The poor decisions at board room are affecting us.

The poor decisions at board room are affecting us.
A fish rots from his head.

I am finding it very hard to warm up to Roy Hodgson, and looking around me a lot of Liverpool fans feel the same way. It has been a dissapointing start to the league season . From the corresponding fixtures last season we had 8 points compared to this season's 6 points. People will do well to keep in mind that Roy had won just one away game last season.

Fingers should not be pointed to Roy Hodgson alone, but more towards the Board for sacking Rafa Benitez. For all his flaws, he alwayskept Liverpool in contention. Made Liverpool the no.1 team in Europe and competitive domestically. With the boardroom drama most Liverpool fans did not expect to win the league , but he got them 2nd Place running Manchester United very close in the process. Following season Benitez should have been backed in the transfer market. Liverpool were looking for the final push which will ultimately win them no.19 which the fans crave for. Instead Liverpool replaced 3 influential players with 3 new players.
Their were no additions made to the squad. The debt was crippling the whole club. The rest as they say is history. Liverpool went out in the group stages of the Champions League, a tournament that they had done brilliantly in the past, and finished a very disappointing 7th in the league. The manager was not without blame.

The signings of Aquilani, Johnson had not worked as planned and their were questionable tactics employed at times. But was it reason enough to sack the manager?
It would have been if we had an ambitious board that saw 7th place as a complete failure. A board that wanted nothing but good football to be played and wanted Liverpool to win trophies. But Liverpool don't have that. What they have is a board that does not represent Liverpool FC.

A chairman that is a Chelsea season ticket holder, and a investment banker who claims to be a fan of the club but has a thing for playing football manager. (He spoke to Van Der Vaart's agent without the consent of the manager). Then you have the 2 hated figures in Gillet and Hicks. No wonder the fans feel alienated
from the club.

Benitez did not have a board that understood LFC or understood football. They started believing the media claims, who were out to sell stories, that Rafa Benitez was not the man to lead Liverpool. The media continuously maligned the Liverpool manager. Zonal marking, rotation, the lack of understanding of the English game
were things that were used against Benitez. They needed to make a quick buck, and stories on Liverpool sell. The sad thing is that the board bought all the bull****e, and went ahead and sacked the manager. Many Liverpool fans did not like the decision who they considered as one of their own.The Anfield faithful had warmed up to him in a way they'd probably never do with Hodgson. He was a humble man, who loved the club, who did his best to get results, and made a team which was feared across Europe.

It was the best times for a Liverpool fan, who did not see the hay days of 70s and 80s. Liverpool were the no.1 team in Europe for a short while. The supporters and players feared no one in Europe. Their was a feeling that on a good day, Liverpool can thrash anyone. Scoring 4 goals against teams like United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Madrid was not the exception but the norm. When it used to click, the Liverpool machine was hard to stop. The fans recognized that,and at times it genuinely felt that Liverpool were 2-3 players short of dominating world football again. In a way Benitez was a victim of the name Liverpool Football Club.

.The press and the people expect Liverpool to win major honours just because of who they are. While in reality Benitez had a net spend on 16 million per season, and with that kind of resource, he did a fairly decent job. Many people accused Liverpool fans of trusting him blindly, but the man had earned that trust.
Wtih nights like Istanbul , Cardiff ,Old Trafford , Bernabau, Nou Camp, San Siro and Stamford Bridge.

They went and Hired Roy Hodgson, who has immediately came out and said that expectations need to be lowered. I don't think many Liverpool supporters had much ambition to start with this season, but in a funny way a 4th place would be considered as an amazing season , while last season the failure to achieve that resulted in the
manager getting the sack. A manager that had a proven record in getting Liverpool to the top 4 spot. Liverpool had turned into Newcastle and it was pretty much the final nail in the coffin of ' The Liverpool way'. The play so far has been uninspiring, with teams like Sunderland, Birmingham and Northampton Town dominating
Liverpool for vast periods of play. The loss of Mascherano has been hard to take, and the new signing Poulsen has been so bad that even the ardent Lucas hater would much rather have Lucas starting before him.

Maybe things will pick up soon, maybe the team will 'adapt' to Hodgson's style of play, but so far it looks like
the honest Englishman cannot inspire the players. Roy's a good man, but he has alienated the Liverpool supporters. His remark on the protest as an 'unecassary distraction' did not go down to well. His constant bigging up the opposition is another pet hate of most LFC fans.

The likes of Agger, who is perhaps the best CB in the club not getting a look in before the ageing Carragher or the hard working but less talented Skrtel is an indication to the way Roy wants to play from the back. The defence plays far too deep, just like any Roy's side and it is hurting Liverpool.

I would like to think he will turn it around, but the head says otherwise at the moment. Liverpool have not dominated a single game so far this season.

In a funny way, Rafa Benitez, the current manager of European champions Inter Milan, has nothing to win in his current job. It is Mourinho's team, the only way he can ever shut up his critics is to comeback and win the premier league. Maybe their is a date with destiny.

In the short term though, if results don't improve, its time for another Liverpool legend to step in... Kenny Dalglish.

Gaurav

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