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da bwin： As October approaches, Liverpool have just won Premier League to their name; a 1-0 victory over West Brom at Anfield in which they were far from dominating in. Admittedly, their fixtures have included Arsenal, Man Utd and Man City, as well as a trip to the miserly St Andrews, and as a result Roy Hodgson has struggled to get any momentum going with a new group of players. Liverpool fans will have far lower expectations than of previous years, but for a club with the prestige that Liverpool possess, those expectations will always remain higher than most.
There is still a vast amount of the Anfield faithful that remember an era when winning trophies was merely a formality. For those fans in particular, it must be difficult to see their team going through such a torrid time on and off the pitch. The sale of the club is an issue that has rumbled on for far too long, and still looks to be no closer to resolution. Without a new buyer, the club remains in financial and political limbo as the team struggles to find its feet.
Roy Hodgson was always going to be given time. The lowly league finish last season means that for this term, anything above will be seen as progress. The fans will be wary of the moves that Man City have made in the transfer market, despite managing to keep hold of their own prized assets, as well as the squad that Harry Redknapp has assembled at White Hart Lane. Within the space of a year Liverpool have gone from having three main rivals for the league, to having five rivals who are all performing better than them; they are now so far beyond what Man Utd and Chelsea are capable of.
It becomes difficult to fathom what supporters will deem as acceptable this season. Rafa Benitez was much maligned by the time his tenure on Merseyside was up – I personally believe that despite some faults, he was, and still is, a manager of really high quality and for the Champions League exploits alone, deserves a huge amount of credit. Sixth or above in the league will be a good first season for Hodgson, and a fair reflection of the squad assembled at the club. The Europa League, in my opinion, is a different matter. Liverpool are one of the best teams in the competition; while there is a serious Iberian threat to their chances (Atletico Madrid in particular), there will be no teams they do not believe they can beat.
Hodgson’s arrival was seen as the beginning of a new dawn, a chance to start afresh. But in reality, no supposed new era can begin without the issues in the boardroom being resolved. In Hodgson, the club have a tactically astute manager with vast, extensive experience, but who has his hands tied behind his back in terms of the scope he is given to work in, as well as the stability of his employers.
Liverpool fans are not naïve enough to believe that they should be winning leagues in the way that they used to twenty years ago, or how Man Utd have done since, but they will still want more than they are currently getting. The American owners have seemingly bitten off more than they can chew, and perhaps underestimated just what the club means to people. Hodgson will be given time, but over the next two to three years, Liverpool will need to be re-affirm their status in the old ‘Big Four’, they are too big not to be there for more than that period of time.
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