“AS people who still believe Roy Hodgson is the right man for the job at Liverpool are finding out (Hello Patrick), defending the indefensible is nigh on impossible.” WELL RED

“AS people who still believe Roy Hodgson is the right man for the job at Liverpool are finding out (Hello Patrick), defending the indefensible is nigh on impossible.” Well Red

“On Monday night, in a positive move, John W Henry and Tom Werner sat down at the club’s TV station to answer questions from fans on how they plan to run the club. Despite this bold decision, it may take a while for Liverpool’s new owners to speak the same language as the club’s fans. We may share English as a mother tongue, but there are cultural differences that may lead to a few misunderstandings along the way.” Tomkins Times

“TTT subscriber Tim Godden takes a look at the misfiring Liverpool striker’s record in his first 16 games of each season since arriving at Liverpool.” Tomkins Times

Hodgson suggests 11th is “right up there”
“With Liverpool playing Utrecht at home tonight in the Europa League Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson had to sit in front of the press and answer questions. The press conference came the day after the new owners had done their live phone-in, with many callers asking why on earth Roy was still in charge at Anfield.” Anfield Road

“Andy Carroll and Joey Barton combined to hand Alan Pardew a winning start to his Newcastle reign as jeers turned to cheers at St James’ Park. The 21-year-old England international’s 10th goal of the season cemented a priceless victory for the Magpies after Scouser Barton’s 80th-minute strike had restored their lead.” ESPN

Alan Pardew’s Newcastle era begins with a gutsy win against Liverpool
“There have been almost as many fake messiahs as false dawns on Tyneside, but for a brief moment at least Newcastle fans have reason to believe that Alan Pardew may prove an unexpected answer to their woes after all. A gritty, gutsy win will not erase the mystification and misery induced by the club’s bizarre decision to sack Chris Hughton last Monday but at least it buys the latest messiah time to implement his personal blueprint for Geordie salvation.” Guardian

“It’s only fair to acknowledge that Liverpool have been playing well and moving up the league of late. After a fairly terrifying start to the campaign in almost all respects, things have settled into a more comfortable pattern. It took 16 games, but the Reds are finally into positive goal difference, the latest arrival at that point since 1964/5.” Tomkins Times

“The first instalment of our Writers series is with noted sportswriter, Paul Tomkins. Paul has authored 9 books now, including his most recent work, Pay As You Play, an inside look at the financial implications of winning in the Premiership. Paul and his collaborators created a new metric, TPI (Transfer Price Index) to evaluate the transfer performance of managers since the inception of the EPL. Applying the precision of an accountant to the at times “intuitive” nature of football transfers, Pay As You Play depicts a much more accurate picture of which managers are great at what they do and which aren’t (although they may claim otherwise!)” 12 Yards Footy

Mutual respect for mediocrity spawned this fine bromance
“We’ve all had enough pain. We’ve all had enough misery and dissembling. But the next 24 hours will bring more, although it will be disguised as a heart-warming story of friends re-united. Gerard Houllier returns to Anfield tomorrow and he will be met there by his great friend Roy Hodgson. If you had Roy Hodgson’s away record, you too would have many friends in football. Since August 2009, Hodgson has won two league matches away from home, so it is no surprise he is greeted warmly wherever he goes.” Independent

“Liverpool’s future is a subject that has dominated debate over the course of two, traumatic years. Yet while optimism about the seasons to come has been restored now that New England Sports Ventures have replaced Tom Hicks and George Gillett as the owners, Jose Reina’s appraisal of events at Anfield included a few words of warning about the club’s prospects in the short term.” (ESPN)

“When this site and a number of other Liverpool FC fan sites ran a poll to find out the thoughts of fans about the future of Roy Hodgson it wasn’t a surprise to see the ‘winner’ of the poll was ‘sack Roy immediately’. What was surprising was how few supporters felt the club should at least wait. Reasons for waiting crop up from time to time in conversation and are often well argued. Yet just 3% of supporters in the poll said no to sacking Roy on the spot.” (Anfield Road)

