A Year on the Liverpool Offside: Roy Hodgson’s January

By: Noel | December 19th, 2011

Two weeks. Two weeks until the return fixtures begin. Two weeks until people start making resolutions they won’t keep. Two weeks left in 2011. And so the time has come to look back on the last calendar year for Liverpool. A year for Kenny Dalglish, returned to lead his club after a lengthy time away. A first full year for John Henry and new owners Fenway Sports Group to convince an at times skeptical fanbase that they aren’t the same as the last owners. An at times tumultuous and uncertain year for last January’s player signings, Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll. A year that has seen the club move forward at pace, new owners and investment and management and a largely overhauled playing staff speaking to a newfound commitment to success, even if in the moment it always seems easier to spot the ways in which some particular decision or action instead represents a step backwards.

Which, of course, is at the root of the desire to look back, the urge to revisit old stories, stepping away from those individual good and bad moments in the present and attempting to take in the big picture. That and that over a busy holiday season, both on the pitch and off, looking back at months past represents something of a bit of free content that doesn’t involve spending more time than is entirely sensible putting together charts, graphs, and substandard groin dong jokes.

Before this year is entirely over, then, we head back to when it had only just begun, with support for then-manager Roy Hodgson at an all time low after he ended 2010 heaping blame for his failures on the fans, leading FSG to take the unprecedented step of releasing a damning statement that in reality said nothing particularly surprising but did at least make it clear that as soon as they found a suitable replacement Hodgson would be gone.

Against that backdrop, the Liverpool Offside—and all the rest of the Liverpool-following world—tried to clear the cobwebs out as January kicked off with a series of rumours that, with all of Fenway Sports Group’s potential managerial candidates tied up with the tricky business of managing their current clubs in the midst of the European football season, whether it was their preferred choice or not it appeared increasingly likely that Kenny Dalglish would be appointed any day now. He was, it seemed, the only viable option. He was a legend. He was the one the fans wanted. Only any day now didn’t seem to come all that quickly, or at least not quickly enough for supporters who had spent the holidays burning through what little patience they had left for Roy Hodgson. And so Liverpool carried on under their lame-duck manager, beating Bolton on a last second Joe Cole goal before meekly losing to Blackburn in their first two games of the new year.

And so it began to seem as though for all of FSG’s talk about wanting to replace Hodgson with the right candidate, with the owners hesitant to call on Dalglish and unable to settle on a permanent replacement mid-season, the soul-crushing reality seemed certain to be five more months of Roy Hodgson. None of which added up to a happy new year:

[FSG's press release] implied that Hodgson’s tenure would soon be over, but immediately took pains to point out that it might not be over until the end of the season. It mentioned that FSG was actively looking for a long term managerial solution, but it had always been assumed that Hodgson was a short-term hire in the best of circumstances. They sought to acknowledge that Hodgson had crossed a line when he went from blaming players and former mangers to attempting to deflect any blame from himself onto the Anfield faithful, but such distancing is hardly a surprise after your club’s manager has sent the supporters to join the b-team under the bus—it’s just damage control, and an absolute minimum of damage control at that.

Everything they said was significant only in that it seemed highly unusual for an ownership group to semi-officially seek to confirm such assumed truths publicly. So while in the end their leak may have said a lot of things, none of those things fundamentally altered the landscape. A cynic might even suggest that it was nothing but a bald faced attempt to buy time—perhaps for themselves, but perhaps too for Roy Hodgson.

The future, though, wouldn’t turn out to be quite so bleak, and after a journey to meet with John Henry off the coast of 19th century West Africa, the long-awaited news finally arrived: Roy Hodgson was out, and Kenny Dalglish was in. And even if the story of Liverpool’s greatest ever player, a club legend for his actions on the pitch and off, didn’t start off quite how everyone might have hoped, at least there was hope.

In a way for Liverpool’s fans, the new year arrived late. But on January the eighth, after it had begun to seem as though it never would, it finally did arrive.

Some Related Liverpool Posts:

Category: Miscellaneous, Premier League, Season Review, Special Features

« Liverpool 2, Aston Villa 0: Good Enough to be Boring | Home | Joe Cole’s Return, Waiting on the FA, and Other Tuesday Notes »

Suarez from the car park...

just to preempt today's decision on luis, any spanish speakers or south americans here on this blog?

