Was Roy the cause of the problem at Liverpool or merely the victim?
When Kevin Keegan quit as the manager of England back in October 2000 I was one of those highly in favour of Roy Hodgson being his successor. At the time, he was the only English manager to have a multitude of experience unlike any other candidates, having managed in the Premiership as well Europe and also at the International level. Now a decade later Hodgson finally landed one of the ‘big jobs’ as Liverpool manager but after a poor start in charge of the Merseyside club he left under mutual consent. But was he the cause of the problem or a victim?
On 1st July 2010 Hodgson was appointed Liverpool manager succeeding Rafa Benitez’s six year reign at Anfield in which he won two major trophies and finished 2nd in the Premier League, the clubs best league finish in decades. Hodgson had big boots to fill which would’ve been a different experience from his recent job in charge of west London side Fulham. After 31 games in charge at Liverpool he had won 13, drawn 9 and lost 9 which was poor in terms of the Reds’ standards. After finishing 7th in the EPL last season under Benitez, the club was hoping for an instant impact with their new manager but everything that could have gone wrong for Hodgson, went wrong for Hodgson.
The problems at Liverpool started off the pitch with the whole Hicks and Gillett debacle which had an influence on Benitez’s demise. The quality and depth of the squad had declined and despite inheriting the likes of Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres, it was apparent that Hodgson needed money to invest if he was going to guide Liverpool back to the ‘top four’. It was clear that Hodgson’s signings were not of the quality needed to challenge but without efficient transfer funds, what was Roy supposed to do? He had to try and make the most of what he had at his disposal. After the club finally changed owners in October 2010, there was hope that there would be some sort of transfer fund for Hodgson to use in the January transfer window – but he wasn’t given the chance.
Perhaps it was Roy Hodgson’s man management skills that let him down. There is no question that he is a good coach, it was his impressive spell in charge of Switzerland in the mid 90’s that earned him the job at Inter Milan. More recently he managed to turn Fulham from relegation fodder into Europa League finalists in 2 and a half seasons. However, he failed to get the best out of Fernando Torres, a world class striker who hasn’t been on form in the last 12 months, and Roy failed to show support for the striker during press conferences. His comments over Joe Cole also bring to question his man management qualities when he stated that he has something to prove and that he had not personally asked to sign the player.
On the other hand his man management skills were not in question at Fulham. He managed to build a team of journeymen together on a small budget that finished 7th in the Premier League in 2008-09 and the following year were able to beat the likes of Juventus, Shakhtur and Wolfsburg in European competition. Perhaps it was just a case of the wrong man at the wrong time?
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One thing that may leave bitterness in the mouth of Hodgson is that Kenny Dalglish has now taken the reign with a view to a permanent move. It was Dalglish who had met with Managing Director Christian Purslow prior to Hodgson’s appointment, to draw up a shortlist for possible managerial candidates. Dalglish put himself forward for the role after being unimpressed with the shortlist but his application was rejected. Now several months later he is in charge of Liverpool FC for a second spell and he comes in with nothing to lose after Hodgson’s infamous reign, had ‘King Kenny’ got the job back in the summer and had the same start as Roy, would he have been given more time considering his status on Merseyside? I think so.
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