Hodgson ´feels safe´ at Anfield

Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson is confident he will keep his job at Anfield despite recent managerial sackings in England.

Newcastle manager Chris Hughton and Blackburn boss Sam Allardyce have both been shown the door in the past nine days.

“I don’t have any fears, worries or concerns,” Hodgson said on Tuesday, before their Europa League fixture against FC Utrecht on Wednesday.

“But if you put it to me ‘You feel there is no chance whatsoever of you getting sacked’, then I would be in a minority of one in that respect.”

“It happened to Chris Hughton, it happened to Sam Allardyce, