On Roy Hodgson and Kenny Dalglish, and Other Monday Notes

By: Noel | August 29th, 2011

With August’s Premier League schedule finished and an international break set to take centre stage for the next two weeks, for many Saturday’s game against Bolton provided a useful comparison to last season’s matching fixture. The upside is seeing just how far the club has come in a very short time. The downside, of course, is that talk of Roy Hodgson becomes nigh on impossible…

*When it came to possession and chance creation, last winter’s Joe Cole in stoppage time last gasp of Roy Hodgson’s tenure victory at Anfield over Bolton was actually the superior performance. Which will come as a huge surprise to anybody who watched the match on Saturday while remembering little but the general malaise of Hodgsonian Liverpool towards the end of his unfortunate time with the club.

However, as monolithic as that time might seem in retrospect, Liverpool’s New Years Day display was one of the scant few bright spots before Dalglish took over—even if it came right at the end and was played to a stadium half full of empty seats. Liverpool actually played well that day. As well as they might have at any point under Hodgson, even if in the final tally that quite nearly wasn’t enough to get all three points. In the end, as Ed led with at the time, it was a match that allowed everybody for at least a moment to experience something other than the soul crushing ennui that had become de rigueur for those who remained committed.

Still, despite the unexpected numbers when comparing the attacks, there was one big change for Liverpool between the two games: Defensive pressure. Under Clarke and Dalglish this season the team played a much higher defensive line and managed fifty percent more successful tackles on the ground. It’s a telling statistic that signals the vast gulf between where the club is now compared to where it was at this time last season, when despite some decent attacking stats one of the pinnacles of Roy Hodgson’s time at the club seems a relatively poor performance sat next to a rather ho-hum, unexceptional day at the office for Dalglish’s squad. It can perhaps be a touch easy to overlook given the vocal commitment to pass and move football, but a renewed focus on defensive workrate, closing down the opponent, and playing a higher line in defense is as key as anything in the club’s heightened trajectory—something that comparing the two most recent matches at Anfield against Bolton highlights.

* While Liverpool fans may be moved to reflect on the changes from last August to now, there remains a resistance in the media to acknowledging Roy Hodgson’s quite negative spell at the club even existed. There is—perhaps unsurprisingly given his position as one of the media’s foremost darlings—an eagerness for many to jump straight from his good work at Fulham to his salvage job at West Brom while doing their best to pretend nothing even slightly negative lurks between the two relative highs:

He worked miracles at West Brom last season in a short space of time, and fully deserved all the plaudits he got for a remarkable turnaround; but he managed Liverpool for a longer period of time, and yet that gets brushed under the carpet as ‘too little time to make a difference.’

And all the while the while Jamie Redknapp and his ilk still like to bring up clichés of a negative Rafa Benitez whenever given half a chance. Even if, not entirely surprisingly, the facts spell out a different story and some intriguing parallels in the club’s recent managerial history:

It’s fascinating to see that Hodgson and Houllier have identical records: an average of just 1.7 goals per game at home. (Houllier’s record starts from 1999/00, his first full season in charge.)

Another identical record is that of Benítez from 2006 to 2010 (his last four seasons) and Dalglish since his return: 2.18 goals per game.

Both men took over teams that were averaging 1.7 goals a game and improved the scoring rate by a massive 30%.

* Meanwhile, as everybody looking in on the club seems to have used a comfortable demolition of Bolton at home as a chance to reflect, so too has Daniel Agger. Many will recall that Agger was far from shy in the fall of 2010 when it came to talking about the direction the club was heading under Roy Hodgson, with the Danish defender being shoved unceremoniously towards the exit due to differences he had with the manager over his insistence on passing the ball out of defense rather than hoofing it downfield. Now, however, Agger has nothing but positives for the club’s current approach to football that once again sees the classy defender as a vital player at the back:

My philosophy of how I want to play fits in with how the team is playing at the moment. That’s the way we all want to play.

We have some quality passers in the team and we’re playing it on the ground—that’s what people like to see. Results are the most important thing but if you can play like that it’s a bonus.

