Blame the Manager?

[Sandbach Shrimper]

Just read this article - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/9346616.stm - and with all the speculation about the jobs of Grant, Hodgson and Ancelotti and the number of managers who have been sacked in the last couple of weeks, it's got me thinking. Why is always the managers who get the blame? Never the players, the ones who get paid tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds every week. One of the many things that annoys me about modern football is what they call in that article "short-termism", especially with managers. Constantly sacking managers doesn't work and isn't good for a club. Look at three of the most successful managers in the Premier League - Ferguson, Wenger and David Moyes. They've all been at their clubs for many years, have been given time to build their own squads and their own styles of play. They're all very good and well-respected managers and have brought stability and success to their clubs. You could even take Southend as an example, as we had one of our most successful periods in the club's history under Steve Tilson for 4/5 years.

Managers need time to sign players, get to know their squad and their staff and to impart their own style and tactics. I think Roy Hodgson is a good, experienced manager if you look at his record who should have at least the rest of the season. Liverpool have a poor squad, it's not a top four squad and I don't think they'll do anything this season regardless of who's in charge. Gerrard and Torres are their only world-class players, the rest are pretty mediocre. The goals they conceded at Blackburn were down to slack defending. Obviously the manager must take some blame for that but at the end of the day it's the players who are on the pitch.