Evra said "don't touch me south american" which led to Suarez asking "porque negrito".

Question for the spanish speakers/south americans, if you referred to someone directly in conversation as "sudaca" (south american) would it be offensive?

thanks.
Redarmy

it's not an offensive word in itself, it's common calling yourself sudaca if you are southamerican, the same with one sudaca calling another sudaca 'sudaca'. Obviously it may be a little offensive in another context, like in this case - an arrogant french calling you 'sudaca' - but still, this whole conversation is no more than a little taunting.
If Luis would be a racist, I bet he would come up with some better word than 'negrito', which is as cute as it gets
Ryan

What happens in the next frame? Do they kiss on the lips? Fergie and Woy, sittin in a tree, ...

I still find it crazy to think that we actually got what we wanted. That is so rare. Woy was just that bad.
Red2death

Well, technically we wanted Hodgson out 3 months earlier than what we got. If that had happened, we'd certainly be in Europe, possibly CL, sitting pretty top the league right now with a Torres-Suarez partnership in full swing, Meireles still running attacks from midfield, Gerrard's groin dong would be incredibly healthy,
there'd be a double rainbow in the sky every time we play at Anfield, and Andy Carroll would still be at Newcastle being an amazing striker scoring with feet and head and not hitting the woodwork or the deck even once.

But alas, FSG had to stall...

Now we'll just have to wait a bit longer to get Fergie out of that tree.
Suarez from the car park...

so what result do we want to see on thursday - arsenal vs chelski?
Red2death

Spurs v Chelsea you mean?

Draw or a Spurs win would be nice. I still see Chelsea as the bigger threat. Spurs have been absolutely phenomenal in racking up the points this season - but I feel that underneath Parker and Bale and Modric and VDV, there's a soft shallowness waiting to be exposed. They're getting there, but as a club still in the 'form is temporary' category.
purify_the_body

Draw or a Tottenham win, no?

Long-term nobody knows, so a draw is better because that's fewer points total for our rivals. Short-term it'd be nice to catch Chelsea up.
Suarez from the car park...

sorry, yes spuds.
Seems like they're cruising. they would have even turned over stoke's 2-0 lead the other week if it hadn't been for the world's worst officiating. And that's at the Britannia.

they're pretty dependent on their speed on the wings. It was less easy for them on Sunday without Bale, and Lennon getting injured (again), though they still got their goal via the middle (ok, it was sunderland).

But I know what you mean about Chelski, historically they are the ones to fear, and I can see them spending big in January given the risk of losing 4th spot.

So I guess a draw is our best bet, but I don't think that'll happen, so lets haul in Chelski.
FalloniusMaximus

Completely unrelated to anything above, I wanted to share these hyperlinks that are currently running side by side on the soccernet.com hompage side bar:

Dann suffers ruptured testicle | Kean on sack
Red

Bottom line is things are better than under Roy, BUT Liverpool need more goalscorers, Suarez creates but he's not a 30 or maybe even 20 goals a season striker, Downing, Henderson, Adam (without penalties and set pieces) aren't natural goal scorers. Ironic that Kenny has pushed Maxi and Dirk off the first team who were scoring regularly. Let's pray Charlie takes free kicks and penalties, Stevie G remains healthy, Martin Skrtel and Agger score more than 4 goals a year and Santa buys Andy some scoring boots for Xmas.
McrRed

Don't get me wrong but there's a chance that if we bought a goalscorer Kenny wouldn't play him: Carroll, kuyt, maxi. All struggling to start...

The big irony in all of this is that we used a moneyball approach to find a bring in players that could create lots of CHANCES. And that's what we've got - lots of CHANCES.

Shouldn't complain, really...
Tony

The team with the lowest conversion rate is still Tottenham. Dafoe, Adebayor, & even Modric have been missing OPEN nets! I could have put that one in and Modric didn't last week. I don't count those miraculous saves by opposing goalies. Missed chances had cost Spurs only 2 points this season at Newcastle, none had Dafoe & Adebayor paid attention where the goal posts were located. We missed chances and dropped points. Why? Don't blame on luck.
poorscouserbobby

I'm with you. Chances to goal ratio is what we bought for. The chances are there. The goals will be coming, it's just a matter of statistics.
Suarez from the car park...

how infuriating eh? Soooooooooooo many chances and not just for one person.