Word. Given how vocal he was when it came to his displeasure over Hodgson’s approach at the time, it’s hard to imagine he isn’t silently adding an “unlike last year” or two whenever he talks about the renewed commitment to pass and move football from the goalkeeper to the forwards. Though regardless, he might want to limit the right-footed efforts on goal for the sake of keeping proceedings attractive from a footballing perspective.

Hopefully we won’t have cause to mention Hodgson again around here for a good long while, but in the meantime, while we’re living in the past and holding on to grudges…

Some Related Liverpool Posts:

Category: Miscellaneous, Premier League, Team News

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red 33

I'm 100% behind agger on his remark about hoofing (long ball) it up front because this is how the english play in the old days due to lack of technical skill compare to european and the south american but they made it up on speed and running and that is why the EPL was a fast game.However english football are beginning to play differently in the last decade with foreign coach prefer skill over hoofing(ugly and boring).systematically it's changing the the style of how the english used to play and you can see that even the british is adopting to this system nowadays except Carragher, that's why he can't bring the ball out from the defence technically ,and seems under pressure when facing skilfull player,sorry if i offence your thought nothing personal agaist one of our legend,that is why i fully support this wonderful moved and pass system,A Beautiful and exciting to watch.LONG LIVE THE LIVERPOOL PASS 'N' MOVE SYSTEM.
Mike

So...we're gonna sell Raul to Chelsea for Yossi and cash? Have we gone mad? Slap me.
Noel

No, we turned down an offer of Yossi plus cash. Now it's a narrative being pushed by the same people who became invested in the idea that Raul had to be sold earlier in the summer. Namely Rory Smith, who still thinks he isn't on the flight to China, and a bunch of Twatterers who keep chanting moneyball and think we're the Oakland As.

We already turned down £12M from an Italian side that isn't a direct rival; it's two days before the end of the window; Meireles wasn't frozen out of the squad a la Aquilani, Cole, Poulsen, NGog, Kyrgiakos, or Jovanovic; the club has shown they don't need to sell to buy any more; and John Henry has talked about only making deals that improve the squad after the old owners bled it each summer.

All signs point to this being talk from Chelsea's end with some Liverpool "fans" who earned a slap or seven months ago getting in on the action.
Mike

Thank you for the slap...
NotTooXabi

Preparing offerings to the gods as we approach the international break, could someone pass along the list of players needing protection? I need to know how many cases of cotton balls to purchase and if I really need this extra buffalo.

Window closes **followed** by international matches? Holy AggerVation, Batman.

(gets out ceremonial robe. #5 on the back.)
Suarez from the car park...

Woy inherited an excellent team of players from Dimatteo that scored for fun. Trouble is they leaked even more goals than they scored (particularly because of Odemwingie). Note Dimatteo is now Villas Boas' coach.

He's tightened them up enough so that they now score more than they concede but they still haven't kept a clean sheet which is saying something given that's supposed to be his strong point.

I'm happy he's doing ok at West brom but the snivelling crawling media that basically takes SAF's lead is what really gets me.

Last season on Gary Richardson's sportsweek (radio), Gary noted how well Kenny was doing at Liverpool and the attendant broadsheet sports journo immediately piped in with just how great Roy was doing at WBA, didn't even acknowledge Dalglish's achievement which as we know was nothing short of dramatic.

Tonight's 5Live football program talked about Liverpool's strength in depth even without Gerrard. Essentially they were talking about the 3 midfielders we bought and Kenny bringing the youth through.

If that was all it took, we can't have been in dire straits before - and indeed, we only dropped to 7th pre-Hodgson.

Yet it was the same pundits slating the rubbish players at pool last year spouting anti-Rafa bile. Neither do they mention Rafa overhauling the youth academy, or the fact that we've spent all summer trying to get rid of everyone signed last summer under Hodgson.

Jamie Redknapp has to be one of the worst pundits out there. He makes the most monumental cock ups on air, clearly never does any research or check any facts, just spouts off. Lacks his father's wit and intelligence. Nice work if you can get it.
JPR

SAF??

Scottish Air Force?
Suarez from the car park...

lol. Old whiskey nose himself (Sir Alex Ferguson).
redtrev73

Delightfully catty alcatrazzledazzle! I salute you sir! My disdain for the self-serving-mealy-mouthed-media-whore-disguised-as-genteel-'40's-gent that is Old Royston is well known in these parts. Should make any proper Redman shudder to watch your video-link.

The contrast between the all-time nadir of those dark days with The Hodge at the helm and the joyous, optimistic era we are currently enjoying under the guidance of The King is profound.

When Noel first posted the above video I laughed insanely and watched it repeatedly as a kind of therapy to cope with the unrelenting gloom of that time of parasitic owners and a manager throwing our players under the bus. LFC as i had known it for 34 years was dying and our impotence was terrifying.

I also realised then that Ed and Noel had created a community here which I had come to rely on as a source of opinion, insight and valuable red-related humour...a reliance which remains.

At this juncture then, my hearty congratulations to Ed and Noel for such consistently high-quality output and my sincere thanks to those of you who add so much to the blog in the comments section. With a few patently obvious ( and mercifully rare ) exceptions, we have quite a clued-in, passionate and funny bunch around here.

May I suggest that we try actually ENJOYING this campaign, stay positive, back lads like Big Andy ( as some of us backed Hendo ) who need us and, without beng blind to our failings, simply SUPPORT.

Look at our great club without the tabloidy reactionary specs on and it is a beautiful thing to behold.
A true legend of world football at the helm, an astute tactically-aware coach at his side.

The best 'keeper in the Prem. A guy who nearly had a heart-atack when he lost his clean-sheet on Saturday.

Agger, Carra, Jonno and Enrique with Flanno, Robinson, Wilson and the excellent Kelly in reserve!?? How did that happen?! Kenny and Rafa, that's how.

The emerging talent of Adam, Hendo and Spearing to add to the established quality of Gerrard, Downing, Lucas, Meireles, Maxi and Kuyt.

And best of all the mercurial Suarez up top with the potential might of Carroll.

Good times to be a Redman...unless you're a dual-personality/gender doom-monger or a namesake of our boss who lives under a bridge.
alcatrazzledazzle

I don't think it's mutually exclusive for one to both enjoy heartily this season so far, as well as to find a few quiet moments each day to mercilessly mock Roy Hodgson, but I agree with your positive sentiments about the squad completely. Things are looking up, and the only downside is that I'm annoying my roommates by singing the Suarez song to myself constantly and loudly.
redtrev73

Oh, heaven forefend!! You'll not find a readier participant in any Roy-baiting that's on the go. We must have our cruel fun and I enjoy it more than most. I think i just havent gotten enough distance from the complete havoc wreaked by The Hodge to fully enjoy the humour value of that face-rub. In fact all it does is make me go all intwovewted and cwinge and cwy and then thank Fowler that The King has returned!!
Ismael Jawad

Truely, a gentleman's reply.
Suarez from the car park...

you mean Twuely....
Suarez from the car park...

excellent vid, saw it before. The following takes some beating too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Make sure you watch till the very very end. And there's some other takes on the stock character play there too if you really want to purge your hodgson dues. Quite superb.
McrRed

I hate Rarfa Benits. He is a shit manager...
DJ-chutfield

The stats may tell one story, but stats aren't everything. the main difference is how happy the players look playing for the Red of Liverpool, the fact that they actually trust their manager'a methods now and have full confidence in him. The manager isn't talking down his players while talking up the opposition (even if its League Two opposition). The fans love the manager and he loves them, not attributes blame to them after every loss. All players that no longer wanted to play for us are gone. If Woy had sold Torres, he would have replaced him with Bobby Zamora or some other Fulham flunkie. I'm rambling now and starting to foam at the mouth, so I'll cut it short; stats aren't everything, Kenny is infinitely superior to the lost senile pensioner and the sooner we drink away the memory of him ever pulling on a Liverpool tracksuit, the better.
KC

Its also how Kenny has praise for all players and simply has good words for everyone but still highlights the things that could improve when needed. He protects his players but not in a way that makes the players think they can do anything without suffering consequences which is something that more managers could do.

