I feel for Hodgson.

He did really well at Fulham but couldn't resist the gold painted turd that was left behind after years of carefully nurtured destruction at Anfield.

Man U were guilty last night for not putting more urgency into scoring a second goal and then the farcical Birmingham goal would have become academic, nontheless they must now be laughing their socks off to find themselves in the position they are, going into the New Year!........unbeaten so far and with subsiding injury problems the team is starting to gel and the away wins aren't far off.

Chelsea won tonight, but only just and look so vulnerable, while Arsenal have to blame themselves for their team selection. Man C find themselves where they are by default rather than by virtue of their own skills. As for Liverpool, what a shame to see this great club going from bad to worse as a result of so many factors over the last 18 months......right now Blackpool look more likely to finish in the top 10 that Liverpool.

A strange Premiership season so far............ but of much more interest

I wouldn't worry. Another one is likely to be on offer shortly after he is axed at Liverpool. This seems to be the way football management works. Perhaps the rumours about the 'Spanish Waiter' returning to Liverpool weren't so farcical after all.

As a WHU fan what has happened is that the bottom of the table has tightened up again after this weeks results.  Shame for me that Wolves won, but how can Liverpool play so bad?

I reckon 'Big' Sam's in the frame for the car thieves' job. After all, he said he could manage Real Madrid and you can't say fairer than that.

The soon-to-be appointed Liverpool manager is keen to take up his post.

If Liverpool are to sack Roy, they could make things interesting (if they are not feeling ambitious) and appoint SAF's son Darren who has just been sacked by Preston.

Agree with everything you have said.

Hodgson's position is untenable now.

The only question is I want to know the Anfield board are considering is, do Liverpool write off the season and just spend the next couple of months finding the right bloke to bring in at the end of the season and give him money to spend in the summer, whilst Hodgson keeps the team ticking over? Or fire Hodgson soon, handing the reigns to a caretaker until summer, at which point they'll implement the above?

I guess the issue of whether the dressing room is totally lost, bringing the real potential for relegation, or not will help provide an answer.

What Liverpool really don't want to be thinking is either give Hodgson transfer cash in January; or panic-recruit a permanent new boss now.

We've had 3 out of the last 4 managers who've spent a hell of a lot of money on not improving the position of Liverpool from their now perennial also-ran status (the other manager, Evans, failed whilst spent relatively less). The club needs a top quality manager, proven in identifying quality players and getting the best out of the players he has.

Jose Mourinho obviously isn't available. But hey, two titans of the game currently are. Step forward 'Big' Sam and Brian Laws.

Phil Orange.........he's the man for the big job

Good points Saint.

This is a crisis for Liverpool, viewed from afar, and I don't see any short term fixes being appropriate. Take out Gerrard and Torres (when playing at their best) and the lack of quality is there for all to see. The youth policy isn't really unearthing any serious quality just now, it seems.

Take it from someone whose club has been far lower than yours is ever likely to be - a long term approach is the right one. One of our major problems was not recognising that we were approaching the abyss. We carried on regardless, patching things up until it all fell apart. You don't have the extreme financial problems we did, but can't afford to splash the cash.

Whether Liverpool fans will put up with that plan I don't know. I noticed that there were 3,000+ empty spaces against wolves with the away allocation sold out.

Between a rock and a hard place.

I'm sure you are right, but isn't the current squad performing well below its potential? I'm not saying they're capable of winning the premiership, but at least when the 'Spanish Waiter' was running things they were in the top 5, and won the Champions League (twice?) Surely Woy needs to take some responsibility for the way things have gone this season, because rather than a 'work in progress', Liverpool seem to be slipping backwards at an alarming rate under his management?

They won the Champions League once in what might be described as exceptional circumstances.

The point I was making is that it sometimes takes a good couple of years for the damage to a club to become apparent. For quite a while on here I have been highly critical of Liverpool and the road they seemed to be going down, but most of the fans thought I was simply having a pop. Hodgson is simply a victim of a situation that was running away from him before he even got there.

Liverpool fans will have their own views, but for me the signature departue was Alonso. The team has never been the same since.

I do not think that the current squad is top five. They are three points off the relgation places going into the new year. They have just been outwitted by a hardworking but limited Wolves team on their own patch. They have one away win all season - a streaky 1-0 at Bolton. They have lost at City, United, Everton, Newcastle, Stoke & Spurs. At home they have lost to Blackpool and Wolves.

The only result that they can take any pride in at all is the home defeat of Chelsea which, in retrospect, wasn't quite the achievement it looked at the time given their poor form (only two wins since that match in early November).

They won't be relegated, of course, but equally how do they retain Torres and attract top talent when they're also rans?

No, luckily for them they find themselves in a league populated by clubs either simply not up to the job (West Ham) or seemingly in freefall (Villa). Villa present an interesting case. They're relegation material now. The question is, how do they cope if their prize asset (Young) either leaves next month, or simply doesn't play to his full potentiasl as he hankers for a move later.

As for Torres I actually feel sorry for him. Arguably Liverpool's only world class player left his career is now drifting by. Ne needs the stage of a bigger and better club. 

