It’s clear for all to see that things did not quite go according to plan for Roy Hodgson at Liverpool. His signings, Raul Meireles aside, have been poor, the club have suffered 9 defeats this season, most notably to the likes of Northampton, Blackpool and Wolves and there seemed to be real dressing room unrest at times, but one thing is for certain, the disinterest and lack of effort shown from the club’s big name stars, Fernando Torres included, only served to hasten Roy’s path toward the Anfield exit door.
I think most fans, even ones of Liverpool’s biggest rivals, wouldn’t have begrudged Hodgson achieving a modicum of success at the club. That is not to say tensions have eased at all among Liverpool‘s biggest rivals, just that Hodgson is himself such a tremendously nice man, a rarity in today’s game and the fact that he sounds like a Dickensian fruit and veg seller only adds to his appeal. He’s everyone’s favourite uncle.
It is very easy to blame a manager in such circumstances as the ones Liverpool find themselves in this season. They are the ones who make most of the decisions and the buck ultimately stops with them, but despite all of this, not enough blame has been attributed to the players this term.
The nucleus of the Liverpool side that finished 2nd only two seasons ago by just 4 points from eventual winners Man Utd is essentially the same. The big difference, and I mean huge, is the departure of influential midfielder Xabi Alonso, a player alienated towards the end of his Liverpool career by Rafa Benitez’s obvious pursuit of Gareth Barry and willingness to listen to offers for the Spaniard.
Liverpool’s style of play was based solely around Alonso and it’s only in his absence that you realise quite how much he affected their play. The sale of Javier Mascherano was disappointing and his exit acrimonious, and although I’d count him as probably the best defensive midfielder in the world at the minute, the club would not be in the dire straits it now finds itself in if it had been just Mascherano that had left the club in the past couple of seasons.
The main problem when such big name players leave and the spine of your side is weakened, is that it places extra emphasis and pressure onto the ones that remain, which in this case are Pepe Reina, Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres, to perform each and every week. During Hodgson’s reign as manager, sadly this was not always the case.
Pepe Reina has shown the kind of loyalty that fans love to see. Reina clearly holds genuine affection for the club and despite the error in the opening game against Arsenal this term that led to a 1-1 draw (oh, how different things would have been had Liverpool won that game), he’s a calm, reassuring presence at the back and he regularly keeps the club in games almost single-handedly at times.
Steven Gerrard looks a shadow of the his former self, like Gerrard-lite, a slightly lazier, flashier version of himself 3-4 years ago. But he still has the drive to inspire when the mood takes him, and a shift further forward once more to an attacking midfield role, as opposed to the deep lying central midfielder of the Hodgson era may get the best out of him once more. The prospect of him playing under his hero Dalglish cannot be underestimated either, and it may inspire a rich vein of form from him. But it’s fair to say, despite his numerous niggling injuries this season, when fit, he’s disappointed on the whole.
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Which brings me to Fernando Torres. There’s a growing feeling now among fans that if the club was offered between £40-50m for his services, that you’d bite the suitor’s arm off. It’s not that anyone could doubt his talent, but his attitude can be called into question and far too often his body language has portrayed a player less than happy with the situation he finds himself in.
Numerous excuses have been made for Torres this term. Understandably, he was short on fitness after coming back injured from this summer’s World Cup and Torres, much like Michael Owen during his time at Anfield, needs a prolonged run of games to get fully match sharp. But when do the allowances for match fitness subside and the realisation dawn that he’s just not that interested any more begin?
Torres has become ever more injury prone the last few seasons and has scored just 6 times in 19 appearances this term. A major criticism levelled at Benitez, and to a much lesser extent seeing as he only had one transfer window to rectify things, Roy Hodgson, is that there is simply way too much burden placed upon Torres to deliver every game and that this downturn was inevitable. The fact of the matter remains though, he’s not living up to the standards that he’s set himself during his time at Liverpool.
To me at least, he looks to have lost a yard of pace, and his first touch, possibly due to the amount of time spent on the treatment table, is not what it once was. He still probably ranks among the top 3 strikers in the world, and as the saying goes, form is temporary, class is permanent, but Dalglish’s biggest task in his first few weeks in charge is to get Torres back somewhere close to his best, as he looks desperately short on confidence at the minute, which is inevitable when you’re a predatory striker starved of service.
The news from the man himself just after the defeat to Man Utd, that he looks set to honour his deal which currently runs through to 2013, will have been music to most Liverpool fans’ ears. The return of a club legend in the form of Dalglish to help inspire, and maybe even pass on a few tricks to the beleaguered Spaniard may be the just the timely and welcome boost the player was looking for.
If Liverpool are to succeed during Dalglish’s time in charge, however long it will be, Torres needs to step up to the plate and perform like the Torres of old, not the Torres of the Hodgson era.
Would you advocate the sale of Torres in the summer if the club was offered between £40-50m? Will Dalglish get the best out of him? Or is it just a temporary blip?
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