Roy Hodgson’s Troubles Are Not All Of His Own Making

It says much about Roy Hodgson’s fortunes since arriving at Anfield that the latest unenviable landmark of a difficult season was reached without his team even playing.

The inevitable postponement of yesterday’s Boxing Day clash visit to Blackpool consigned Liverpool to having won only two away league games in the calendar year.

Not since 1936 have the Anfield outfit suffered such a miserable record on the road, with the only other worse campaign coming 99 years ago.

Of course, having only taken over in the summer, not all of that blame should be laid at Hodgson’s door.

And that is something that can be applied to much of the 63-year-old’s rollercoaster reign thus far.

The job as Liverpool manager has lost none of its lure and lustre but few previous incumbents could have stepped into the uncertainty that greeted Hodgson on his arrival in July.

Taking over from a popular and European Cup-winning manager in Rafael Benitez was never going to be easy.

But the task has been made exponentially more testing by inheriting an under-performing squad without the finances to strengthen thanks to the failing ownership of Americans Tom Hicks and George Gillett.

The quest to oust the American pair also drew to a close during the opening months of the season and, despite Hodgson’s admirable insistence to the contrary, must surely have contributed to the air of gloom that quickly enveloped the team and resulted in Liverpool’s worst start to a top-flight campaign since 1953.

To think there was an oft-quoted ‘feelgood factor’ going into the campaign.

Joe Cole arrived on a free transfer, Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard were persuaded to stay and the feared loss of many leading players failed to materialize, although nothing could prevent Javier Mascherano from departing to Spanish champions Barcelona.

Hodgson may have feared the omens were already against him when Pepe Reina, Liverpool’s player of the previous campaign, made an uncharacteristic mistake to gift Arsenal an injury-time equalizer on the opening day.

Heavy defeat to Manchester City the following week suggested a struggle for Champions League qualification, but no-one could have predicted a fall from grace that led to Hodgson’s self-confessed “low point” of the 2-1 home defeat to Blackpool in October.

A Goodison derby defeat a fortnight later meant only goal difference prevented a 19th-placed Liverpool from holding up the rest of the Premier League.

But with New England Sports Ventures – now the Fenway Sports Group – having days earlier ridden to the rescue by winning a courtroom battle to push through a £300million takeover deal, fortunes were already turning.

Sixteen points from the subsequent nine games will not have any of the top four overly concerned – not least with an away record that sees six defeats in nine and only Bolton Wanderers beaten on the road – but represents a steadying of the ship.

The postponements against Fulham and Blackpool have left Liverpool playing catch up both in terms of games played and points, seven adrift of a top-six place and nine away from the top four.

But Hodgson remains cautiously optimistic that Champions League qualification is not beyond his team in a Premier League season where mediocrity and average-ness are prevalent from top to bottom.

“We are in a position to strike for the top four but we are a good few points off,” says Hodgson.

“Some people would say it is pie in the sky to suggest we can do it but I don’t think there is such a thing as pie in the sky in terms of football.

“I have seen so many times in the past teams who have been doomed to relegation not get relegated and teams like Leeds United many years ago who were so obviously going to win the first division and didn’t do so.

“Everything is possible and while things are possible we will play for them but we are realistic and we are not making any vain promises.

“We know we have given ourselves a severe handicap but we will work to bring in that handicap.”

The January sales provide Hodgson an opportunity to bolster his resources for a concerted push during the second half of the season, although the manager has intimated he won’t waste big money on players for a short-term fix.

Indeed, the jury is still out on his summer purchases.

Raul Meireles continues to impress, but Paul Konchesky and Christian Poulsen have struggled while Brad Jones has been no threat to Pepe Reina in goal.

Even Joe Cole – the player Hodgson said he must “share responsibility” for buying with former managing director Christian Purslow – has made only negligible impact so far.

Hodgson, though, remains intent on bringing down the squad numbers having been consistently critical of the amount of professionals on the playing staff.

But the Liverpool manager admits that it will be difficult to coax many of the club’s high earners through the exit.

“It’s the usual question – money versus playing,” he says.

“How much does playing mean to you and how much does money mean to you?

“Some players not in the team will find other clubs want them, but the same sum of money (in wages) is not there.

“So the player has to ask if they are so uninterested in playing, will they sit for three years despite the fact that the club has made it perfectly clear they don’t want them and there’s no game for them.

“If they want that for three years, they’ve virtually got to kiss (their career) goodbye. If you spend three years on your backside, not kicking a ball apart from the odd reserve game, you’ll find you’re not going to be a player at all.”