Also, the fact that every time Liverpool score a goal, he erupts into this volcano of happiness. Its actually one of the best sights of the game. It will take more than a few losses for that kind of positivity to disappear.
poorscouserbobby

WORD. One such example is the exeter town. In the Build up. He didn't say they were going to be a tough team to beat, and we'll probably have a rough go with them. Kenny said, we're going to treat them the same way we treated arsenal. We're going to go on at them like they are Arsenal. And that's what Liverpool did, they passed, the moved the Liverpool groove.
Suarez from the car park...

your round then.....
Red2death

I too hope this is one of the last times we need a comparison to Hodgson. I mean, it really doesn't mean much to now be better than arguably the worst reign of our history. Yes, we're now playing fantastic football in comparison to when Hodgson was in charge - then again, Arsenal and Spurs this weekend were playing fantastic football compared to when Hodgson was in charge.

Let's compare up instead because that's a lot more meaningful. Looking at how far we've come has to be taken in the context of how far we dropped in the first place. Basically, we're just back to where we started. Let's move on now.
CheekyFellow

Arsenal's problems mainly stem from having 8 legitimate and important players out of their squad.

Here were ours:
We dealt with Aquilani being put on loan, the purchases of Konchesky, Poulsen, and Joe Cole. Torres' antics. Gerrard out for months. Constantly lacking an LB and RB. Cherry on top? A delusional Christian Purslow, Hodgson as a manager, and 2 owners that didn't know that the sport is referred to as "football". So...Yea...shitty year. Arsenal have a viable solution - get their players back from suspension and injury. We were so far down into the abyss, we had no solution for 6 months. Glad to be back and charging ahead.

*Oh, and apparently Arsenal is covering the cost of match tickets for being "fantastic" fans. Where's my reimbursement for all the energy drinks and coffee I drank to stay awake at the pub between September 2010 and January 2011.
Suarez from the car park...

Careful, incase your drinking mates want to claim similar reimbursements for similar reasons...
aj

and arsenal is winning trophies:
http://www.premierleague.com/p...
Katie

What a great link! I would share that with my Arsenal-supporting friends, but I would just feel too guilty making fun of them right now.
CheekyFellow

Please do
Mike

As a fan of the "hitler reacts to..." series, I can't believe I missed that one. Cheers.
Suarez from the car park...

check out my Hodgson lover youtube link above Mike. Another world beater.
Guest

While it is a decent Downfall parody, I do believe the creator of this particular parody missed a golden opportunity by not having Hitler praise that anti-Semite bastard Purslow for running Benayoun out of town.
Zach

I do indeed agree that would've been the crown jewel.
alcatrazzledazzle

The only positive thing I learned from Roy Hodgson was his exfoliating face rub technique. My skin pores are now as clean as the sheets put up by his opponents
Bill

Hodgson has now got WBA sitting on the relegation trap door, still scratching his chin and looking to the heavens for divine intervention.
Suarez from the car park...

of course, that'll be because its not his team.
NotTooXabi

Not Too Xabi: “What was it like last year?”

Noel: “Two hundred degrees in the sunlight, minus two hundred in the shade. Canyons of razor-sharp rock. Unpredictable gravitational conditions. Unexpected eruptions. Soul crushing ennui that had become de rigueur. Things like that.”

Not Too Xabi: “Ok, so the scariest environment imaginable. Thanks, that's all you gotta say. Scariest environment imaginable."

---- I'll get my Coates.
Dan_yew

Hodgson was shit... plain and simple! LFC would have probably qualified for the Champion's League last year if if was not for his mediocre tenure.
PAULGLASSAR

ye u r right WOY is a lozzzzzzzzer 30yrs in the game n won nottin !!! old turkey nek cant even fuk his bird anymor all his 4skin is in his neck.. anyway keep fingering your tarts bum ,, coz u wer the biggest bum to get the managers ever .. u will take WBA DOWN BELEND..