What has Roy Hodgson changed at Liverpool?
Liverpool played some scintillating football against Aston Villa on Monday night as they ran out 3-0 winners against a decent opposition. Gerard Houllier was happy with the reception he got from the crowd but didn’t look too pleased with the result.
Liverpool have looked a totally different side over the past few weeks. Interestingly this coincides with the absence of their talismanic skipper Steven Gerrard. However, it surely has got nothing to do with his absence.
Liverpool were without Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher and Fernando Torres for their clash against the Villains. Yet they put on a show for the Anfield crowd. The likes of Ryan Babel, Maxi Rodriguez and David Ngog stepped up to the plate and delivered the
goods for Liverpool.
Roy Hodgson has been slammed for his ‘small club mentality’ and rightly so. His press conferences have been poor and his tactical approach was shocking up until the West Ham game. However, Liverpool have started to play more expansive football and the way
they played at White Hart Lane was an indication that Roy Hodgson is now, may be, realizing his mistakes.
Roy must have been annoyed by the chants from the media and from literally everywhere that ‘this is not Fulham’ but what he did at Fulham was not bad at all and some of the things he did there are actually required at Anfield.
Fulham had a bunch of average players and Roy was able to get the best out of them. He worked hard with individuals and we saw the likes of Bobby Zamora, Clint Dempsey and Gera taking their game to another level.
When Roy first arrived, he clarified that he is a coach first and then a manager. I guess we can see that now. When it comes to managing the team and planning out tactics he has failed more often than not. However, he has coached the likes of David Ngog
and Lucas Leiva and turned them into much better players.
Is Roy the master of average players? At the moment it looks like it. Liverpool are playing their best football of the season without injured Steven Gerrard and with an out of form Fernando Torres.
Ryan Babel was given a go ahead in the absence of Fernando Torres. The Dutchman made his first Premier League start of the season and he did not disappoint. He held the ball up well, made nice runs and most importantly scored a great goal on the turn and
half volley.
Another player who is now thriving under Roy is Maxi Rodriguez. The Argentine was completely out of sorts at the beginning of the campaign but has been in inspirational form of late. He has scored 2 in his last 3 games and is playing like a player who is
finding space and time all over the pitch.
Maxi was on the score sheet again against Aston Villa. He started Liverpool’s break and then made a run into the box, unmarked, and coolly finished the move with a well place shot into the top corner.
David Ngog is never going to be a Fernando Torres, but he is proving to be an able deputy to the Spaniard. He has improved his game awareness and his movement has been terrific this season. If he can improve his first touch and be more physical, he can certainly
be playing alongside Torres on regular basis.
Liverpool fans can finally see some light at the end of the tunnel and would be really happy to see their average squad players doing the business for them in the current situation. If Roy Hodgson can keep the momentum going then Liverpool can certainly
end the year on a high. They have four winnable fixtures before the end of the season and 12 points would take them to 34 with 10 wins from 20 games.
Tags: