Hodgson's time at Anfield was also hindered by Laurel & Hardy and he had no transfer budget. If he'd been given the support and money KKK has I think he'd have got Liverpool to a similar level. To be fair, WBA are only a few points behind you and Woy hasn't had the luxury of an Andy Carroll sized budget.
There's a couple of contradictions that come from you 'Pool fans about your managers; Benitez was a genius who left a legacy so Hodgson was given **** all time to rebuild. Benitez was a genius and left a legacy yet Dalglish needs time to rebuild. Hodgson working with a **** legacy having spent very little money is hounded out of a job Dalglish having spent an absolute shed load of cash for league mediocrity is continually hailed as King. Wierd.
There are no contradictions in what either Sky or me are saying. Voy was crap as manager of Liverpool. With the same squad as Voy had, Dalgliesh managed to raise the levels of performance significantly (even with a horrendous injury problem). I don't expect you to have read the majority of comments that have been made on the goings on during H & G's reign. However, it is becoming clear that Rafa was having to spend as much time playing politics as he was spending managing the team. Therefore his performance in such a climate deserves respect. What appears to you as league mediocrity at the moment, we believe is part of a longer term plan which we believe is too early to deride.
Look, this is merely my opinion based on a long long history of football watching. Benitez wasted a **** load of cash on mediocre players and is hailed, wrongly, as being some sort of uber manager because he won you that CL. Yes, winning it was indeed a great achievement but by then he had given up bothering to compete in the league and concentrated solely on it. He did very little else in his time there, bar whine and buy mediocre/injured players then claim it was down to someone else. All this alleged playing politics is coming from him. He is the one who is saying such things. You believe him, I don't. Nor do most in-lookers. His record since is piss poor and he's out of a job, enough said in my mind. He took a CL/Serie A double winning side and in one season turned it to ****e. I will never buy into the Rafa Benitez myth.
I'm not asking you to buy into the Benitez legend but the information that is leaking out with regard to what was going on is not just coming from Benitez himself. We may never know the truth but there appears to be more than a little truth in the suggestion that via Rick Parry many signings were blocked and others pushed through.
"Voy" took you to Sixth with the dross Rafa left. Dalglish spent 100 million and took you to.... Seventh! Everyone outside of LFC can see how ****e Kenny is. Woy's got more chance of breaking into the top 4 with WBA than you guys do! He's taken them from relegation fodder, to mid table and now their only a few points behind you! While Kenny has bought a racist striker who doesn't score and championship level players.
I think (hope) he was doing the British thing first to give us a solid base. Although the signings have largely failed to impress so far, Kenny didn't really have a great crop to pick from when it came to British players (they're either a bit ****, getting paid 150k+ a week, or both...) So maybe that bit is done now, and we'lllook to Europe/elsewhere for players in the future. I can certainly see the logic in it though, getting your homegrown quota up before going foreign. Let's just hope this is what Kenny is doing...
Not really the same squad tbh - Dalglish got Suarez instead of an uninterested Torres, Hodgson had Agger crocked for most of the time he was in charge, the crowd never got behind Woy, and the important senior players like Carragher admitted that they didn't try hard enough for him. And as I said last year, Dalglish benefited from the usual 10-14 game honeymoon period. Average of two points per game under Dalglish last season, average of 1.5 points per game this season. Think that's all a matter of perspective tbh. Players like Poulsen, Jovanovic and Konchesky got condemned after much less time at the club whilst Downing, Henderson and Carroll still get support from fans despite costing at least ten times as much. I can see two possible differences: 1. They are British (and don't British players have such a high track record of success....) 2. They were signed by Dalglish and FSG whilst the others were signed by Hodgson and H&G Gotta ask yourself - if FSG decided to replace Dalglish at the end of the season and the new manager decided Downing, Henderson and Carroll were surplus to requirements and sold them off for £8-12 million each, would they be any less flops than Hodgson's signings?
I don't see Downing getting too much support. The other two are different because of their age, they have time to improve. Doesn't mean they don't still get stick now though. Hell, Lucas used to get battered no matter how he played! As for the comparisons between Kenny and Roy, there is one part that is not comparable via stats and that is the style of play. I don't think you will find a Liverpool fan that preferred it under Roy, we know (and kind of accepted) they we were going to lose under Roy. We sat back and let teams pin us in, we didn't close teams down and we played constant long balls. At least under Kenny we know we can compete, we have been the better side against Man Utd, Man City, Tottenham and Arsenal in the league at Anfield yet only picked up three points via three draws. We simply don't score enough goals.
No, it never ceases to amaze me how much you chat about the great LFC. You are clearly a closet fan. I can photoshop your avatar for you if you like and change it to an LFC badge.
In fairness, you have to admire the United 'fans' bravado giving it the big one here just a few hours before the Spurs game, lose that and your title hopes will dissapear quicker than Manc rat Nevilles pencil tash in a mild gust of wind.
I don't think we'll win today and that City winning the title is inevitable. I do give a lot of credit to Sir Alex, Harry and their players for plugging away at a title challenge in the face of City's immense spending power and squad strength especially when you compare it to how Chelsea have capitulated because it's too much like hard work.
A loss to Spurs is indeed a possibility and while not ending our title hopes it'll look bloody unlikely. However we are used to occasionally coming second, the important thing is next season we will be challenging for the title again. Can't win them all. Whereas Liverpool not only won't make top 4 this year, you won't make it next year either.
