‘Liverpool players were too good for Hodgson’s tactics’

Glen Johnson played under four managers at Liverpool, but there can be little doubt that Roy Hodgson endured the most disastrous spell at Anfield.

Having led Fulham to the Europa League final in 2010, Hodgson was appointed to replace Rafa Benitez in a decision that raised eyebrows on Merseyside.

A string of disastrous signings followed – Joe Cole, Milan Jovanovic and Paul Konchesky to name but three – and Liverpool found themselves plunged into an unexpected relegation battle.

Hodgson was eventually relieved of his duties in January 2011, and Johnson believes the players possessed too much quality to thrive under Hodgson’s prosaic tactics.

“I think it’s a bit tough to adapt,” the former England defender said in an extensive chat with AceOdds.com when asked what went wrong for Hodgson at Anfield.

“When Roy come to Liverpool, we had a lot of top, top players and I think Roy’s philosophy was what worked with him, with no disrespect to Fulham and Palace, you’re working with different style of players and players with different talent.

“So I think you try to use the same way of getting those guys to improve with all of a sudden some of the best players in the world and it just doesn’t work.

“And not just that, it’s also the club were in a difficult situation with ownership and we sold arguably two of our best players [Javier Mascherano and Fernando Torres] and never replaced them.

“Or replaced them with players that weren’t good enough. So all of a sudden, the team and the club quickly declined.

“And that’s what happens if top teams sell their best players and don’t replace them. You’re up against it. And then, like I say, I think the way Roy wanted us to play, the players were too good to do that and the players found it hard to adapt.”

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READ: Where are they now? Roy Hodgson’s eight signings as Liverpool manager

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Johnson had moved to Liverpool the previous summer, with Benitez spending £18million to lure the right-back from Portsmouth.

Both Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard had a reputation for ruthlessly testing new signings in their initial training sessions, but Johnson believed his pre-existing relationship with the Liverpool legends spared him the worst of the treatment.

“To be fair, they was brilliant with me,” he said. “I had a bit of a relationship with him, obviously, before I signed with the England days and obviously playing against them for years and things…