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It must have been a slow day in Fleet Street when the rumour mill ground into action and churned out the possibility of a sensational return to management for Martin O’Neill. The Northern Irishman who recently resigned from Aston Villa is said to be the preferred choice of two of the consortiums looking to buy the club and would replace Hodgson with the Northern Irishman should either of their bids come to fruition. The news comes only a few months into Hodgson’s reign as Liverpool manager and is indicative of a lack of respect for both Hodgson’s managerial achievements and the difficulty of the task he faces at Liverpool.
Hodgson is a manager with a huge amount of experience in the game and deserves a modicum of patience and respect. He has paid his dues in a managerial career which has spanned 34 years and 7 countries. He started his career in with Swedish side Halmstad whom Hodgson transformed from relegation certainties to league champions in his first season in charge. He returned to England to manage Bristol City but returned to Sweden after only 2 years at Ashton Gate. His return was a huge success with Hodgson winning 4 league championships in a row with Malmö.
His achievements in Sweden gained him a reputation as one of Europe’s best managers and Hodgson moved to Switzerland. He managed Swiss club Neufchâtel Xamax for 2 years before taking over the Swiss national team. His Swiss team impressed, qualifying for the 1994 World Cup losing only once in a group with contained Italy and Portugal. He managed to take 4 points of Arrigo Sacchi’s Azzurri team which alerted Serie A giants Inter Milan to Hodgson’s talents.
He took over at the San Siro for two years but was unspectacular in his time at Inter and he left to manage Blackburn Rovers.
Since taking over at Blackburn, Hodgson has managed in Italy, Denmark, the UAE, Norway and Finland before returning to England in 2007 to manage Fulham. It was with the Cottagers where Hodgson really made his name. He took a struggling Fulham side and saved them from relegation on the last day of the 2007-2008 season with a 1-0 away win at Portsmouth. The next season saw a huge improvement as Fulham went from barely surviving to European qualification as Hodgson secured 7th place, the club’s highest ever league finish.
While last season wasn’t as successful in the league for Fulham, they enjoyed a fairytale European run, eliminating defending champions Shakhtar, Italian giants Juventus and Bundesliga champions Wolfsburg on their way to the Europa League final. Fulham were defeated by Atlético Madrid in extra-time in the final but Hodgson’s achievements with Fulham last season were enough for the LMA to name him their manager of the year.
Now Hodgson has moved on to Liverpool but he has found things tough in his first few months at Anfield. Liverpool have gotten off to a terrible start in the Premier League, with the Reds currently sitting in 16th place in the table after their defeat to Manchester United on Sunday. As a result of their lowly league position, the knives have already begun to come out for Hodgson but he should be afforded to time turn things around.
First of all, Hodgson inherited a bloated squad from previous manager Rafa Benitez and has been busy trying to offload some of the fringe players at the club. Simultaneously he has been attempting to mould a team in his own image and distance himself from Benitez’s reign. He has introduced more British players to the Liverpool ranks by signing Joe Cole, Paul Konchesky, Danny Wilson and Jonjo Shelvey. He has tried to create a more workmanlike, dependable team as shown by his signings of Christian Poulsen, Raul Meireles and Paul Konchesky who have failed to come to fruition for Liverpool just yet.
The players need to get used to a different personality in the Liverpool dugout. Benitez frequently cut an animated figure on the Liverpool sideline, gesticulating wildly to players. Conversely, Hodgson is a more reserved character and the players will need to adapt to his style of management.
It is still early in the season. The team still needs time to gel and get back to playing the football that this team is certainly capable of. However, the process won’t be helped by the news of Daniel Agger’s public outburst against Hodgson’s tactics. The Dane said:
“The manager has a philosophy that we’re playing football further up the pitch and then you have to play a different kind of football at the back.”
“That’s not my style. That’s not the type of football player I am. I like to keep the ball on the ground. And I’m going to keep doing that. Whether he’ll use me or not, time will tell.
“I guess I’ll try to change even though I’m not going to be the player that unloads the ball every single time I get it. I’ll fight for my chance. I’ll get the chance. I know what I represent and I think he [Hodgson] knows that.”
Agger’s comments will do little to curb the general feeling of gloom felt on Merseyside but Hodgson deserves a chance to lead this Liverpool team. In my opinion, he’s earned it.
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