Hodgson Learning To Cope With Liverpool Criticism

Roy Hodgson says he is now starting to develop the thick skin needed to cope with the negative press aimed at Liverpool.

Hodgson was widely praised in his previous role at Fulham, where he secured the club's best ever league position as well as reaching the Europa League final, but he has come under heavy fire during his first few months at Liverpool.

With the club still in the relegation zone, Hodgson has found it hard to deal with the spotlight, but he says he is now developing the necessary mindset.

"This football club has a lot of players who have played for Liverpool for a long time," he said. "Every other day they've probably read or heard some nonsense about them and they seem to be a pretty hardened bunch.

"I'm relatively hardened but I've been spared too much at Fulham, where never a bad word was said. It is an interesting thing for me to get into the type of mindset Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard are so good at.

"Having heard and seen it all before, they are quite prepared to shrug their shoulders and write it off. It is part and parcel of the business of working for Liverpool Football Club. I am beginning to turn it around myself."

The latest negative stories surrounding the club have suggested Fernando Torres and Pepe Reina will walk away in January.

"It is sad these stories surface," Hodgson said. "There is no truth in them, they have no meaning. Reina and Torres are excellent trainers and their commitment to the club is as good as ever. There is no question they are anything other than committed.

"It is destructive but it depends on how you deal with it. It is fantastic so many people want to write nonsense about us because it must mean we are still a big club.

"The trick is to get on with the job, be happy and let the birds sing."

Ahead of this weekend's game at Bolton, Hodgson says he hopes his team "carry on from where we left off" against Blackburn, but he accepts there is still plenty of improvement needed.

"If we can produce the performances and results we will definitely be stronger but we do still need to do a bit of work," he said. "If I am being honest, when I came to the club there were a lot of things that needed changing.

"Not least of all the ownership issue - which was the major one - but there were a lot of things we wanted to do differently.

"Some of the things we asked to do will require the owners' permission and will cost a lot of money, so there is still a lot of work to do."