The players

Conrad · October 18, 2010

The players

There are plenty of threads on Roy Hodgson elsewhere on here at the moment. I wanted to focus on the players. It is an inevitable side effect of the car crash that is Hodgson managing Liverpool that the players’ performances are not the focus of ire that they perhaps might have been under somebody else.

As I’ve made clear elsewhere I want Hodgson out now.

But I do think that regardless of his multiple shortcomings we are overlooking the fact that from a playing point of view we are in serious decline.

This decline manifested itself last season under Rafa. It is being accelerated under Hodgson.

2 years ago we had a core of arguably 7 outstanding players

Reina

Hyypia

Alonso

Mascherano

Gerrard

Torres

Carragher

Now, only 4 of those 7 remain. Of those 4, Gerrard and Carragher are the wrong side of 30, and Torres is still shaking off a succession of injuries. I am confident he will get back to his first season form under a new manager, but Reina and Torres apart what else do we have?

A couple of promising but largely untried youngsters. One or two others. It’s a big worry. For me, the squad is in need of a bigger overhaul than at any time since the early part of the Souness era.

The reasons are various, the consequences of an expensively assembled academy producing no one of note in over a decade, the disastrous sale to the last owners, the failure in the last 3 years of his reign of Rafa to spend what money he had more productively (why is this being constantly glossed over?), and now Hodgson signing mediocre journeymen.

Anyone expecting a significant uplift in results with the sacking of Hodgson is going to be disappointed, although obviously they will improve.

I think we are looking at a 3-5 year rebuilding job.

Ethan · October 18, 2010

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