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Roy Hodgson’s time at Liverpool has been a disaster for one reason or another. He looks a manager out of his depth, devoid of tactical knowledge and Liverpool are a club lacking an inspirational leader. Liverpool’s new owners, NESV have accepted that it will take time to rebuild Liverpool, and the vast majority of fans agree that this is a fair assessment. However, will Liverpool continue to take steps backwards, rather than forwards, if they continue with Roy Hodgson at the helm?

The problem with Roy Hodgson is there is one excuse after another. If he isn’t blaming Rafa Benitez for the failings of the club he is blaming players’ fitness or the lack of funds that he was given in the summer. Now, he may be right on all of these points but he has continued to roll off excuse after excuse. If you are managing a team like Liverpool and you have taken 22 points from 17 games, languishing only six points off the drop zone at Christmas, you have to take responsibility for that. Hodgson is seemingly incapable of doing this.

In terms of transfers, Liverpool need to invest this January. They need to add some extra quality to their first team as well as buying younger players for the future. It is looking increasingly likely that they will lose Glen Johnson this January. If last summer is anything to go buy, Liverpool fans can’t get too excited about this transfer window. Last summer Roy Hodgson purchased Paul Konchesky and Christian Poulsen – for Liverpool? They would be decent signings for Fulham but not acceptable for a club like Liverpool. Does Roy Hodgson really have the foresight in the transfer market to achieve the results that the new owners expect? When you waste nearly £9m, it scares you when Tottenham were able to sign William Gallas for free and Rafael van der Vaart for £8m. Even more worrying for Liverpool fans is Hodgson’s hint that he may not even buy in January.

“Clubs have virtually been destroyed by people making bad decisions. It’s not because the owners haven’t given money or supported the manager. It’s just that they have brought in the wrong people.”

At the biggest clubs in the world, there is expectation. The question is, have Liverpool fans and the press been too harsh on Roy Hodgson? He only arrived in July and to be totally fair he has had very very little money (whatever money he has had, he has wasted) to shape a squad in his vision. He hasn’t had the chance to work with Damien Comolli on transfer targets. This is a fair argument, but to be given time you need to have shown somewhere that you deserve it. Has Hodgson done anything that says he is the man to turn Liverpool around? A very impressive win against Chelsea, and that is it. It is time for John W. Henry and Tom Werner to seriously consider Roy Hodgson’s position. They were incredibly awkward in the recent fans phone-in when asked about Hodgson’s future. They would make themselves very popular with Liverpool fans if they were to fire Roy Hodgson sooner rather than later.

Liverpool are in a transitional phase, but that does not mean they have to be where they are in the table. It is becoming too easy for Roy Hodgson to make excuse after excuse and not take responsibility for his own shortcomings. He sounds like a product of Tom Hicks and George Gillet at the moment. Roy Hodgson is out of his depth at Liverpool in terms of the transfer market and on the pitch. Do Liverpool fans really think that if NESV gave Hodgson a vast amount of money he would be able to attract top names? When a club needs to rebuild, it needs to get rid of deadwood. Sadly, Roy Hodgson is part of this deadwood and he will take Liverpool backwards before any progress is made.

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An own-goal from former player Tal Ben Haim handed Andre Villas-Boas a winning start to his Chelsea tenure against Portsmouth on Saturday.All eyes were on Villas-Boas as he took charge of the English Premier League club for the first time since his move from Porto in June.

The 33-year-old joined from the Europa and Liga Sagres champions after the London club paid over 13 million pounds to release him from his contract.

Fernando Torres, Ashley Cole and Florent Malouda all started the game for Chelsea against their Championship opponents at Fratton Park, alongside youngsters Billy Clifford and Tomas Kalas.

John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba looked on from the bench, and it was former team-mate Tal Ben Haim who scored the only goal of the game – at the wrong end.

The Portsmouth defender endured an unhappy 2007/08 season at Stamford Bridge, and gifted his old side the lead after seven minutes.

