Uncle Roy Is Doing Battle With The Past, Present And Future

Eighteen months ago, Rafa Benitez’s Liverpool side were sitting pretty at the top of the Premier League tree, glittering and happy like a novelty Christmas fairy, apparently set to mount their first serious title charge in years. The preceding decade or so had spawned a couple of near misses under Roy Evans and Gerard Houllier, but it seemed different this time – there was consistency, some stirring individual performances, they were leading from the front and Harry Kewell was long gone. What could possibly go wrong? Well as we know, Señor Benitez subsequently tried to out-mind game the mind game master and things sort of fell apart from there on in. Still, even with a 7^th place finish costing Rafa his job in the summer, not even the resident mystics at Psychic TV could have foreseen that, come October, we’d be scrabbling for the thesaurus to express just how scandalously inept Liverpool have subsequently become.

Sunday’s gutless surrender at Goodison Park of all places heralded the first bout of sustained calls for Roy Hodgson’s head, the goodwill credit earned during his heady stretch at Fulham apparently already splurged. It’s a shame really, as Uncle Roy has always been a man out of step with managerial trends, as coaching spells in such diverse footballing backwaters as Neuchâtel, Stavanger, Örebro and Maidstone would testify to. As such, the thought of him successfully surfing the rough tide of upheaval at Liverpool is a comforting one, but one which, alas, seems ever more unlikely to materialise.

We here at Look Away Now have always been big admirers of Mr Hodgson, favouring his candidature for the England post back when Kevin Keegan was ludicrously given the gig, and felt that his disappointing spell in charge of Sunday’s opponents Blackburn (where he left them mired in the relegation zone after taking them into Europe the previous year) stood out as a mere anomaly on an otherwise spotless managerial CV. Yet examining his Premier League career in isolation makes for surprisingly dicey reading. The aforementioned highs and lows of his Blackburn tenure looked to have been offset by some genuinely wonderful over-achievement at Fulham, and yet now he finds himself coaxing mostly dire performances out of a decidedly average Liverpool team who, as each passing match concludes, leave us wondering if Benitez was actually getting far more blood than he had any right to from a particularly middling stone.

It would of course be a mistake to excuse Benitez from his share of criticism for Liverpool's current plight. During his Anfield stay he achieved some rightfully lauded (and even arguably under-appreciated) success – a first European Cup in twenty years and a further final to boot being the stand-outs, coupled with an FA Cup victory in 2006 and the aforementioned, albeit ultimately unfulfilled, tilt at the league two years ago. The problem is his legacy, the feeling that under his tutelage Anfield became too reliant on bog-standard imports at the expense of nurturing a side with at least half an eye on the future. Perfectly good players such as Craig Bellamy, Peter Crouch and Robbie Keane were jettisoned almost as soon as they joined after not adapting immediately to the quirks and peculiarities of Benitez's tactical vision. In fairness, it was a vision which, when executed correctly, worked, but for another to come in and pick up the pieces without major investment was always going to be a tough ask. Rafa's teams were dry and rigid. No wonder he's found a job in Italy.

Not to say quality players weren't brought in. Pepe Reina was recruited a rough diamond and gradually polished to a shine. Fernando Torres and Javier Mascherano’s recruitments led one to believe that the foundations of a consistently honour-challenging side were at last being laid. But never one to leave alone what ain't broke, players of enduring quality such as Xabi Alonso and John Arne Riise were inexplicably shipped in and out seemingly at random, like a desperate city banker with dollar-sign eyes frantically trading shares with anyone who’ll hold his despairing gaze. Others either never managed to justify their selection or simply trod (and in some cases continue to tread) water. A handful remain merely perplexing. Antonio Nunez anyone?

So what's next? Judging by the ever-reliable phenomena that is the Sky Sports News post-match vox pop, Kenny Dalglish should be handed the managerial reins post-haste, a move to no doubt spark some kind of mini nostalgia trip as he immediately brings in David Burrows and Steve Harkness to sure things up at the back. It remains to be seen just how much fiscal clout new owner John W Henry will bring to the club and how much time he'll give Hodgson to try and turn things around. I hope he gets Liverpool back up to speed – from a purely selfish perspective he's still a contender to replace Fabio Capello after the inevitable disappointment of Euro 2012. If it's not to be Uncle Roy, I guess there's always Big Sam. For Liverpool or England; he's not fussy.

~ Matt