Reds Rail Roy

I think whenever there is a change of ownership at a football club, it is fairly inevitable that the incumbent manager will be staring down the barrel from the off. Evidence in point being the dismissal of ‘Big’ Sam Allardyce by the magnificent Venky’s group (this is one sacking I have no problems with. Venky’s are not only a dodgy, Monty Python-esque purveyor of Indian poultry, they are also now the newest member of the group of owners who managed to get rid of Allardyce from Match of the Day, for a while at least; the man is like thrush).

NESV, the owners of Liverpool, have followed my hypothesis by recently sacking Uncle Roy Hodgson. On the face of it, he did probably have it coming a bit due to the sheer mediocrity of Liverpool’s play this year.

But I believe that if I was running a football team I would consider at least these two other key criteria before I dismissed my manager. Poor results are all well and bad, but a change of face in the dugout will make no difference unless the bigger picture is clear.

Firstly, I would want to establish whether the manager has failed his squad, by dragging them down or selling key players or simply not ‘managing’ them well enough. In many cases, and in particular the case of Liverpool, the inverse has been true. The Reds’ big names have failed utterly to show up to the party. Torres, Gerrard and even the normally impeccable Reina have been found wanting in nearly every match. I am pretty certain that there has not been a single game this season in which more than one of these three key men have been anywhere near the top of their game.

There is a fine balance to be had here between contributing factors. Are the players not performing for the manager? Whose fault is that; theirs, his or both? Have there been injuries? And so on and so forth.

Simply put, the players in the current Liverpool squad have demonstrated over the past few seasons that they have more than enough talent to finish higher than the bottom half of the table. And Roy Hodgson, in his previous job at Fulham, has demonstrated likewise. All these things do not change over the course of a few months; that is not how football works. Both parties must have let their standards slip.

Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that Hodgson has to front at least part of the blame for Liverpool’s abject showing thus far. It is, though, also reasonable to believe that partial, unspecific blame is hardly enough to warrant such a drastic move as a firing, and the inevitable culture shock that comes in its aftermath. Certainly, you couldn’t sack the line manager of a chronically underperforming paperclip factory because they stole the occasional box of paperclips; somewhere along the line two and two would not add up.

The second criteria I would apply would be ‘never trade down’. Simply put, there is no reason to get rid of somebody if you do not have a replacement of at least equal quality waiting in the wings. For the record, Kenny Dalgleish does not qualify (not that I think he’s a realistic candidate for the full time job in the slightest).

We can only wait and see if NESV and John W. Henry fulfil this second criteria in the weeks to come. But I am pretty certain they will not, certainly if talks of Owen Coyle being lined up are confirmed.

Liverpool were not going to be relegated this year, nor were they going into the Champions League. Surely, then, it makes better sense to keep Hodgson until the end of the season, allowing you more time to properly evaluate his performance and compare it to the performances of his players (who, incidentally, have received a ‘get out of jail free’ pass for their bad play in the current scenario, as is too often the case) and line up a suitable replacement?

GM