Another protest against Liverpool’s American owners takes place at Anfield today. But Roy Hodgson admits the latest problem for those suffering supporters is entirely of his own making.
The reverberations are still being strongly felt from Wednesday’s calamitous Carling Cup humiliation at home to npower League Two minnows Northampton Town.
Although a second-string line-up, there were nevertheless six full internationals in the Liverpool team that slumped to one of the most embarrassing results in the club’s long, trophy-laden history.
After a difficult start to his tenure both on and off the field, it was the last thing Hodgson needed as he strives to put down foundations and revive the feelgood factor of pre-season.
And the 63-year-old shoulders much of the responsibility for a truly dismal evening in midweek.
"I didn’t feel the need to get the players together to lift spirits the day after the game," says Hodgson. "We had a training session with 13 players and they’re the ones who didn’t play because the others came in during the afternoon for a warm down.
"I told them ‘it was a bad moment for the club unfortunately which was of my making because I took a team that underperformed and lost, but it had nothing to do with you. You can’t take responsibility because you weren’t not even on the bench.’"
While exonerating those that were absent in midweek – indeed, Hodgson will change his entire starting line-up for today’s Premier League visit of Sunderland – the defeat only increases the pressure on Liverpool’s senior players to improve on a start to the season that has seen them accrue only five points in as many games and hover just about the relegation zone.
But Hodgson says: "Why should the pressure transfer on to them? The spotlight would have been on us anyway, five points in five games and at home at Sunderland.
"We are living through a moment of my own making you could say which people I think are profiting and enjoying themselves enormously by writing things about the club that they themselves don’t probably believe.
"Wednesday had nothing to do with the players who will play on Saturday and I don’t think their confidence or perception will change one iota.
"They are as disappointed as I was by the performance but its a game of football and it’s not the first time its happened to a football club, it’s not the first time its happened to Liverpool Football Club but when it does happen to you its a major blow and all we can do is take the criticism and the blow and get on with our jobs.
"There is no alternative and what’s more there’s no solution other than to do that."
If Liverpool’s unrecognizable line-up in midweek suggests maybe a "false" result against Northampton, then Hodgson believes his team’s testing fixture list has given their start a somewhat misleading appearance.
In five games, Liverpool have faced three title challengers – Manchester City and Manchester United away, Arsenal at home – and also travelled to a Birmingham City side that haven’t lost at home for almost a year.
And asked if the table gave a false impression of his team, Hodgson says: "Yes I think so, I’ve said that all along. I have to say that after the Man United game I was very, very sad after the game because after getting it back to 2-2 that would have been a really good result and it would have buoyed everybody.
"We didn’t get it because they scored a third goal quite close to the end but the training has been very good this week and I’m impressed with the players here.
"The criticism levelled about the depth of the squad I can understand because people saw the squad playing on Wednesday and we lost the game and people will make conclusions and there is not much I can do about that.
"Maybe it was a good learning process for me as well because seeing them in training and seeing them in matches is two different things and sometimes you have to see them in games.
"I think that we will get better as I’ve said all along. The players are working very hard and responding very well to the work we are trying to do but we need some results to back that up.
"The performances have been better after quite a poor one at Manchester City and nor particularly good against West Brom and Birmingham. United was a step in the right direction and I expect that to carry on."
Hodgson has learned the hard way in recent weeks that the spotlight on Liverpool far outstrips anything in his managerial career – even while at Inter Milan – and will only intensify should they fail against Sunderland today.
And the manager admits to being taken aback by the level of scrutiny his tenure has already been put under.
"Inter had a television channel all those years ago and they were forerunners and they had their own internet but, yes, it has surprised me a little bit I suppose," says Hodgson. "I’m coming to terms with that more and more.
"It’s not so much a surprise but you have to live it to appreciate it. I did expect it to be different to Fulham and much more spotlight and interest but you have to live it to appreciate it.
"If I say I’m surprised it suggest that I didn’t realize how big this club was and how much interest there is but I did realize that I was coming to a much bigger and more pressurized and scrutinized job than the one I was having.
"I realized those things but you have to live it to appreciate it. And all the things going on now are helping me appreciate that even more – if ‘appreciate’ is the right word."
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