My thoughts on Roy Hodgson

As I type this, Roy Hodgson is still the manager of Liverpool Football Club, a position which seems to get more and more precarious for him with each game the team plays under his management.

By now, it is well established that the vast, vast majority of Liverpool fans want Mr Hodgson to be shown the door, and his successor, whoever that may be, appointed. Hodgson himself, however, seems reluctant to do what in the eyes of many fans would be the decent thing, and resign.

On the one hand, this could be because he is too stubborn, intent on clinging on to his position for as long as possible for the sole purpose of enhancing his CV. Alternatively, Hodgson may genuinely believe what he says - that given time, he can turn things round and make LFC into a winning team again.

Personally? I'm opting for the first option. I don't believe that Hodgson is the right manager for us, and no matter how much time and money he is given, I can't see us ever winning the title under him judging by his current, mostly abysmal reign.

For a start, his style of football, his overall philosophy, is completely incompatible with the players we have at the club. Those players favour, and indeed are used to, playing attacking football, and keeping possession. Hodgson's style is practically the complete opposite - extremely defensive when we don't have the ball, and even when we do, his tactics seem to extend no further than the "tried and trusted" route one.

This worked well for him at Fulham, hell it even worked at Neuchatel Xamax. The fact is, it quite clearly does not work for us, no matter how much Roy tries to convince us that it will.

He has already stated in one of his infamous press conferences that he will not resign, but it's looking as if soon he may not have a choice to make - FSG will make it for him. If reports are to be believed, it's a matter of when, and not if, he will be sacked.

No matter how much we would like that "when" to be right now, we have to put our trust in FSG, and let them take the time they need to make the decision. After all, this is the group that rescued us from our previous owners, so at the very least we should give them some time to make this decision. Yes, it seems they are taking their time, but who knows what's going on behind the scenes? For all we know, FSG could be in negotiations with a possible successor as we speak. One thing is for sure, LFC is their investment, a club they paid £300 million to buy only 3 short months ago. They will not let their investment continue in this state for much longer.

There are many theories about who Hodgson's potential successor may be, and indeed analyses of those candidates (such as these excellent pieces by Level 3's Roy Henderson on former Hoffenheim coach Ralf Rangnick, and current Mallorca manager Michael Laudrup). The fact is, at the moment nobody knows for sure who FSG have lined up to succeed Hodgson, all we can do is put our trust in them to make the right decision. Here's hoping our trust is rewarded.