashing down around Hodgson, as Liverpool were defeated by bottom-of-the-table Wolverhampton Wanderers, a side with just one point previously taken on their travels this season, a side who had not even scored at Anfield for twenty-six years, and a side who had scored just five and conceded seventeen goals away from home in eight away matches.

Hodgson has had many excuses thrown his way by various members of the press, Sky Sports analysts, himself and even current Liverpool employees. Some mitigating circumstances are indeed apparent for various times during the season - the court case during the takeover, the absences through injury to the likes of Kuyt, Gerrard and Agger sustained during international duty, and not being able to spend particularly heavily during the summer transfer window.

But lets, please, put to bed this ridiculous argument that the team is not his own.

Of course not all of the players are those he signed. But is he implying, by this, that Reina, Torres and Johnson would not be in his preferred eleven?

Are Gerrard and Carragher not of the ilk of players he wants because he didn't bring them through?

What about Agger, Lucas, Kuyt? That's most of a first team, right there. Are they all to be changed?

And what of Liverpool's formation, system, tactics? Are they not Hodgson's? If the players are Benitez's, are too the instructions to pass the ball back from midfield to Reina so he can lump it forward? Are the instructions to hit long ball, long ball, long ball also Rafa's?

And playing this ridiculous brand of almost-4:4:2; is that Rafa's too? Because I for one, with absolute certainty, do not remember us playing anything resembling this archaic and wrongly-utilised system since the very beginning of the Spaniard's reign, and not for any length of time since the Heskey-Owen partnership was regularly broken up by injury to one player or the other.

If Hodgson is slowly building a team in his image, does the re-placing of Raul Meireles - one of his own signings - out on the right side imply that he will build a side of out-of-place players? Does the continual selection of Paul Konchesky, woefully exposed by the slightest hint of movement infield from an opposition winger, imply that mediocrity is the name of the game as long as experience in battle and pained expressions are shown in abundance in trying to avoid defeat?

Hodgson needs to realise HE is, in the eyes of the fans, accountable for his actions. Or, rather, his lack of action.

The frustrated grimace, the seemingly uncontrollable hand-to-face connection, the slumped posture with jowls buried in the coach's jacket, all bare testimony to the fact that, at the base of all things, Hodgson just does not know what to do to make this side better.

Roy is a manager who likes, during interviews, to throw in some clever-sounding words, presumably to imply that he is in control of all things and that his intelligence lends credence to whatever excuses he is trying to fob off to the listener for the most recent abject performance. Tonight, after the Wolves game, words such as 'renaissance' and 'arbiter' made their way into the post-match interview.

Perhaps Hodgson should be focussing on rather more simplistic words such as 'pass', 'move' and 'win'. Simple words, perhaps, but words historically associated with Liverpool Football Club. Words which have never been so far removed from what we have seen on the pitch at times this season.

Roy also alluded, during the interview, to the fact that that Liverpool fans hadn't been subjected to a poor performance at home "since the early part of the season". Given that the Blackpool result mentioned above followed a draw to Sunderland and a defeat to Northampton, I suppose we must assume that the period we haven't seen such a bad display in, at home, in the league, must be the four game period between the wins against Blackburn and Aston Villa - a mighty six week era in the illustrious history of LFC, indeed.

Don't spoil us, hey Roy.

In a final, suicidal, throwaway comment, our inspirational leader informed us that it was unrealistic and disrespectful to expect to beat the side bottom of the Premier League, and told the fans that they weren't helping the matter. "Expect to be disappointed", he crowed. "Accept that from time to time the performances won't match up to expectations", he enthused.

Seriously, where do we go from there? A manager who refuses to have unshakeable belief in his team and who refuses to indulge in the proud identification of an unbeatable team that the supporters have, or had, is no manager at all.

He did get one thing right, though: "Once again we've disappointed our fans".

You can say that again, Roy. Possibly the only thing he could've done to make the crowd's reaction even more hostile than it was would have been to make Christian Poulsen his final substitution.

The Reds are next in action against Bolton Wanderers, at home on New Years Day. So far Liverpool's only away victory of the season came against the same opposition and a much, much, much improved display on tonight's game will be required if the Reds are to do the double against Owen Coyle's impressive side.

Judging by the cries of "Hodgson for England" and "Dalglish", and the boos ringing round Anfield at full time after the defeat to Wolves, it wouldn't be at all surprising, or in the slightest bit disappointing, if there was a new manager in the Liverpool hot seat by the time that game rolls around.

You can follow me on Twitter: @karlmatchett