Football Update: Roy Hodgson disappointed with Liverpool's second-half performance against Newcastle
Liverpool went on to lose to Newcastle away from home last night in a game that saw Newcastle score two of its three goals in the second-half. Despite the fact that Dirk Kuyt managed to score an equalizer early on into the second-half, Newcastle dug deep
and managed two more goals to respond to the Liverpool threat and as a result, Liverpool have now managed to lose three consecutive away games.
Roy Hodgson, who happens to be the Liverpool manager, went ahead and expressed his discomfort and disappointment in the teams ability to maintain the same level of performance in the second-half, after the team was more than just decent in the first. He
then went on to add that the team's complacency mixed with the constant defensive mix ups, is what eventually led to the team's downfall.
Hodgson is reported to have said: “I thought we dominated the first half, we certainly had a lot of the ball and we certainly had the ball in the opposing half of the field and when they actually scored the goal from the free-kick, it was probably the
first time that the ball had been in our penalty area.”
“We’d asked a lot of questions, at that stage, of their back four. So I was thinking, even at half time, that we’re not looking that bad, we’re playing the right sort of football, we’re getting in behind them on lots of occasions, getting into shooting
and crossing positions.”
Despite getting back into the game, Liverpool went on to concede two late goals, that led to Pardew picking up his debut win with Newcastle as their new manager. Hodgson went on to later acknowledge the fact that a victory this early on for the manager could
prove to do wonders for him and that if he continues to make the team perform the same way for the rest of the season, then he might just end up winning the fans trust.
However, he ended by saying that Liverpool still had a lot of work on their hands and that he needed to work even further on the teams inability to defend if they were to stand any chance to qualify for Europe.
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