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Jovanovic with a bit of pace wouldn't hurt us as well.

Lucas has been fantastic so far. Absolutely fantastic.

JWH comes across as very intelligent. If you have no exposure to something, you are slightly less prejudiced. And the way the media kept hounding Rafa, he would have said "hold on, was this guy really that bad - lets look him up". This is where Tomkins comes into play. And all he needed to do was say "here you go John, this is what Rafa achieved in the first 5 of his 6 seasons": 05 - European Champions 06 - FA Cup 07 - CL Runners Up 08 - CL Semifinalists 09 - League Runners up Along with another host of stats which pits Rafa against other LFC managers and sees him right up amongst the top 3 (or something like that); % league maches won etc... And then he'd list Hodgson's achievements...

Not especially when he fought for more control over handling of club matters before he signed his contract.

If Inter don't do well tomorrow, expect the following... Sky: Rafa, do you think your "rant" upset your Inter players and bayed the Spurs crowd, making it a more difficult match than it was? Headlines on Wednesday: Rafa rant fails to produce performance again. Redknapp: I thought it was unwise of him to say what he did, it got my players fired up and it now puts a lot of pressure on Roy and Liverpool for their game on Thursday and more so on Sunday...

Poor management by Hodgson = blame it on Rafa's poor players Better results in the league = Rafa's poor players being coached well by Hodgson Containing tactics by Rafa last season = negative and unadventurous Passive tactics by Hosgson = ermmmm well...I KNOW! it's the current Inter manager's fault!!! If Hodgson and the media play a similar game, why can't we (not that I'm actively participating)?

3 points from 5th spot. As long as the results keep coming it will be good for the club (for the time being). I still want this fraud out of the club though. No doubt the media will be licking his balls, saying that he was going to get it right. I can see us getting a draw next week, but I just cringe at the prospect of having to endure another week of his rubbish. He's not one of us, and will never be.

Knox, totally agree with this. However, we all knew that the media were out to get Benitez, there was and is a character assasination exercise carried out. The club was surrounded by a cloud of negativity. A Spanish one if the media could label it as such and get away with it. Losing Gerrard and Carragher, and maybe Torres (I doubt this one) would have finished off what little credibility he had. Therewould have been cries to get him sacked if we were sitting 5th where Spurs are currently, 10 points off the top - quite frankly a disastrous position for a team with aspirations to progress from the previous season. And I dare say,most of our fans would have caled for his head too, because they didn't have the hindsight of seeing this mess that is hodgson right now. Broughton is an incredibly intelligent man and even he was bought into the whole "Rafa is a clown" business because he believes what the media say. Add to the fact that it would have been almost certain Rafa wouldn't see much, let alone all of the money those sales would have generated (used to service the acquisition debt) - I'd say it was probably the right outcome given the circumstances. I don't agree with how they got there, but I think given the situation and the possibilities being put forward in your post (and mine in response), the future of the football club had to come first. And the worst outcome could have been that Hicks and Gillett are still owning LFC today... PS: does anyone know if the door was closed by RBS to have the loans paid off? If so, then the premise of the above is null and void I guess...

The Inter Milan manager.

Great post - more or less sums up my feelings, and I suspect every other irritated fan (except for the return of Rafa). If people look at the bottom line, Rafa was sacked for non-football reasons. Yes, he finished 7th which gave the club ammunition, but the negative mentality and strong criticism were all generated by the media who feed off Ferguson and his lackeys' views and vibes. They infiltrated and poisoned our fans too. Yes, he served up some horrible football and made some very questionable decisions last season but that was his first bad one out of 6. Every preceding year we achieved something of note: European Champions, FA Cup Champions, CL Finalists, CL Semifinalists, League Runners-up. There was no steady decline, it was a sharp dip. He either lost it, or it was a blip. If you ask me, form is temporary... Hodgson was hired for non-football reasons. And I can safely say that for myself, I want him out for non-football reasons too. He just doesn't understand, and will never do, that WE ARE LIVERPOOL FOOTBALL CLUB. I HATE the general English media. Unfortunately Rafa is done at Liverpool, and English football, I fear. Unless the new board take on an objective and unbiased (by the English press) view of Rafa's previous situation and decide they want him back, and then make a declaratory statement to the media along the lines of "he is a genius and you all don't know what the f*ck you're talking about". And then the fans need to get on board, and support the club and its decisions all the way. Essentially block out external voices, and go back to trusting the club. For me, that would be utopia.

Now that would be delightful if true!

More siege mentality. The new manager should go all out on war with the media. Put it out there. Do waht Ferguson does, allow only a select few to conferences, boycott certain publications/organisations. Any criticism labelled at our club, we just say "that's because they've got it against us". Not sure if we can do that, but it would be amazing.

Was going to post on that. The most damning indictment was that he'd seen Konchesky play loads of times over the past 10 years, and didn't think he was Premiership quality let alone Liverpool quality...

And for making subs around the 60-65 minute mark. Guess what I heard on the weekend said by some commentator when the Spurs-Everton game reached that point. That's right, "it's right about now that all managers usually make changes that can affect the game...".

F*ck the press. Go on war against them. Do what Ferguson does. Might as well since they're ruining our club by not hounding Hodgson like they did Rafa.

I remember last season at Bolton when Kygiakos made his debut he was guilty of trying to play his way out of the back with some rather careless looking passes. Skrtel also likes to play his way upfield where possible. Granted, his ability on the ball isn't too hot but he has the willingness. Carragher is far and away the most woeful, attacks break down because of his lack of willingness to play the simple pass quickly. He hardly ever passes to Lucas, something which I struggle to understand. And he's usually the first to receive the ball off Pepe. Why do his teammates willingly give him the ball? He should be treated like how he does Lucas when we're on the ball to be honest. Although I have to say he does put in a pretty decent cross from wide right.

It was Agger.

He was excellent for about an hour or so, putting himself about and looked really lively. He actually looked very quick, and passed the ball with confidence. Ran the midfield without having Gerrard 2 feet away nicking the ball off his feet.

So it was Moores' fault rather than Parry's then?

I believe that 7 points from 6 games equals a higher points per game average than where we're at currently...so no, he still hasn't beaten you gaffa...

So f*cking take up the offer you (am I allowed to make a light hearted joke about the man being Chilean and the rescue of the miners?)

Insua was whored around before Hodgson got here. And we had to settle for Babel. Who admittedly looked a better prospect in his first season, considering how mediocre Malouda was for a few years. Until around the quarterfinal at Anfield (1-3) last year.

But the media has had everyone believe that Hodgson is in fact as good a manager as we could have got. And that the one the club sacked was rubbish.

I seem to recall Rafa coming out and having one of those thinly veiled digs at Parry for moving slowly again...

The one that REALLY got away was the Florent Malouda. What a player he's been this past year. Two footed, strong on the ball, quick, scores and sets up goals. It's taken him a while, but he's finally come on and is looking a proper player. Whether or not he'd have gone on to his current standard remains to be seen though, as he was very average in his first few seasons at Chelsea.