“It was hardly a proper test of being able to cope without Steven Gerrard but Liverpool did more than enough to dispose of a woeful West Ham at Anfield. With the captain out for a month with a hamstring tear manager Roy Hodgson called for his players to step up to fill the void and the Barclays Premier League’s bottom side provide the perfect opposition.” (ESPN)

Woeful Hammers provide no test
“Humour, cruelty and piercing honesty can go hand in hand on the terraces. The greater a club’s plight, the more illuminating the insights from the supporters can prove, and the more absurd their flights of fancy can become. If it tends to be worth watching the side at the top of the league, it’s instructive to listen to the fans at the foot of the division.” (ESPN)

Liverpool 3-0 West Ham United – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats – EPL
(The 90th Minute)

“Liverpool Football Club have new owners; they inherited a manager who has overseen an extremely poor start to the season. Many players are understood to be unhappy with Roy Hodgson or with his tactics and coaching methods.” Anfield Road

“It’s never a good time of year in England, is it? British Summer Time is at an end and with it goes daylight beyond 5pm at night. Seasonal Adjustment Disorder (SAD, aka Seasonal Affective Disorder) is very real: sunlight makes us feel more optimistic. Right now I – like a lot of others – am suffering with HAD: Hodgson Adjustment Disorder. We’re not adjusting at all well to him and his methods, and he’s not adjusting at all well to Liverpool and its demands and expectations.” (Tomkins Times)

“A third of the Premier League season, and not even a third of games won. That’s how bad it’s been. As noted here, Liverpool won just three of the first 10 league matches, and in the next three, it’s been only one win. There’s a pattern present. Roy Hodgson sees the Stoke result as a ‘blip’, but when you’ve failed to win nine of 13 games, the blip appears to be the victories. Maybe he’s spent too long as a big fish in a small pond. His own words tend to prove the theory.” (Tomkins Times)

“Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson was disappointed to hear fans chanting for former boss Kenny Dalglish during Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to Stoke and said such singing is unhelpful to the club.” (ESPN)

Hodgson: Putting the Gaffe in Gaffer.
“A few weeks back, someone emailed me a list of Roy Hodgson’s PR gaffes, to put onto this site. I decided against using them, thinking it might be seen as unfair, but they do paint the picture of a man who underestimated the pressure at Liverpool FC, and who has looked hopelessly out of his depth.” (Tomkins Times)

Stoke City 2-0 Liverpool – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats – EPL
(The 90th Minute)

“Had Steven Gerrard‘s shot that hit the crossbar bounced down and in to give Liverpool the three points against Wigan, Roy Hodgson’s side would have moved up to fifth in the league – just three points behind Man City in fourth. However, had Liverpool won this game it would have been a huge case of papering over the, rather large, cracks in their performance and manager’s tactics. Not to mention a huge injustice for a Wigan side who outplayed their more illustrious opponents for 70 minutes.” (This is Anfield)

What the hell is Moneyball?
“I’ve seen many reference to ‘Moneyball’ since John W. Henry prised Liverpool F.C. from the cold, obnoxious palms of Tom Hicks and George Gillette last month, but what does it mean? And, given that it’s a baseball thing, can it be applied to football?” (The Long Ball Tactic)

Wigan Athletic 1-1 Liverpool – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats – EPL
(The 90th Minute)

“This week sees the long-anticpated (by at least three people) release of ‘Pay As You Play: The True Price of Success in the Premier League Era‘. The Transfer Price Index website is now fully live, and includes extracts and links to order the book. It will also feature new articles based on the TPI work used in Pay As You Play.” (Tomkins Times)

Ten out of 20 Ain’t Bad.
“Now that the Reds have got some kind of foothold under Roy Hodgson, unless results take a disastrous turn for the worst, the 20 game mark appears to be the fairest time to draw further conclusions. (And as such, I’m not going to say too much until then, for fear of repeating myself; I will of course continue to interact with subscribers of this website and write about Liverpool FC, but not analyse every last performance in a make-or-break fashion.)” (Tomkins Times)

