Soccer Portal

£45,833 per day. That is how much Roy Hodgson was paid during his ill-fated 192 day spell with Liverpool. In total, Hodgson earned around £8.8m during his Anfield stint, not a bad pay-packet for six months work.

However, his time with Liverpool was continuously undermined. From the time Liverpool announced the former Fulham man as their replacement for Rafa Benitez, fans never found a place in their hearts for Hodgson. Calls for Kenny Dalglish to take the reins echoed around Liverpool since the summer and, now that the fans man is at the helm, things have certainly calmed down at Anfield.

The results have improved since ‘King Kenny’ agreed to manage the team until the end of the season with Dalglish’s winning mentality bleeding out and into the players. Hodgson, however, has suffered severely from the whole ordeal, albeit, not financially. Brought in by Gillett and Hicks, he found little solace in the new owners when Fenway Sports Group took control of the club back in October. From the time they took over, Hodgson must have known that his days were numbered.

Hodgson found himself out of a job two months after the takeover was confirmed. A mixture of results failed to win over the harsh and hurtful judgement from the fans. Yet the position Hodgson had won from the previous regime was continuously undermined from start to finish.

Not given a fair chance

In some respects, it made the job all that more difficult when the fans publicly denounced Hodgson’s credentials countless times to lead the Merseysiders to glory. The way he was treated was downright disrespectful and isn’t the way you should be treating a manager that took Fulham from the brink of relegation to the Europa League final. After taking a little over a month to work his way back into the game, Hodgson has the chance to perform the same task again with West Brom. To be honest, it is little more than he deserves. He has the managerial experience on both a club and international level and some managers would bite your hand of to boast about a CV as impressive as Hodgson’s.

Yet, at some clubs it just isn’t meant to be and, unfortunately for Hodgson, this was the case with Liverpool. However, there were other aspects that saw him fail at the helm. Fernando Torres being out of form and injured didn’t help, the sale of Javier Mascherano without finding an adequate replacement and a lack of funds to significantly improve his squad aided to his unsuccessful tenure as Liverpool manager. Hodgson wasn’t given the chance to bolster his ranks in January with the cash injection John Henry and co. bought to the club leaving him without a chance to prove his worth at a top English club.

The money Fenway pumped into the club has helped Liverpool improve a forward line that was crying out for improvement. Torres has been out of form since the World Cup and his brace against Chelsea in November proved to be a mere glimpse of what he is capable of. Liverpool, however, were able to squeeze a British record £50m out of Chelsea for the Spaniard and spent the money on both Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez. This softened the blow of the Torres sale with some corners of the media claiming it was great business from the Liverpudlians.

Gerrard and Torres carrying Liverpool

None other than Steven Gerrard, the same Liverpool captain who forged a highly successful partnership with the Spaniard, commended the sale of Torres but only from a footballing perspective.

Fans will forever remember the partnership between the two and the trouble it caused opposition defences. When Benitez opted for his 4-2-3-1 formation, Gerrard slotted in behind Torres given the former the chance to express his attacking prowess assisting the latter with the majority of his 81 goals during his three and a half years at Anfield. The problem arose in recent seasons when both were injured for substantial chunks of the season thus denying them the chance to re-kindle their relationship that saw Torres hit 33 goals in his first season and see Liverpool finish second in the Spaniards second season with the club.

It is no coincidence that Liverpool began to slip down the table the following season when both players were sidelined during different stints of the season. The lack of quality players around them didn’t help matters either.

The sale of Xabi Alonso proved more pivotal than originally expected. Lucas Leiva was seen as a replacement yet the Brazilian failed to impress in the same role and, when Liverpool did finish second, a lot of it was down to Xabi Alonso. The season after Liverpool finished seventh with the ineffective Lucas playing the same position as Alonso.

To make matters worse, when Torres was out injured, Liverpool never had an adequate replacement on the bench. Dirk Kuyt was used and wasted on the wing while Ryan Babel and David N’Gog were never going to consistently hit the back of the net much the way Torres did. The same can be said in defence with Jamie Carragher and Martin Skrtel the opted centre-back pairing. Yet when either or both were sidelined, it was up to the injury prone Daniel Agger or the inconsistent Sotirios Kyrgiakos to step up which never proved as effective as the two starters.

Another key component to the successful Gerrard/Torres partnership was the fact Liverpool, predominantly, played through the centre. A lack of decent wingers compounded this with the likes of Joe Cole, Maxi Rodriguez and Kuyt, who is wasted out on the wing, failing to provide the necessary width that top teams have.

This compounded Liverpool to play through the centre which, when Alonso was at the club, worked extremely well. Alonso provided for Gerrard who, turned provider, played the link between Alonso and Torres. Yet, when Alonso left, the provider for Gerrard did too. This left the Liverpool captain having to work harder which increased his chances of injury with the same happening to Torres.

Without the two working their magic up front, the goals dried up and it is no coincidence that Liverpool form dipped.

Two for the price of one

Liverpool have, effectively, pounced on a two for the price of one deal with the signings of Carroll and Suarez and Gerrard was happy to admit that it helps Liverpool more than just the team relying on Torres to bring the goals especially from the same player who has, thus far, failed to hit the back of the net since his deadline-deal move.

It will take time, however, for Carroll and Suarez to forge a destructive partnership up front but I am sure that, when they do, Liverpool fans may forgot about Fernando Torres by the time the ball is hitting the back of the net. You can do little but commend the efforts of Damien Comolli and co. for securing the signatures of their new striker force especially when they spent near enough £8m when you take into account the Torres sale.

The signings also give Dalglish the options to alter his tactics should the need arise. With Suarez, you have a player that can be used as a number 9 or 10, with his scoring record for Ajax re-enforcing his knack for goal. With Carroll, Liverpool also have the ideal target man that can change the game from the bench or win the match from the off.

Yet, their recent loss to West Brom reminded Liverpool fans of the quality of Roy Hodgson’s managerial ability. They overcame Liverpool slightly on possession and had more shots than their Premier League counterparts. The 2-1 win aided West Brom massively while denting Liverpool’s hopes of overcoming Tottenham Hotspur into fifth. The result, however, will do little to hinder Dalglishs’ chances of securing a new, long-term deal with the club. The results have clearly improved since the fan favourite took over and John Henry must be more than impressed with the Scot.

A decent summer transfer window and a full pre-season programme behind the new crop of players will see Liverpool improve again next season and could, in fact, see them challenging for more than a Europa League spot next season.