Liverpool icon Jamie Carragher recollects conflict with Roy Hodgson on Merseyside
The current form of Liverpool will not bother the old fans in the slightest. As Pudlians, the older section of fans have seen much worse from the Reds. Most of this could stand attributed to Roy Hodgson’s time as Liverpool’s manager.
In 31 matches as Liverpool manager, Hodgson won 13, drew eight and lost ten games. The most notable of those losses, came against Blackburn Rovers wherein the Reds lost 3-1. That match is notoriously famous for Steven Gerrard’s howler of a penalty which all but assured the former England manager’s Anfield exit.
There have not been plenty of pleasant times for the Reds with Roy at the helm, and Jamie Carragher is of the same opinion. Moreover, he recalled a particular incident with Hodgson and added that the Englishman was the only manager he ever saw ‘lose’ the Anfield dressing room.
Speaking to The Diary of a CEO podcast via Youtube, here is what Carra had to say about Hodgson being the only manager during the Scouser’s time at Liverpool to ‘lose the dressing room’ and spoke about a confrontation in his office:
“I probably felt that when Roy Hodgson was there [that he’d lost the dressing room]. I don’t think many players were enjoying the training or having him,”
“We lost at home to Blackpool under Roy Hodgson and I think it was an international break and I’d stopped playing for England by then, and I couldn’t sleep. I went in the next morning and I went straight into his office.
“He was talking about what he wanted to do for the next game and I was saying ‘you can’t do that.’ That wasn’t me questioning him as a manager, I wanted to help him. It wasn’t that he needed help as a manager, he needed help as a Liverpool manager, as such. It was almost like, ‘if you come out and say that or if you play this player, you can’t do that anymore, this has to stop.”
Roy’s long gone from Liverpool now
There are plenty of conversations about Stevie’s penalty against Blackburn and whether he did not try and hit on target to see Hodgson take the back door. However, that being said, post that era, the club has grown to new heights and the current lot of fans will have absolutely no clue about the atrocities the club had to face back in the day.
Imagine running into a Manchester United fan every second day of the week and having nothing to say because your team lost to Blackpool at home in their first season in the Premier League and that too at a time when the Mancs were dominating English football.
Fast forward to ten seasons later, the Reds are at the top of the English football tree. Roy’s also taken retirement from managing football clubs, and ironically, his last game as a manager came against Jurgen Klopp’s Reds at Anfield.
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Liverpool are more than blessed to have someone like Jurgen Klopp now, who is an elite manager with an appetite for winning. Surely, we have to appreciate the good times as long as they may last.