Dear Mr. Hodgson,
I have no qualms over your commitment and desire to win games for Liverpool football club; neither do I have any ill feelings towards you personally. In fact, I have utmost respect for you as a man and for what you have achieved in football. I would be ready to give away my one arm to swap over with your position in football on any given day.
However, having said that, the real reason behind the letter isn’t to praise your modest personality. So, I’ll get to the point straight away. I, like many other Liverpool FC fans, believe that you are completely out of your depth. You look clueless and have run out of ideas on how to win an away game.
Your record of 7 away wins from 55 premier League matches reads a sorry statement. This success rate will be tough to beat even by one of the worst managers of Premier League over the past two decades.
On Saturday, you sent out a team which thrashed Aston Villa 3-0 at Anfield only a week ago. The only change to the starting line up was the return of ‘World Class’ Fernando Torres in place of Ryan Babel. The manner of victory against Villa filled Liverpool fans, all over the world, with real optimism and belief, that the team was starting to gel and an away win was very much on the cards. How wrong these millions of fans were.
The general consensus was that Newcastle were there for the talking. A team low on confidence and morale (thanks to their dismal recent form and the departure of their manager), must have been put to sword by a resurgent Reds team.
Incredibly or should I say embarrassingly, you, Mr. Hodgson, went in to the game with an approach which would have made it difficult for your Liverpool team to even beat Newcastle United’s Ladies U-15 team.
The Liverpool team that goes away from Anfield has a different mindset to the one that plays at Anfield. They seem to fear defeat. I pretty much doubt that there is a person on this planet who can point out reasons, other than negative tactics, approach and mindset for Liverpool’s dismal away record.
In your last 55 Premier League matches, your teams have won 16 out of a total of 27 home games and a bizarre 2 out of 28 away matches. This comes out to be reasonably decent 59% home win success rate but a 7% win success rate away from home is unacceptable at all levels. This makes one understand why Fulham finished 12th in the league last season and your current Liverpool team continue to dig their heels around mid table position of 9th.
A total of 18 goals have been scored in those 28 away matches and whooping 47 have been conceded; thus a shocking -29 goal difference. In order to give a clear picture, Sir, you have accumulated mighty 15 points from 84 available, on your travels.
I am pretty sure that no team, in the league, fancied playing against any Liverpool side in the past, but that has changed considerably this season. All sets of fans are filled with optimism when they hear the news that a team managed by Roy Hodgson is coming for match at their stadium.
In the last 4 matches away from home, against the so called minor oppositions, such as Wigan, Stoke, Newcastle and Tottenham (an exception) we have managed to pick up just one point and from a total of 9 away games we have lost six, drawn 2 and won once. This comes out to be a grand total of 5 points from a possible 27. Impressive? – Not.
Click http://www.senore.com/A-letter-to-Roy-Hodgson-Liverpool-F-C-fan-Part-2-a47884 to read part 2.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely of the writer’s. They do not reflect bettor.com’s official editorial policy.
Tags: