Roy Hodgson | #OpenToWork

Djemba-Djemba

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He was a fecking terrible England manager and his childish petulant behaviour in the press conference the day after the Iceland game was both infuriating and hilarious.

I wish him nothing but the worst.
 

Zoo

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Hope Gary Neville joins him on the backroom staff.
 

alsabi

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Official. Woy weturns to the Pwemier League.
 

JackRed

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I misread read the thread title as Wally Hodgson which would have been more apt
 

Wedge

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Journo: Roy new palace manager, how does it feel?.

Hodgson: I don't know what I'm doing here.
 

haram

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Isn't the whole 'Woy' thing not a bit unfunny now?
 

Ducklegs

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He will get them pottering about doing the basics.

He will turn them into a completely uninspiring cannon fodder team that is 50/50 to get enough points off the other cannon fodder teams to stay up while he is in charge.
 

el3mel

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Feel sorry for TFM to endure a season under the management of such a man.
 

Parry Gallister

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From RAWK

Memories.....

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Hodgson on Hodgson:

"Of course, my track record, if people bothered to study it, would put me in the same category as [Alex] Ferguson enjoys today, but people don't talk about what I've done outside England"
- 8 years ago

"It is insulting to suggest that because you move to a new club, your methods suddenly don't work when they've held you in good stead for 35 years and made you one of the most respected coaches in Europe. It's unbelievable. My methods have translated from Halmstads to Malmo, to Orebro, to Neuchatel Xamax, to the Swiss national team and many other jobs as well.
--- Roy talks about his astonishing resume and expresses his bemusement at why what worked for Malmö & Neuchatel Xamax shouldn't also work for Liverpool FC.

"Everyone I know in football respects the job I’m doing here and aren’t too surprised it hasn’t been an easy start. In fact, 95 per cent would have predicted it as [Jose] Mourinho did. ‘Liverpool will get worse and worse’ is what he said and if the great man Mourinho says it, I don’t know why you don’t quote him.
--- Roy argues that since even Mourinho think he would do a terrible job, it's alright.

"Clubs have virtually been destroyed by people making bad decisions. It's not because the owners haven't given money or supported the manager. It's just that they have brought in the wrong people”
- Roy finally gets one right

Hodgson on others:

"The protest does not help but it is something I have had to live with since I came to the club,"
--- Roy shows his heartful relationship with the fans

“Are you from Denmark?” “No, Norway,” replied the journalist. “Ah, two countries I never want to work in again.”
--- Hodgson solidifies his relationship with Liverpool's strong Scandinavian fanbase.

“Rijkaard has just been sacked from Galatasaray - he must be a great manager to have been sacked by Galatasaray!”
--- Hodgson reacts to stirrings in the press linking Rijkaard to his position. Nevermind the fact Rijkaard never commented on the speculation himself.


Post Match Analysis:

"It would have been a shame if we beat Birmingham today"
--- Fair is fair, Roy doesn't really mind a draw.

"to be honest it would have been unfortunate for them if we'd won the game tonight"
– Roy being equally sympathetic to Uthrecht.

“that famous victory against Trabzonspor”
--- Hodgson remembers a special night in Turkey. No, not the CL final in Istanbul. The qualifying leg for the Europa League has quickly been written into the annals of liverpool lore.

“The second half was as good as I have seen a Liverpool team under my management play, that is for sure,” he said. “I think it was a very good second-half performance. I am refusing to accept it was a bad team performance.We did not score goals and Everton did, but I refuse to sit here and accept we were in any way outplayed or in any way inferior.”
--- Hodgson after a 2-0 loss to Everton

”I’m pretty sure I’ll be backed up by David Moyes, our performance today was a good one. I can’t ask more of the players than they’ve given the club. Everton were fortunate enough to be able to defend on the back of a two-goal cushion. I think it might have been a different story had they not had the two-goal cushion. To get a result here and win the game would have been utopia. But I can only analyse the performance and there is no point in attempting to analyse dreams."
--- Hodgson analyses the facts after the 2-0 defeat at Goodison, finds that his team could have gotten a point if only Everton hadn't scored two goal, classed the defeat the best performance of the season and judged it utopia to think his team could have won in the first place.

"We allowed Everton to get on top of us in the first 20 minutes by passing the ball too short and never turning them round. I saw the statistics the other day from the Everton game and I've never in my Premier League career seen statistics as positive as they were in terms of passing, accuracy and tempo of passing, number of shots and crosses. Those statistics hearten you because you know you are not playing badly but they don't get you any points. We had the same level of passing and intensity against Blackburn but we were much more incisive, getting behind them down the flanks more. Jamie Carragher was bombing forward like Carlos Alberta of old. It was the right sort of performance; we've got to give another 29 like that and if we can do that then we won't go too far wrong."
--- Hodgson revisits the game a week later and finds that the defeat was statistically the best performance in his premier league career.

"I don't think we can play a lot better than we did against Blackburn. With the team we have at the moment, if people expect us to really play a lot better football than we did for 70 minutes at the start of the Blackburn game they are going to be asking a lot. What could happen is we could get a lot more goals for that performance but I don't think we could play better.”
--- Roy evidently does not believe the sky is the limit after a scrappy home win vs Blackburn

On Motivating his players:

"He did well but the fact is he came on in extra-time and people were tiring. We think Jonjo Shelvey is a player with a bright future, but I have to say I am not in the mood for talking about positives.”
--- Roy provides encouragement for a young fringe player, by insisting he only impressed because the opposition was tired. And he didn't feel like talking about a good performance from him anyway.

"No doubt if, by January, he hasn't succeeded in convincing me that he is the player we need then he will have to accept we will be in the transfer market for a centre-forward once again.
--- Roy gives Ryan Babel a motivational boost in the press.

”I don't want to be taking people's leftovers. We've got those types of players ourselves.”
- Roy gives another vote of confidence in his players.

“Agger missed two weeks with the injury he picked up in the Sunderland game but he made a miraculous recovery in order to go and play for Denmark where he got injured again."
--- Roy doesn't feel above sarcastic critiques of his own players in public.

"we get two good ones back, but lose a good one in kuyt"
– Roy after Torres and Konchesky were passed fit, but Kuyt and Agger weren't.

“I shouldn’t get involved in that. Sir Alex is entitled to any opinion he wants to have.”
- Roy backs his star striker after Ferguson brands Torres a cheat.

I don't know if I would have considered using Fernando had David Ngog been fit. But he isn't and, having had a chat with Fernando, I think he'll enjoy it. It's not as if he'll be playing with a bunch of also-rans. I'm not asking him to play in the reserves.
--- Roy thinks highly of his reserve team.

“At the moment arguably one or two of the players that you are suggesting are very different to the Fulham players. Maybe there not playing any better than the Fulham players played.”
--- Hodgson bigs up his team by suggesting they are about on par with his Fulham in quality.

"I think I'd have to say we'd cross that bridge when we come to it. I am pretty sure when a great player like Wayne Rooney is looking to leave his club, Manchester United will be in a position to target an awful lot of players around the world. They will have the opportunity to replace him with many star strikers around the world, so all I can say is I am not naive to the situation. I am not naive enough to think there is no danger we will ever lose a player like Fernando Torres.”
--- Roy looks to end a 46-year mutual transfer embargo between the two arch-rivals by issuing a 'come and get him' plea to Alex Ferguson concerning his star striker.

"I was involved in the discussion with him, but the initiative and the desire to take Joe did come from the managing director perhaps more so than myself... ...He's not so much a player I can really take responsibility for.”
- Roy makes a point of disowning Joe Cole's suitability for Liverpool with a stirring 'the son I never wanted' assesment.


On the Squad and transfer strategy:

”We were unbelievably over-staffed when I came to the club and, if the truth be known, we still are over-staffed.”
- Hodgson thinks the squad has too many players in september

"I preferred to put my weight behind David Ngog and Ryan Babel, who's never really been given a proper chance at centre-forward at the club. We have Fernando Torres, we have good players who can play behind a lone striker."
- A day later, he backs his strikeforce as more than adequate.

A club like Liverpool shouldn't have to rely on non-specialists like Dirk Kuyt or Ryan Babel ‘doing a job’ up front when they are primarily wide players. ...The first thing people say when I walk down the street is ‘We need a front player’. They can't all be wrong and we aren't that stupid either.
- About a month later, he is singing from a different hymn sheet.

I have a very clear picture now of what we should and need to be doing and the squad is stronger and getting stronger. It was probably stronger than I realised at certain stages in the early part of the season when we were losing games. Hopefully that will mean we won't need to do too much in the January transfer window
– A month later, in November, Roy is feeling optimistic about his squad again.

”Unless there is a major influx of cash into the club and the team is going to be changed from one moment to the next, then whoever takes my place will be doing a similar job with similar players.”
- A month later still, there can be no improvement whatsoever without major investment.