The interesting thing is you might buy some highly rated youngsters for development (Coates, Hendo, Carroll - though not at those prices), but you buy seniors to get you the big prize you're heading for.

We bought Adam, Downing, Bellamy and Enrique (to go with Suarez).

Adam, Downing and Bellamy were to up the goal chances for Luis/Andy with Dirk and Maxi still in there for endless rotation.

And you have to say that has worked.

So what do we have to do to get the finishing sorted out? Is there really room for another forward?

There's no doubt more was expected from Andy and you have to assume he's not doing it in training to be permanently on the bench.
It is possible that the game will generally remain too fast for him though it's hard to imagine he won't improve somewhat from here. When though?

There's no doubt we are more dangerous when Bellamy and Maxi play with Suarez, so fowler willing, Gerrard will be a huge boost for us adding quality and intelligence with execution.

You have to wonder who we might try to buy in january though. A Lucas replacement? Another striker - we're hopelessly dependent upon Suarez? and if so, youth again?

I can't see us buying a CDM, I think Spearing is supposed to cover that, and with Gerrard back we still have Adam, Hendo, and Jonjo, though Dembele from Fulham seems decent.

So a finisher? An Odemwingie? Discuss.
purify_the_body

I will probably believe Rodallega is a possibility until either he signs a new contract with Wigan or the window closes. He fits what we need very well and should be available at an Enrique-like price due to the threat of going for free in the summer.

The low price also helps with the internal political Carroll thing. Since he's not 20m+, it can be spun as just adding to the squad.

Just got to keep buying, keep building the squad piece by piece each window...
Red2death

Why wouldn't Suarez be a 20-30 goal/season striker? He's always done that for Ajax and continues to put them in regularly for Uruguay. Sure, he's not doing it right now, but certainly not because he's not a natural goalscorer...
Red

If i could figure out why Suarez wasn't scoring 20-30 goals for us (on season basis) I'd be a rich man, happy and asking for King Kenny's job, alas I'm none of the above. Bottom line is he's not doing it, could be lots of reasons, composure, pressure, not having Forlan as foil, home cooking, fact that he hates Evra, strange country, poor quality of Dutch league, poor quality South American internationals blah blah, we just need to get it sorted.
Suarez from the car park...

I'm putting it down to settling in. I think he'll get better, but he could really do with someone else pitching in a bit more.

It's a kind of leadership thing that inspires others, as Gerrard has done so often.
Red2death

Yes, and also tactics.

If you take a look at Uruguay he has a number of partners to play off of, Cavani, Forlan. They create space for him with smart runs and passing. But it's not like we need to buy to get the same service - we already have players who can do those jobs in Maxi, Kuyt, Bellamy. They're not quite doing it, though, because Kenny still wants to retain a certain amount of classic Britishness in the style of play, having Downing and Kuyt hugging the touchline, and a flat four across the center, and sometimes Carroll in as the big target man. The blend of tactics is working decently, but can certainly be improved more. Right now we're neither here nor there and still need to find the right balance. And one price that we pay is a less efficient Suarez.
Luis Suarez dentist

I'm as harsh a critic as any (Downing, the buy British policy, the lowering of expectations by some fans) but when I think back that this time last year we had Uncle Woy in charge, it makes me realise just how much better things are now.

BUT there are still a lot of big steps to go to put us back where Liverpool should be. King Kenny can take us there.
redtrev73

Yes he can LSD...Yes he can.
Tony

We have seen undeniable progress during the past year. But is this pace acceptable to FSG and the fans? In all likelihood we will miss the CL next season. You might argue it's still too early to say. The other 5 teams are simply better, both in the starting lineups & the bench. Arsenal have more players hurt than us. How bloody hell Tottenham could be so consistent? We don't know what kind of time frame FSG imposed on KD. One year? Or two to get back to the CL? All genuine football stars want CL. This is the reality. We miss CL next year and it won't be a surprise that Suarez wants out. I felt Suarez was lonely & frustrated upfront. We need to find him a partner at his level. That's why I am really worried when KD hinted he might not be active in January transfer window.

