Source: Liverpool_Echo
Liverpool FC fans' forum
NOTHING has changed at Anfield, despite replacing Benitez with Hodgson. It's the same timid, half-hearted and punchless performances, despite adding five new players to the squad.[LNB]A big worry is the state of Torres, who looked distinctly disinterested at Birmingham - his body language clearly says "I am fed up with being here".[LNB]Lucas and Poulsen are not Liverpool first team standard and at best should be bit-part players - they are planets away from the Alonso-Mascherano duo; let's hope that Meireles is a winner and that we can pair him with Gerrard in the middle.[LNB]Up front, Maxi and Jovanovic are just not good enough, and if Hodgson is giving Babel until January to prove himself, then he needs to start playing him because he is better than the two players mentioned.[LNB] As for Torres, perhaps a heart-to-heart is needed, because if he is fed up of Anfield then we should get the £50 million for him and buy a class replacement, or even two. [LNB]If the Spaniard wants to play for us he needs to try harder on the pitch![LNB]It's alright Reina and Echo writer Domonic King asking for patience, but we have been patient for 20 seasons now![LNB]Len Griffiths, Prenton[LNB]UPON hearing the team news for the Birmingham match and watching how they lined-up, I thought Roy Hodgson had studied the Rafa Benitez way in how to appear to be attack-minded, while avoiding defeat and claiming a point.[LNB]That idea faded when, conspicuously, it was only Reina who was actually keeping us in the game.[LNB]Besides riding our luck, the only difference between the Liverpool effort of last season (which bagged a point at St Andrews) and Sunday's effort of Hodgson's side was the second-half substitution which dropped Gerrard back and kept Torres on the pitch - with one eye on bagging all three points.[LNB]For much of last season, our captain was too often peripheral - just behind Torres (or Ngog) - with his back to our opponents' goal watching the game pass him by. Ditto last Sunday.[LNB]And when Gerrard's not in the game, who is there to supply the ball to a frustrated Torres?[LNB]With the arrival of Meireles and Cole back in contention, I'm expecting Hodgson to keep Gerrard in the centre - where the England manager has belatedly discovered his true worth - and our Brazilian international for a league he is perhaps more suited to - the Europa.[LNB]Or better still, the 'keeping the bench warm' league.[LNB]D Frederick, Garston
