Give Hodgson time – Allardyce

(GSM) – Blackburn Rovers manager Sam Allardyce has urged Liverpool supporters to give their manager Roy Hodgson sufficient time to get the club out of their poor position.

The Merseysiders have claimed just six points from their first eight games and currently stand in second-bottom of the Premier League ahead of this weekend’s fixtures.

And despite his shock at Liverpool’s current position, Allardyce, whose Blackburn side is set to lock horns with the Reds on Sunday, believes Hodgson is being over-criticized for what is naturally a season for transition for the Anfield outfit.

“It’s not just down to Roy Hodgson, it’s the structure of the club as a whole, building the atmosphere back.” said Allardyce. “I feel for Roy, he seems to be bearing the brunt of the blame. If he gets enough time he will get it right.

“I always thought this would be a year of transition for a club that has sold off a lot of its players and Roy has a huge task, but I didn’t think they would have as few points as they have at the moment.

“All the pressure of the takeover and the money situation has obviously affected the team. There’s a healthy atmosphere in a football club that you can feel that there’s something great and it’s building, and there’s the opposite which has created a knock to that normal Liverpool feeling.
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It’s one of the institutions of football made great by the late, great Bill Shankly and that has declined now, the feeling has been lost and it’s a great shame, and that’s what they must grasp back.”

Blackburn are in talks of a takeover themselves but Allardyce wants his players to focus on their football and take advantage of a battered Liverpool.

Allardyce said: “It’s a good time to be playing them even though they have got new owners which will dampen down all the off-the-field distractions the players have had.

“But at the moment Liverpool are below us and it’s the first time in many, many years of managing in the Barclays Premier League where I have gone there when they have been below my team. We have to take advantage of any lack of confidence that the Liverpool players may have.”

It appears an Indian conglomerate, the VH Group, could finalize a deal to buy Blackburn within weeks.