This explains a lot.
Roy Hodgson’s brief spell on Merseyside isn’t fondly remembered by Liverpool fans.
The former England coach wasn’t a popular choice with fans when he appointed in the summer of 2010. The football was dour, his selection choices were muddled and he did little to enamour himself to the Reds’ faithful. Liverpool struggled in the league and lost to minnows Northampton Town in the League Cup.
Hodgson was gone by January.
In essence, his time at Liverpool was a microcosm of his four years as England manager.
There were reports of England players being dissatisfied with Hodgson’s training methods at Euro 2016, and Daniel Agger has offered some insight into his training sessions while at Liverpool.
The training ground routine Hodgson used in an attempt to boost Fernando Torres’ confidence sounds particularly bizarre.
It also perhaps best explains why Hodgson was destined to fail at Anfield, why the players didn’t like working under him, and why Torres never did get his mojo back.
In a must-read interview with The Guardian, Agger reveals his dissatisfaction on working under Hodgson:
“I completely lost my desire to come to work because his training sessions were really hard to get through. Not physically but mentally. It was the same and the same and the same. Day in and day out.”
And reveals the bizarre eight-on-one attack v defence drill Hodgson used, that seemingly benefited none of the participants.
“Often we had eight forwards playing against me and Martin Skrtel [apparently to let Fernando Torres score to regain his confidence].
!Skrtel and I had a really hard training session as we were defending against eight with two but the eight players attacking were just faffing around. They had hardly run a kilometre and it was so uninspiring.”
