To be fair, when you inherit a team effectively in last place as the third manager of the season and its not even Feburary, if they go down it will be rough to describe it as Roy having taken them down.
However, for as much as I hated the idea of him being our manager, this is exactly the situation I think he does well in. He simplifies football in a way that can get poorly playing sides working well very quickly.
I just think he looked a bit spent at Palace, itās kind of like when you expect a player to be the same and you realise he lost some pace.
It happens to managers as well. At Palace he knew what ticked I feel. I think they got the wrong guy in Raneri and theyāve made another error. Then again the first guy hadnāt really set his mark on the season.
I remember pointing out that I couldnāt see Watford getting a new manager bounce as they werenāt particularly bouncing from a low point.
Iāve said before I thought the gravy train Down Under in the AFL was a sweet gigā¦
It aināt got a fucking thing on the PL mgr merry-go-round!!!
Yeah, I think that is the biggest risk. However, I think one of the issues with Hodgson is he does have a limited shelf life. Once heās brought along a stabilization, as he did at Palace, his methods tend not to have much potential for further growth. The owners tend to get restless and the mid table plateau and the fans start itching for more attractive football. Heād done 4 full seasons at palace with them never looking better with any better prospects than they had after his first half season. I think as much as the players start tuning out, I think itās understandable that a manager starts tuning out the players as well with everyone phoning it in.
Watford are presumably hoping that is what happened at Palace rather than him getting too old for the demands of the job.
Put my hands upā¦I didā¦and it was wrongā¦Iāll let him get on with his job now.
Is he? When did this happen?
I think heās a bit of a cunt, to be honest.
Yeah, looking from outside, Iād say he is. Polite, gentle.
Maybe even a bit too much or to the point when it can become annoying, he can say some stupid stuff and then it gives people opportunities to make fun of him.
I think the hate he sometimes gets is not fair.
We can talk about the football, but we donāt have to translate it to the person. And even talking about the football, so what, there are a lot of more defensive minded managers than him.
Iāve never minded him to be fair he was totally unsuitable for us and the talking heads only pumped him up because he was probably relegating us.
I actually thought he was a complete bastard, who systematically failed to defend his players or Liverpool fans protesting against the obvious collapse of the G&H regime. He valued his relationship with Ferguson more than his relationship with Torres, with Ferguson accusing Torres of diving when Nani couldnāt take three steps without throwing himself to the ground and Hodgson not saying a damn thing. He systematically blamed the players, and became defensive at even the suggestion that he was not using his players effectively. Tarred Benitez, then complained bitterly at the same constraints.
Perhaps I didnāt give that much attention to those bits and bobs he said when he was with us, but I could probably find a bit of that in almost all managers. Even Klopp (who is probably the most likeable manager out there and understandably so) sometimes says some dumb things. Itās impossible not to do so, considering how much they have to speak and under which microscope they are. Roy certainly doesnāt help himself with some things he says, but that doesnāt make me think heās a cunt or a bastard. If Roy never admits mistakes, then what would we say about Rafa? Heās also a shrewd manipulator sometimes, even if I love him to bits. Roy was not for our level, we also werenāt great at the time, thatās all clear as day. But I donāt hate the guy in the slightest. I hated the whole LFC period, that yes. But that was not only Roy Hodgson, in fact even more so, it was more the people who were running the club.
I donāt think itās so much just his capabilities, but also mainly about his mentality. He gave off the same vibe that Rodgers did, that he was quite full of himself (the famous Neuchatel Xanax line), and he didnāt seem to care that much about Liverpool, rather seeming more that it was just another job for him.
Rightly or wrongly, I think our fanbase is one which demands to be special to managers, rather than just another stop on a career.
Nah, I donāt think he didnāt care. I felt he realized the size of the job and it was also in a very bad time for the club. Arguably one of the worst in itās history, at least from a position of top expectations. I agree with all of that, that he wasnāt the right man, etc.
To be fair I remember three things about the period:
The face rub
The late Joe Cole against Bolton in which he said we were back
The loss to Blackburn to a guy who hadnāt won in about 2 months and the fact I didnāt care at that point, I knew he had to go sooner or later.
There are some period of Liverpool Football club that brought me no joy and I remember for no real reason this was one, even that 2 months under Klopp last year will be remembered for the response to it and those last 6-8 games.
Sounds like Bielsa is as good as gone, according to the Guardian Leeds are in discussion with lawyers over his departure and are lining up Jesse Marsch as replacement.
Have we reached peak āphilosphyā with this move? There is not much evidence that Marsch is any good, but heās trained in the red bull (āPHILOSPHYā) method so will have a game plan suited to the way Bielsa was trying to get them to play already.
Organise the defence and a midfield in front of them would be a start instead of all attack for 90 minutes every game. 
What really suits him for the job though is his tendency to yell āpressā occasionally from the sideline.
He was going to leave soon anyway, so my eyes were on Leeds to work constantly on a replacement (or at least going through options), they had to work on it, even last season when everything went fine.
Bielsa overall did a good job you have to say. Brought them up and more or less created a side that can stay up, at least for a while.
Iād say two factors played a big part this season, injuries to key players and actually some incoming transfers that werenāt great. Couple that with Bielsaās styleā¦ and yeah, youāll get some heavy defeats.
I think they were a bit thin in midfield in the last two seasons, hence why someone like bloody Forshaw came back from the deads (or needed to) and earned himself a new contract.
Soā¦ Bielsa is not the only one who needs to be questioned (his style possibly also influenced injuries and he also mustāve took part in transfers), but also other football people involved in these decisions.
Was there any reason given over the contract situation last summer and why there was a delay in him signing a new one?
