Two paragraphs from my post from a few weeks ago, on the previous page:
I have conflicting feelings about Roy right now, but overall I was always aware that the job ahead of him was not going to be the same as Rafa‘s, so I think that has allowed me to understand him a little bit better than some. Rafael Benitez wanted to win trophies, build the club up, create foundations that would sustain Liverpool long into the future and win as many trophies as possible. I never expected Roy to do that. If we were still looking to be the best in the short-term, Manuel Pellegrini would have been signed up and given at least £20m to spend with no compulsion to sell. That didn’t happen because it wasn’t financially viable to do so. Instead of signing up a tactically-minded, highly-rated coach with vast European experience for nothing, we paid Fulham for an English manager six years his senior with little experience of competing for the game’s biggest prizes. Again, like I said about Paul Konchesky, that’s not to knock Roy - he’s just a symptom of a far greater problem.
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Roy has been brought in, not to win trophies, but to keep our heads above water. If the club wanted an ambitious manager, there were plenty around (Pellegrini and Lippi were available, the likes of Van Gaal, Hitzfeld, even Laudrup or Rikjaard, might have been tempted). Instead, we went for Roy Hodgson who, with the best will in the world, would have never gotten near the job under normal circumstances. This was like 2004, when Alan Curbishley and Gordon Strachan were being linked and instead the club went out and signed up one of the best coaches in Europe in Benitez. Back then, we still had ambition, drive and, most importantly, about £350m less debt. Everything has changed. I believe that Roy, thank heaven for small mercies, knows exactly what his job is, a kind of Fulham-type scenario where fourth place will be as good as first and top-half will do at a push. Throw in a cup run, and there you have his job description.
Have to say, I’ve been revisiting some of these words over the past couple of weeks and cringing. It’s one thing for the supporters to understand our changed circumstances and get behind the team, but I have a really bad feeling that our manager is settling for results and performances that are unacceptable given the quality of player at his disposal because he feels like we're not good enough, and if that‘s the case, things have gotten even worse. I’ve been appalled by the performances like everyone else, and it worries me greatly that the manager doesn’t seem to share my feelings. Shouldn’t we expect a bit better? Elements of my post above suggest that we shouldn’t, and I was wrong to say that. We're in a tough spot, but we're not that bad-off yet.
Squad-wise, we still have far more quality than he had at his disposal at Fulham, so while it’s going to be something of a ship-steadying period given the financial disadvantages we have over others, we’re still capable of playing so much better than we are, and that buck has to stop with the manager. It was a fair point last season that, regardless of injuries and lack of finances, we still should have been beating the likes of Reading, and it remains a fair point. Forget about Northampton for a second, our first team has been dominated for large periods by teams like Sunderland, Birmingham and West Brom this season.
Whether a team can challenge for the title or not, challenge for fourth place or not, you still expect them to go and try and win games. When I wrote the above, we had only played two League games, one in which we played the majority with ten men and the other where the team selection was at least positive in some ways. Aside from not blaming him for being here and seeing him as a symtom rather than a cause, my point was also that we have to give him a chance. But since then we’ve gone to Birmingham with our tails between our legs and gladly accepted a 0-0 with seemingly no real desire to win, been cheerfully told by our manager that the class of Torres and Gerrard saved us against West Brom, and been utterly out-thought and out-fought by Manchester United. I don’t get that and I can’t accept it.
Regardless of where you are or who you are, you try to win. We’re Liverpool for fuck’s sake, and if our manager is readily accepting that we’re a mid-table side even though we still (for now) have the likes of Torres, Gerrard, Cole, Reina, etc, then things are only going to get worse and it'll be self-inflicted wounds that do it. I'm now officially dreading the upcoming Merseyside derby.