WARNING: The below article will be deeply unpopular with the majority of Liverpool fans' current views. Read at your own risk.
The latest Liverpool defeat has only magnified Liverpool fans anger with the manager Roy Hodgson. If ever there was an example of a football manager under pressure, it is Hodgson at this very moment. Nothing he does pleases Liverpool fans. Nothing that he says Liverpool fans like. No decision that he makes is agreed with. Not because they are all wrong actions, wrong things to say and wrong decisions, but simply because the majority of Liverpool fans have made up their minds about him. They don't like him.
I have massive sympathy in this respect for Hodgson. The blame seems to be solely heaped onto him, with even players performances blamed on his tactics. In my opinion, the players should be taking far more of the stick that Liverpool fans are dishing out. They are simply not playing well enough. That is a fact. They have the ability, but are not showing it, and because of this, results are very poor, leading the fans to look for someone to blame. They can blame the players, but that would achieve nothing. Blaming the manager could get him sacked, and a far easier option for everyone. Solution? Blame the manager. For everything. Get him sacked. Get a new manager. Liverpool will be great again.
It doesn't work like that. But at the moment, that's all I see happening. He needs a chance to be given money, bring in some players, and stamp his authority on the team. Liverpool were hardly the best team at the end of Bentiez's reign, and turning around a club in the situation that Liverpool were in was never going to happen over the course of a couple of months. Anyone who thought that were deluding themselves.
In relation to the Wolves loss; Wolves were bottom of the league. Man for man, Liverpool are a better side. Liverpool had Gerrard and Torres - world class players. Unless Hodgson's tactics involved "lose the game" or something to that effect, the players should have done a whole lot better and won the game. There was a lack of togetherness, and very few players showed any sign of leading the team - standing up and being counted but we all know that the players are capable.
Hodgson said after the game:
"We are not deliberately losing matches. You know what these players are capable of. All I can say is that it is time for people to help us along. We lacked quality and confidence."
In my opinion, there are a few things that the Liverpool team need.
Firstly, they need the support and backing from the Liverpool fans. Abusing the manager isn't going to make his job any easier, and having him sacked will not only cost the club money.
The team needs some new faces of quality. For that to happen, the board need to give the manager money to spend and prove that he has their support.
The players must come together, as a team, and fight for their club, for their fans, and for their manager. They must show their quality, and they must prove that they are worthy to wear the red of Liverpool and play at
their famous ground in front of thousands of expecting fans.
Finally, the manager. Although he has had rough start, it is up to him to turn it around. He knows that his reign so far has been disappointment, and he would have hoped that it would have gone better, but he is a very good manager. He knows his football, and he is certainly good enough to manage Liverpool.
The only way Liverpool get out of the mess they are in is if they pull together and start to play as well as we all know they can. Lest Liverpool fans forget the famous song that they sing; it seems to me as if Liverpool fans are letting Hodgson walk through the storm by himself.