Liverpool is too big to miss the CL.
poorscouserbobby

If you asked King Kenny what he thought of Next Summer's transfer window, I'd wager the answer would be similar to the one that opens soon. Don't read too much into it. The Liverpool Way has returned. You'll know about our transfers when they come.
purify_the_body

It's tough to make the CL this year. We might have more points than last year's 2nd place team and still finish 6th, if you can believe it.
jpr

CL this year will likely need 76 points; average of 2 points per game. Last year's 2nd and 3rd place sides had 71 points. Will not be easy this year.
Red2death

If we continue playing like we have been, I really don't see us missing out on the CL. We're pretty much dominating every single team we meet, bar the odd game. There's really not much more you can ask for out of a manager. Fair enough, we need to convert those into more comfortable wins, and stop hitting the woodwork so damn often, but no manager can guarantee that - if we brought in Guardiola, Benitez, Mourinho, Hiddink, Gullit, they wouldn't be able to guarantee any better either.

I think the most exasperated and dejected Suarez looked at Villa was after his delicate chip hit the post and bounced across goal and out. But that wasn't a Liverpool-sucks-I-want-to-quit look. It was more of an again??-are-you-kidding-me??-what-do-I-have-to-do-to-get-a-goal-round-here? kinda look.
AdamSonOfIstanbul

I have also wondered about how much time FSG will afford KKD. Missing CL next year we WILL see some of our best players questioning the clubs ambitions. Honestly, I wouldnt be surprised if Suarez was feeling insulted by the lack of quality around him. He was embarassed about being player of the month 3 months running, and rightfully so. He knows he is leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of the team in attacking prowess, and deserves a suitable foil for his exceptional skills
purify_the_body

Roy who? Wha? All I remember was going to sleep the night Rafa quit and waking up the next morning with Kenny and the new owners in place...
DJ-Chutfield

If only you'd shared those pills with the rest of us...
Red2death

It's probably not so healthy to still bear a grudge against a former Liverpool manager. But I can't deny it. Roy Hodgson is special.

Whereas previously I actually liked that he achieved so much with Fulham and was happy to see how far he could take them, now there's a certain schadenfreude whenever the Baggies lose - and to think just a year ago I wouldn't give two hoots about results concerning West Brom.

Dalglish has done well. Exceeded expectations. The contrast with AVB is interesting, given that back then many of even the staunchest supporters would have preferred the tactical thinking and continental flair of (then all-conquering) Villas-Boas to the romantic but risky return of Dalglish. Now the choice is clearer.
Ed

What I like best about revisiting old posts is seeing comments like this, from a United fan:

"get over it mate....... and dont fotget to tune in to ch5 thurs night"

Huzzah for belated comeuppance, and the deserved opportunity to follow your own advice.
Luis Suarez dentist

There is always a delightful irony when Manure fans talk about Europe.

Every single day there is a European Cup sitting in the trophy room because we have one it 5 times.
Lis

Ahh, all the emotions from the end of the reign of Hodgson (not that there were many apart from apathy and anger) coming back for a moment. Damn, it really was bad, wasn't it.
I still remember how liberating (couldn't think of a better word) that FA Cup game vs United was and how amazing it was to see Kenny on the touchline (and for me, that was a first as a LFC supporter). It seemed like we were playing better and sort of unconsciously knew that things on the pitch will only get better. Even though we lost, your recap title "The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place" couldn't have been more appropriate. I'd like to say many things about this amazing blog and how the new football year will beat this one (and not drama wise) but I'll express those sentiments when I'm properly drunk on the last post of the year.
Lis

I can't for the life of me understand where my paragraph breaks always go.
Suarez from the car park...

probably hit the woodwork.
poorscouserbobby

worth a reply. Well fuckin' in son!
purify_the_body

It happened to me many times until some nice person advised me to start logging into Disqus, which activates an 'Edit' option so you can put the breaks back in. Enjoy~
Lis

Thanks, I'll try that!
ejbauer11

Thank god. Here's hoping for three more points on Wednesday to continue washing away the memory of that terrible period. Ugh. Looking forward to celebrating my first annual January 8th party.
Neb

My birthday is on the 8th of January, and I never ever celebrate it, not because I'm a door knocking witness, but because I never entirely saw the point, and being the centre of attention even for a day doesn't compute with my fragile mind. But being told that the King was returning to his throne made my 29th birthday a much more pleasant experience. So, here I am now ready to celebrate annually for as long as the king holds the reigns, the 8th of January. What a truly great day you turned out to be...