Villas-Boas sent out an entirely changed XI for the second half, and goalkeeper Hilario conceded a penalty just after the hour.

But the substitute shot-stopper redeemed himself by saving Luke Varney’s spot kick, ensuring Villas-Boas was to end his first game in charge of Chelsea a winner.

Chelsea fly to Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, with four games over the next two weeks in Asia.

Nottingham Forest salvaged a 1-1 draw with an injury-time equaliser away to Middlesbrough in the Championship on Tuesday.Hosts Middlesbrough led through a goal from Scott McDonald in the 52nd minute at the Riverside Stadium.Forest goalkeeper Lee Camp produced a string of sharp saves to deny the home side throughout the first half, but he stranded when Julio Arca failed to connect properly with a Barry Robson cross. The loose ball fell to Australia international McDonald, who was left with a simple finish at the back post for 1-0.Camp maintained his heroics to keep Forest in the match, saving from Leroy Lita and Andrew Taylor twice. Forest had a penalty appeal turned down when Arca appeared to use a hand inside the area, before Robson looked to have won it for Boro, only to see his shot clip the outside of the post.The visitors snatched a point in the 92nd minute when substitute Dele Adebola seized upon the loose ball to bundle home an equaliser from eight yards out.The draw moves Forest up to fourth in the table, three points behind Swansea in the automatic promotion places. They are now undefeated in Middlesbrough for 28 years.Elsewhere, Portsmouth secured a fifth consecutive victory with a 2-0 win at home to Scunthorpe United.Second-half goals from Dave Kitson and Aaron Mokoena secured all three points for Portsmouth, who are now up to 12th in the table.Defeat leaves Scunthorpe third from bottom and four points adrift of safety.Doncaster Rovers climbed to 16th with a 3-1 win away to Derby County. Goals either side of half-time from Billy Sharp and a 71st-minute effort from Joseph Mills guaranteed a valuable three points for visitors Doncaster, with Steve Davies’ late strike no more than a consolation for struggling Derby.

Every manager brings something different out of every player. Some managers like Wenger and Ferguson pride themselves on getting the best out of their players whilst others such as Redknapp expect their squad to prove themselves or face being dropped. Players are signed for their clubs in a frenzy of praise from manager and fans with press releases, blog posts and YouTube compilations spreading at an exponential rate the moment a player signing is announced, but it doesn’t always work out. Look at Diego Forlan. A laughing stock in the Premier League but then he gets shipped of to Villarreal and starts banging in the goals like nobody’s business. I remember one year he scored a hat trick on the last day of the season to win the golden boot for Europe joint with Thierry Henry. Not bad for a striker who supposedly didn’t know where the goal was. And he’s not the only one. Every season there is wasted talent in the league, players not being played or not benefiting from their manager’s tactics. So who are the top ten wasted talents in the premier league this season?

Click on Stephen Ireland to unveil the top 10

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As we come to the end of the year and look back over the past 12 months, some Premier League players have really stood out from the crowd. There have been fantastic saves by goalkeepers in between the sticks, committed defenders giving everything for their team’s cause, midfielders who have run games with ease and strikers who have put the ball in the back of the net for fun. Picking a Premier League Player of the Year for 2010 is no easy task, and there are certainly plenty of candidates to choose from, but who do you think deserves to win this accolade? These players are regulars in fantasy football teams up and down the country, so here are the nominees for the FootballFanCast.com Player of the Year for 2010…

