In relation to his brief tenure at Liverpool, Roy Hodgson has admitted what Jamie Carragher called the manager’s ‘big mistake.’
Throughout Hodgson’s six months as manager at Anfield, he committed numerous mistakes, as did those in positions above him.
On the field, Liverpool only had 13 wins in his 31 games as manager, with nine defeats.
Hodgson has now revealed what Carragher, his center back, has since said about his time in Merseyside.
Speaking on The Overlap, Hodgson said: “I think probably the most pertinent thing, and I wasn’t really aware of it at the time, but Jamie Carragher said: ‘You know what your big mistake was?’
“I said: ‘No, go on. Tell me.’
“‘We’ve been coached,’ he said.
“‘We’ve had [Rafael] Benitez for two and a half years, and the coaching and messages have been fairly rigid.”
Jamie [Carragher] thought that was cool. In no way was it a criticism, but he said: “You’d come in and you’d done the same thing.”
He remarked, “You would have been better off choosing a different strategy.”
When Hodgson joined Liverpool, he largely continued the strategies that had been successful at his previous team, Fulham.
Looking back, he wishes he had taken a slightly different course of action.
Hodgson continued, “They [the Liverpool players] probably wanted more freedom, more training sessions where they weren’t required to constantly focus and take in information.
“Maybe they wanted a few practices where there was more play and the coaching was subtler.
“I believe that if I were to reflect on the coaching sessions we conducted there, I wouldn’t do that again.
“Since then, I’ve tried to find a way to convey the same ideas while adhering to the same philosophy, albeit perhaps in a slightly different way.
“But once more, it’s hindsight wisdom. Making the right choice in retrospect is almost always very simple.”
No matter how much hindsight he has, the ex-England boss can’t turn the clock back, and never exhibited any of the qualities needed to be a successful Liverpool manager.
Neither will his time at Liverpool gradually acquire a more favorable hue.