My next door neighbour is a textbook Liverpool fan: Born in Bournemouth, lives in Bristol, no ties with the town whatsoever. He does go every week though. We were chatting out the front yesterday morning about what had happened the night before. He had an unusual take on things I thought. He feels that Liverpool played better as a unit when Torres and Gerrard were out injured. He feels that they are shoehorned back into the team at the expense of other players being moved out of positions they had become accustomed to and played well in. He also feels that the problems run deep in terms of financial issues, the new stadium, the manager, stability within the team, and how many fans haven't come to terms with Liverpool having not been anywhere near the Prem title since it's conception. Past - long distant - league achievements aside he feels that Liverpool should be readjusting their priorities based on the club they now are and have been for a long time.

He wants Dalglish back as manager and couldn't care less if Torres goes in January as long as the money is spent wisely on replacements. He also can't see how Woy can be given that money to spend when his time at the club looks limited. Who wants to come to a team where the manager who brough you in is shown the door weeks later?

No idea if he reflects general opinion or not as I can't remember the laSt time I watched a Prem game, let alone a Liverpool one, but that's his views.

Although the final was a freak result (getting pasted for 45 mins, then nicking 3 goals to totally shellshock the opposition), we still had to get there. We also got to another, again against Milan, 2 years later and IMO were the better side despite a 2-1 reverse.

Overall, out CL record under Benitez was very good - IIRC, the best out of any English club during the time he was at Anfield.

To limit your assessment of Liverpool's CL record to flagging up the Istanbul final as lucky is doing that Benitez team a disservice

Every Liverpool fan I know had concerns over large aspects of the Benitez reign. Even the CL win didn't mask the worries about player recruitment, the total lack of players being brought through, and the generally negative gameplay. In fact, the only time the concerns mostly dissipated was during the 2008/9 season, when we almost took the PL title. Fans at that point did start to believe the corner was well and truly turned.

I know you criticised Benitez's Liverpool for their style of play, and I'd agree with you in the main. Overly cautious and negative, trying not to lose first and foremost, instead of trying to win. What was frustrating was that in 2008/9, the shackles seemed to be loosened and the team put in some great displays of attacking, dominant football. Which brings us to...

Agree totally. The team the previous season had found confidence and developed an effective and set playing style. Alonso was key to that, as his vision, fast football brain and passing allowed Liverpool to crank up the gears in attack quickly.

Of course, him wanting out was all down to Benitez. There were many questions asked about the man-management skills of Benitez, as reported regarding several players. His handling of Alonso was rubbish. In 2007/8, Alonso had a season hampered with injury and struggling for form. Benitez eyed Gareth Barry (who'd just had a very good season at Villa) as a transfer target. It could argued that ideally Benitez wanted to add Barry to the squad at the expense of nobody, but the parasitic owners wouldn't/couldn't stump up the cash, so Benitez hamfistedly tried to flog an upset Alonso to anyone willing to pay the £15m it'd cost to get Barry. When the transfers didn't come off, Benitez had to try to salvage his relationship with Alonso. Absolute credit to Alonso's professionalism, he didn't make a fuss, just got on with putting in his best season at Liverpool and breaking into the Spanish national side. At the end of the season, he put in his transfer request; his relationship with Benitez had been broken beyond repair.

Benitez signed a (over-priced, injury-prone) midfielder who prefers to play an attacking role, so never actually replaced like with like, yet the team continued to try to play the same style as in 2008/9.

On paper, I think there's no doubt that the squad is underperforming. The established players have played much better in the past and those new to the club have shown far more at their previous clubs. They look clueless, passionless and, most of all, devoid of confidence.

Given the emergence of Spurs & City, it's a weighty top-5 but - and I appreciate this is purely personal opinion - I think the squad is good enough to hold its own in there. On paper.

They shouldn't be relegated (mostly because there's some teams down there who are really poor) but, like you say, holding onto Torres and attracting top players will be a hell of a job.

That's why the owners need to make a statement of intent by bringing in a real quality, proven manager - and back him with a big transfer kitty. With no CL (or even Europa...) football to offer, they'll have to offer higher wages in most cases, so it would need a significant investment (finger in the air, I'd say around £100m).

The alternative for the owners is to resign themselves to a much-reduced revenue stream as the team bumps about in mid-table for the foreseeable future with no European money, much-reduced sponsorship and declining global merchandising income.

It's a real crunch time at the club, and we'll see just what the ambitions of the new owners are over the next 8 months.

Gary Neville having a total nightmare....hook him SAF !!

United poor so far - where is the midfield? Doesn't mean they won't go on to win though.

EDIT: Berbatov caught offside (in second half) because he's too slow to track back. Fine, nothing wrong with that, but when tracking back why was he walking?

A: Because he's a lazy sod.

West Brom miss penalty. Utd will surely go on and win this now.

Yes a typical ground out performance after a poor Man U display, West Brom were the better team but come away with nothing.

If Utd can play this poor and still win OR their opponents contrive to throw away the game like West Brom have today then Utd are going to sleepwalk their way to the title.

Dismal Utd performance today...........poor shape and seemingly incapable of finding more than a handful meaningful passes. Time for Neville to retire methinks! West Brom were unlucky today, but unlucky doesn't give you any extra points and Utd have at last doubled their away wins for the season

Oh dear, Liverpool down 1-0. As some wag remarked on another site, you really do fear for the Liverpool players' homes, given the number of empty seats at Anfield today.