Click on the image below to see the nominees

Liverpool forward Luiz Suarez has admitted that he expected to lead the line with Fernando Torres when he signed on at Anfield.The Uruguayan, much scorned for his antics at the World Cup, arrived in Liverpool in January shortly after Reds favourite Kenny Dalglish returned as manager and was keen to link up with the Spanish ace.But Torres was sold to Chelsea for 50 million pounds shortly after his arrival and the former Ajax Amsterdam striker admitted he had not envisaged playing alongside anyone else but Torres.”I expected to play with Fernando,” Suarez told Goal.com.”Fernando is a very good player. He’s got great quality and it would have been nice to play with him.””It’s a shame that he’s gone as he is an excellent player and has great qualities. But at the same time there are many other great players at Liverpool.”Suarez, however, is excited about forming a partnership with the player brought in to replace Torres, Andy Carroll, who made his debut as a substitute for the Reds earlier this month.”When one top player goes, perhaps another great player comes in,” Suarez said. “Carroll and Torres are very different players.””Andy has had an injury and he’s just starting to come back into the game. They have different qualities and ways of playing the game, so you can’t really make comparisons.””Andy is a big, strong player with many qualities and it will be exciting to play with him.”Suarez, who hit 81 goals from 110 league appearances for Ajax, also asserted his desire for Liverpool caretaker boss Kenny Dalglish to remain at Anfield beyond his current short-term deal.”Yes, of course (I want him to stay). I’m looking forward to working with him more in the future,” Suarez said.”Having a manager like Kenny Dalglish is really great for me. He is a person of great history and importance at the club. He’s one of the best players the club has ever had and now he’s correcting me and training me.””I think it’s really great for me to work with a legend such as Kenny and I have enjoyed it so far.”

If, on October 23rd 2011, you had a heavy blow to the head and all knowledge of Premier League campaigns were simultaneously erased from your memory, you may have stood aloof at your television/betting slip/friend in the pub and sanctimoniously proclaimed that this year the Barclays Premier League was a one-horse race. However, a one-horse race, by definition, is one in which only one of the competitors has a real chance of winning and, of course, “you can’t write off Manchester United ,” says Newcastle defender Danny Simpson .

Yet, Danny Simpson’s comments came the morning after his side had torn apart a lacklustre Manchester United side at St. James’ Park, meaning that, having failed to pick up any points in their past two Premier League games, Tottenham are only three points behind them with a game in hand. Maybe it isn’t a one-horse race, not even one of those two-horse races you often see in La Liga nowadays, but maybe, this year, the Premier League is a three-horse race. Imagine that: three beautiful stallions, magnificently crowned with the majestic Fergie, devilishly good-looking Mancini and rather plump Harry, galloping powerfully towards their destiny, pulling away from the string of inferior horses playing host to their jockeys in the form of Arsene Wenger, Kenny Dalglish and Andre Villas-Boas.

It might just be though, that the most experienced jockey of them all, Sir Alex Ferguson , is riding a dead horse: last week, Alan Pardew threatened to go gung-ho from the first whistle, “Looking at Manchester United’s recent games, teams that have sat back have got thumped,” said the Toon boss, “They’ve got such talent in their ranks, they’re going to cause you problems but we have a striker in form and a central midfield pairing that I think is as good as theirs,” he added, in the faintest of praise for a midfield partnership that is far outshining one that has been bolstered with the return of a 37-year old that retired over 6 months ago. It worked too; Newcastle United went out, flooded the wings with overlapping run after overlapping run and forced three goals out of a dismal Man. United side that couldn’t reply.

Having lost their first away game in 11, Sir Alex’s Manchester United had to travel to The Etihad to face Premier League leaders, and perfect home form holders, Manchester City . Instead of stoking a fire, much like pundits across the ITV suggested he was probably doing on a personal level with his players in the dressing room and Mancini eluded to by describing them as “angry,” he said absolutely nothing and thus gave out the most vocal of mind game messages according to professional psychologist Nicky Butt: “[bringing back Scholes ] took all the attention off their home record and the bookmakers’ odds and switched all the attention to Paul Scholes and Manchester United.

It was a great little bit of psychology.” For all the brilliance of Ferguson’s psychological mind games, it wasn’t quite as anatomically bright: a massive 4 minutes and 12 seconds after coming on for Nani, Paul Scholes set up Manchester City’s 2nd goal by providing James Milner with the ball on a plate to cross for Sergio Aguero . Nicky Butt obviously avoided mentioning this to try and leapfrog his former Manchester United team mate in a bid to become his new favourite ginger.