"I accept I may make a rod for my own back by not bringing in people, but we are targeting players whose clubs don't want to let go even if we offer them good money, and that makes it tricky," he explained. "However if by any chance Fulham, Blackburn or Stoke are willing to release such players then I am sure we would be an appealing prospect as Liverpool is arguably the second most important club in the country"


On goals and ambitions for the club:

'I believe, and I've got a track record that demonstrates it, that I can take the existing players, get much better performances out of them and buy constructively to build for a better future. The number one priority is to try and help the team do a bit better than last year and get back into those Champions League spots, where the club has always been and still wants to be.”
--- Hodgson is optimistic he can improve on 7th at the start of the season

"Our goal at the start of the season was to compete for a Champions League place, but perhaps that means you are automatically going to compete for the league because quite often the difference between first and fourth place isn't a vast number of points. If we are good enough to get into the top four, who knows, maybe we can get closer to the number one position.”
--- Roy remains ambitious despite a loss at Old Trafford

"I would accuse you of being unrealistic if you are suggesting we should be doing what Arsenal, who have had the same team for the last six years, and Chelsea, who have just won the league, are doing.. We finished seventh last season. I don't understand why you are suggesting we should be comparing ourselves every day with Chelsea or Manchester United at this early stage of the season."
--- What he was saying a little while later.

"I can guarantee that at the end of the season we won't be sitting there at the bottom.” –
A little while later still, expectations had been downsized further.

“Maybe what we have realised is there is plenty of work to do here but I am certainly very satisfied with the job I have done here and I don’t feel any dissatisfaction whatsoever.” –
After getting out of the relegation zone, Roy is quite happy with 9th place.

“I’m at a club where people expect great things. When we’re nearer the middle of the table than the top, people will suggest, ‘If someone else was here it would be different’. I’m not sure that’s the case. A lot of intelligent people understand that.”
--- Roy argues midtable is the best that can be attained under any circumstances. And that you're stupid if you disagree.

”Judge me after ten games.”
--- Roy sets the time frame for reasonably evaluating a manager's performance early in the season.

It is starting to feel more like my side,but it is still a team that I have not put together. I want to make that clear. I took the team over and I have not made that many changes... ...So to really call it my team, I would have had to make a slightly bigger impact on those who have been brought in. I am more than happy to take responsibility for this squad but it takes a coach more than five or six months to make his stamp on a club. I am hoping we will do some good business in transfer windows to come and then I will be able say, ‘If you don’t like it then I have no one to blame but myself’.
--- of course, it's not really his team and he'd need his own players to really make a difference.

On pre-match motivation:

"Having a game of this magnitude coming so early in our time here isn't exactly ideal. I'm hoping we'll give it our best shot and give a good account of ourselves. Then we'll see what the game brings.”
- Roy feeling upbeat before the Man Utd game.

”They'll be a formidable challenge - there's no question about that.”
- Roy on league two giants Northampton. Who did indeed prove too formidable as Liverpool crashed out of the league at Anfield against them.



Performance vs results:


"It's pointless to try and be positive and say the second half was better and we could have got an equaliser because we lost the game:”
– Roy's perspective after losing to Blackpool at Anfield.

"I am confident we can get out of the situation we are in and I base that on our performance at Manchester United, which is a very difficult place to go and play. And I will base it on our performance at Everton, which is another very difficult place to go and play."
--- A bit later, two losses can be encouraging stuff after all.



On Away Games:

“I’m afraid in this league away victories are hard to come by I believe if we continue to play the way we did against West Ham we may get one or two.”
- Roy sets the bar high.

”we are not stupid. We know that if you go to Tottenham it could be two defeats in nine but if we play like we did against West Ham we can make sure Tottenham don’t have a cake-walk. And if we can keep Fernando Torres and David Ngog firing we may spring a surprise.”--- Roy is not expecting much at white hart lane.


"I've had several bad experiences," he said. "Even at Halmstad in the 70s, in the year we won our second championship, it took until the second half of the season to win our first game away and that broke a record going back two seasons. We went over two seasons without winning an away game, which is quite strange for a team that won the league in '76 and again in '79."
- Roy in an astonishing display of lacking self-awareness, fails to spot the red thread in his away record over 35 years.

:lol: I for one welcome back agent Roy
 

RedPed

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Jun 24, 2015
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Palace deserve everything they get. Roy Hodgson for feck's sake??
 

UnrelatedPsuedo

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Uninspired, unambitious and I hope they go down.

Interesting debate on The Game Podcast this week between Marcotti and Scowcroft about the shockingly inept management of Palace. I've got all the time in the world for Scowcroft and he's good mates with Steve Parish. But nobody could really make any sense of what goes on there.

One manager that's lasted more than 50 games in 7 years. That was Pardew who is perhaps the worst they've had walk through the door.
 

Acole9

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Fairly safe pair of hands, they'll be laughing if he can repeat similar achievements to the ones he did at Fulham and West Brom.
 

AndyJ1985

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These clubs never learn. Every season some useless bellend gets sacked only to get hired at another club, and inevitably he'll be sacked again within 12 months. Rinse and repeat.