Damien Comolli at Spurs: A TPI Case Study
“2nd November 2010. Tottenham beat the European champions Internazionale 3-1 at White Hart Lane with a scintillating display of attacking football. Exactly two years earlier they were rock bottom of the Premier League after 11 games (and 17 points behind Liverpool). Tottenham’s manager in that period has been Harry Redknapp and he has done a fine job, albeit with a lot of the components already in place.” (Pay As You Play)

“Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard came to his side’s aid once again as his late hat-trick inspired the side to a 3-1 Europa League victory against Napoli which highlighted the gulf in class within the squad. The Reds were deservedly behind to Ezequiel Lavezzi’s goal after a dire first-half performance but the England midfielder’s introduction at the interval changed the dynamic.” (ESPN)

Liverpool 3-1 Napoli – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats – Europa League
(The 90th Minute)

“Much like Rafael Benitez’s time as Liverpool manager the arrival of Damien Comolli at Anfield as the club’s director of football strategy is likely to divide opinion both with fans and pundits – good or bad, genius or idiot?” (BBC)

“There was pressing. There was a higher defensive line. There was no Poulsen to slow the game down. Meireles was not marooned on the wing. The game was taken to the opposition. There was passing and movement, playing to the strengths of the players. It was what so many of us have been calling for. Play like that in six of the next eight games, and Roy Hodgson might find the criticism from fans (myself included) dissipating. So that’s my promise: more of this, on a consistent basis, and all can still be forgiven.” (Tomkins Times)

“Striker Fernando Torres ended his six-match goal drought with the winner against Blackburn to provide a much-needed boost at Anfield. Goalkeeper Paul Robinson had kept the Reds at bay until Sotirios Kyrgiakos’ 48th-minute header and although a Jamie Carragher own goal quickly levelled things up Torres struck only his second of the season soon after.” (ESPN)

My Promise To Roy
“There was pressing. There was a higher defensive line. There was no Poulson to slow the game down. Meireles was not marooned on the wing. The game was taken to the opposition. There was passing and movement, playing to the strengths of the players. It was what so many of us have been calling for. Play like that in six of the next eight games, and Roy Hodgson might find the criticism from fans (myself included) dissipating. So that’s my promise: more of this, on a consistent basis, and all can still be forgiven.” (Tomkins Times)

Liverpool 2-1 Blackburn Rovers – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats – EPL
(The 90th Minute)

“It was no surprise that Liverpool lost the 214th Merseyside derby given their woeful start to the season. No Liverpool fan, not even the most pessimistic of follower, would have fathomed such baffling results and such perturbing performances on the field given the strength of their squad at the start of the season. With some trading-up and trading-down from both Rafael Benitez and Roy Hodgson over the past couple of seasons, the majority of the Liverpool team still remain from the title challenging season of 2008-09. Crippled by the Hick’s and Gillett’s unwillingness to service the promises they provided when they took over the club, Liverpool stumbled around the Premier League last season, like a common drunk who is just about on their last legs before slumping face first into the bar.” (Talking About Football)

Napoli 0-0 Liverpool: the home side not brave enough when going forward“A fairly uneventful 0-0 at the Stadio San Paolo. Napoli played broadly their usual system, although here it frequently looked like a 3-4-3 rather than a 3-4-1-2 or a 3-4-2-1, as has been more accurate in recent games. Michele Pazienza and Walter Gargano started in midfield, whilst Hugo Campagnaro was in on the right side of defence, with Salvatore Aronica on the other side.” (Zonal Marking)

Napoli 0-0 Liverpool – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats
(The 90th Minute)

“We have all been there. Whether it is a way to pass time in school or a pub debate, we have created an all-star football eleven. Variations within the definition of the team can range from the best players you have seen in person to the best eleven to have played in your lifetime. I’m sure you’ve done it.” (Micro LFC)

“In ‘Pay As You Play: The True Price of Success in the Premier League Era’, one of the forms of assessment we use to judge the performance of a manager and his team is ‘cost per point’. That way, if you have a relatively low budget, and you don’t get lots of points, it’s still possible that you did a good job. In other words, you are judged by your resources, and compared against others with similar resources. If you were to get relegated with a team that cost pennies, but still won 30 points, you did well.” (Tomkins Times)

“As the week has worn on, the situation concerning the ownership of Liverpool Football Club has descended into chaos. With each passing day, the tug of war for the ownership of the club has passed through low comedy, drama and bathos to the point that has started to feel exhausting. There is too much information. There are too many conflicting opinions. And with this exhaustion comes a feeling of profound depression and the feeling that, for all that we could have told the world – indeed, have tried to tell the world for several years – that it was always likely to end up like this, this situation has spiralled out of all control. If football supporters in England hadn’t had the extent to which their game has been taken away from them spelled out in plain enough language over the last twenty years or so, they surely have over the last week or so.” (twohundredpercent)

English Premier League, Week 8 Preview: EPL Talk Podcast
“Did you miss us? Kartik Krisnaiyer, Laurence McKenna and I missed yo during out near-two week break, with the EPL Talk podcast going silent during the international break. With players returning to their clubs, the show is back to look ahead to the eighth match day in the English Premier League. There is, however, this small news story to discuss first, with Liverpool on the verge of being sold to a different set of American owners. For the first half of the show, we talk about the slow and merciless end to the Tom Hicks, George Gillett era at Anfield.” (EPL Talk)

“7.36pm: Jon Saraceno of USA Today has been on Sky Sports News, and he says the concern for sports fans in the US will be whether John W Henry’s use of funds at Liverpool will have implications for the Boston Red Sox. However, Saraceno said, Henry is a shrewd businessman and there should be no prospect of that happening.” (Guardian)

Martin Broughton comes out roaring after quiet man saves Liverpool
“Throughout the grim course since the 1990s of English football clubs being bought by ‘owners’ for personal enrichment, contrary to the game’s time-honoured tradition that directors should be “custodians”, none have been served with the wallop meted out today to Tom Hicks and George Gillett.” (Guardian)

Liverpool sale: Fans have new heroes after victory in the high court
“Liverpool is littered with heroes and this morning, a few minutes after 11 o’clock, their supporters greeted some more. As Martin Broughton, the club’s chairman, stepped out of Court 18 of the Royal Courts of Justice, followed by his fellow directors Christian Purslow and Ian Ayre, and the trio’s legal team, they were met by roars of approval from waiting men carrying Liverpool scarves and shirts emblazoned with Liverbirds. It was a curious sight but a wholly appropriate one given the momentous victory that had just been achieved.” (Guardian)

“12.42pm: The secondary offer that H&G’s representatives refer to is from Mill Financial. The offer includes repaying all debts and putting £100m towards the new stadium. Mill Financial took over some of Gillett’s stake. Mill Financial were meant to meet Broughton last Thursday to discuss a possible takeover but it was cancelled. Hicks and Gillett’s representative wants to know why this meeting was cancelled. Mill Financial remain interested in buying Liverpool.” (Guardian)

“Royal Bank of Scotland has secured an injunction preventing Tom Hicks and George Gillett from removing independent chairman Martin Broughton or any other Liverpool board members ahead of Tuesday’s court case.” (ESPN)

“Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina claims that all he and the other players can do is focus on football to stop the takeover ‘chaos’ at the club distracting them from their ambitions this season. Reina has been vocal about the state of the club in the past but, after signing a new long-term deal this summer, he now finds himself waiting for New England Sport Ventures (NESV) bid of £300 million to be ratified by the High Court after a dispute with current owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett.” (ESPN)

Tom Hicks, George Gillett
“The day started with a co-ordinated attempt to saturate the American media with a video decrying the behaviour of the – for the time being – owners of their club, but it has ended with something even more extraordinary with a statement of near-unprecedented bluntness on the official club website which seems to indicate a state of near civil war at boardroom level. Welcome to the world of Liverpool Football Club in October 2010. As long time observers will be aware, October the 15th is said to be the deadline for George Gillett and Tom Hicks to secure the funding to complete their takeover of the club, in the face of increasingly militant objections from supporters’ groups but, with only a week and a half left before the bank can step in and take control of the club, hopes of a clear resolution to the issue of the future of the club are being clouded by a situation that is rapidly starting to resemble chaos.” (twohundredpercent)

Liverpool civil war erupts as owners reject two buyers
“The simmering war in the Liverpool boardroom between the American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, and the three other directors, broke dramatically into the open last night after Hicks and Gillett turned down two bids, described as ‘credible’, to buy the club and attempted to remove two directors from the board.” (Guardian)

Boardroom blitz; and mutual hate
“1970s British glam rockers The Sweet are still doing the rounds but no one pays much attention to them any more even though their lead guitarist moonlights as manager of Brentford FC. The Fiver, however, found itself humming the melody to their catchiest hit last night as it followed the bloody hi-jinks at Anfield, which can only be described as a Boardroom Blitz. Oh yeah it was electric, so frightfully hectic, and the Americans started leaving, because their fellow directors stopped believing. Boardroom blitz (de-dum-dum-dum). Boardroom blitz (de-dum-dum-dum). Boardroom blitz (de-dum-dum-dum).” (The Fiver)

Liverpool FC’s celebrity fans protest against owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett
“Liverpool fans in the entertainment industry offer their support to the campaign to oust the club’s current owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett” (Guardian)

“It has now gone far enough to stop even being amusing to the neutral. Supporters of Manchester United and Everton may seek to disagree, but there was something sombre about Liverpool’s home defeat at the hands of Blackpool this afternoon. We are some way from reading the last rites of the club, but there is something in the air at Anfield. That familiar stench of dry rot hangs over the club this evening. The spirit of Liverpool Football Club feels broken. With each passing week, the feeling that this is but a mere blip has receded further and further into the distance and the dread reality for Liverpool supporters, that a season of having to fight the unthinkable fight – the fight to hold onto the club’s place in the Premier League itself – might be looming on the horizon.” (twohundredpercent)

Hodgson under pressure as Liverpool fans turn
“Just weeks after hailing Roy Hodgson’s arrival as Liverpool manager and predicting a return to glory, fans have turned on the veteran coach and started chanting the name of the man who once led them to domination of the English game.” (Yahoo)

“Liverpool’s much-publicised issues off the pitch have been eclipsed by their problems on it as the side slumped to an embarrassing 2-1 defeat at home to Premier League newcomers Blackpool. Thousands of fans staged a pre-match protest march against the continuing ownership of Tom Hicks and George Gillett but there was a real danger of revolt inside Anfield at the final whistle.” (ESPN)

Pressure mounts on Roy Hodgson as Liverpool lose to Blackpool
“Fourteen games as Liverpool manager and the Kop has returned its verdict on Roy Hodgson. It was 11 minutes before five o’clock, Blackpool were seconds from a thoroughly merited win that cemented the Anfield club’s position in the bottom three and then it started: ‘Dalglish. Dalglish, Dalglish!’ came the chant. On current form it will not be the ownership that changes hands in mid-October but a manager who is looking increasingly out of his depth.” (Guardian)

“As one of the most liked and respected managers in English football, Roy Hodgson would probably have expected a little more time to settle in after deservedly taking his seat at the highest profile job of his career. As it is, his Liverpool side welcome Blackpool to Anfield today in dire need of a result, and with less confidence in achieving it than might ever have been anticipated. It wasn’t supposed to be this way, of course. Hodgson arrived as the reliable, steady hand to settle things after the turbulent final year of Rafa Benítez’s reign.” (WSC)