However, winner of the best mind game of them all regarding the race at the top of the Premier League goes to Roberto Mancini for his comments before that fateful F.A Cup tie that made that second-half restoration and assault on Manchester United’s pride all the more prevalent. He did something Harry Redknapp hasn’t done directly all season: “I think in this moment, City, United and Tottenham can win this title.”

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Now, despite winning, Manchester United will be licking their wounds after a “careless” second-half display, which saw the chance to really hurt Manchester City and meanwhile galvanise their own season, disappear into the heavy Mancunian mist – and with it came a Kolarov and Aguero goal. Tottenham have a January ahead of them that they will feel is favourable to their title hopes and like I said, this month will be the most vital stage of Spurs’ season.

The Premier League has shown time and time again that the team who run away with it the quickest isn’t always the team that wins the race and no more valid an example can be found than Kevin Keegan and Newcastle United in the 1995/96 campaign, which saw them 12 points clear at the top in February, but eventually fall behind eventual winners Manchester United. However, the “we’ll score more than you,” philosophy that was on display at St. James’ Park under Keegan, isn’t quite the same mentality instilled at The Etihad under Mancini. Much more relevant to City’s current campaign is Chelsea’s title winning season of 2005/06.

The first half of their season saw them pick up 45 points from 48 in a team based on strong foundations in defence, but their steady ship rocked and an eventual 18-point lead in March was cut to just seven late on in the season. Manchester City have gone in to 2012 as consistent as they have been all season, but with a lead of just 3 points rather than the lofty ones of the two above examples, a bit of looking of the shoulder behaviour wouldn’t be unwise.

Roberto Mancini is aware that Harry Redknapp ’s Tottenham are not to be underestimated and his focus on them, equally as strong as his focus on a “dangerous” United, is prudent. Sir Alex Ferguson ’s Manchester United does have the durability factor, but as they are showing this season, they are vulnerable and potentially the weakest Manchester United side the Scotsman has had to manage in the past decade.

As much as they could stick it out and push City until the final day, they could drift away in a fashion never expected of a United side. If they do this, premature celebrations would be foolish: calmly and unassumingly waiting is Tottenham Hotspur, technically creative and quietly threatening.

Article courtesy of Jordan Florit from This is Futbol

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Chelsea’s under-fire manager, Andre Villas-Boas, has informed the media this week that the festive month of December will be a crucial one for both him and the team. Six Premier League games and one in the Champions League is on the menu in December for Chelsea and the young Portuguese manager will no doubt by writing his wish list to Santa asking for maximum points in the hope that he’ll still be in a job come January.

Villas-Boas has seen his side win just twice in their last nine matches including twice to Kenny Dalglish’s Liverpool at Stamford Bridge in the space of 10 days. The second of those defeats came this week and ended their Carling Cup chances whilst the league meeting knocked Chelsea out of the top four in to fifth. They have the chance to move back in to the top four on Saturday when they face the team immediately above them, Newcastle United at St James’s Park.

However, Newcastle will ensure that the crucial month of fixtures gets off to a tough start since the Magpies unbeaten at home and have lost just once in the league this season, away to Manchester City and who boast the joint best defences in the league along with Man City. They proved more than a match for Man Utd when they travelled to Old Trafford and held Man Utd to a 1-1 draw, so back on home soil, they will be no pushover for Chelsea in what has become a must win game.

Despite the outcome at Newcastle, it is the following game against Valencia in the Champions League that is even more crucial for Chelsea. To qualify for the knock out stages of that tournament, they must win or earn a goalless draw, a very tall order when low on confidence and against the Spaniards who know that a win or score draw would see them finish above Chelsea in Group E.

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Should the unthinkable happen for Villas-Boas and they lose or even draw against Newcastle this weekend and go out of the Champions League next week, then it could be that the 34 year will not be at the helm when they welcome Manchester City to Stamford Bridge. Even qualification in the Champions League may not be enough depending on the outcome of this game, such is the proximity exit door for Villas-Boas, if you are to believe the media and if City hit the form they have shown they’re capable of, then a heavy defeat for the Blues will no doubt be hard to swallow for Abramovich in the “battle of the billionaires”.

If Villas-Boas is still standing by then, they then hit the road to face Wigan and then Spurs away before Christmas before finishing off the year with home games against Fulham and Aston Villa over the Festive period.

It is hard to envisage a scenario whereby Chelsea win all seven games in December given the run of form they have been in and it is equally difficult to envisage Villas-Boas being in a job come the new year and being trusted to add to the £70 million he spent on two players in the Summer with more signings in January if they don’t at least go throughout December without losing. Any defeat over the coming month will result in close scrutiny of the former Porto manager’s tenure and after Steve Bruce became the first managerial casualty of the Premier League season this week, the bookmakers make Villas-Boas the second favoruite at 3/1 to be the next top flight boss to face the chop behind 10/11 market leader, Steve Kean, at Blackburn. As it stands, it is a question of when more than if for both Kean and Villas-Boas, the question is, will the search for the next Chelsea manager begin before the year is out?

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The celebration. An entertaining part of football, no matter what level it’s played at. Whether the celebration is pre-planned or is purely an outburst of emotion, everyone can relate to the feeling of spanking the ball into the back of the net.

Over the years there have been some memorable celebrations. On the international stage there’s Cameroon’s Roger Milla and his dance by the corner flag, which is a bit different to Everton’s Tim Cahill boxing with it. While for Italy Marco Tardelli showed just how much it means to score a goal in the World Cup final in 1982.

The Premier League has been home to a number of iconic celebrations, too. Former Newcastle striker Obafemi Martins went for the flips, a complete contrast to Alan Shearer who used to raise his right arm time and time again, but then when you take into account the number of goals he scored anything more strenuous would have worn him out!

These days celebrations seem to be more a team rather than individual thing. Chelsea started this off when they posed for the camera and now everyone’s at it. From shining shoes to the incredible fishing celebration undertaken by an Icelandic team, a celebration is no longer an instinctive act.

This now applies to you and me too, as Samsung are running a competition for you to star in your own pro video. STAGE is the ultimate YouTube talent contest and there’s no limit to what you can do.

As you’ll see from the video below that shows a mother recording her daughter celebrating a goal, Kevin Nolan’s funky chicken just won’t get the job done. Take a look at what kind of competition you’ll be up against…

Enter now at: http://www.facebook.com/SamsungMobile

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Despite a negative vibe from the press Arsenal have only lost one game in the last six and have laid down a good foundation to work from. Wenger will be hoping that Ramsey’s last gasp winner in Marseille will breed further confidence in their pursuit to climb the Premier League.

At FFC this week we have seen a mixed bag of Gunners blogs that include in defence of Theo Walcott; double deal suggests Arsenal have woken up, while time for a re-distribution of income and wealth at the Emirates.

We also look at the best Arsenal articles around the web this week

Double deals suggest Arsenal have finally woken up and smelt the Coffee?

In defence of Theo Walcott

Transfer will leave Arsenal with only themselves to blame

Time at Arsenal for a re-distribution of income, wealth and talent

Arsenal simply in a referee induced crisis

Are fans starting to vote with their feet?

Wenger set to pip Dalglish and Pardew to £8m deal

Worth a £2.5m gamble from Arsene Wenger?

Best of WEB

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What next for Thomas Vermaelen? Striker to stay and Wenger is ‘parfaite’…. – Highbury House

Arsenal’s main hope of success is returning to the George Graham days –Le Grove

Crowd chants – Online Gooner

Arsène And The Wages Of Sin – A Cultured Left Foot

Which will come first for AOC – An Arsenal or England first-team call up? – Gunnersphere

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Click on Roger Johnson’s misses below to unveil our current Premier League Wag XI

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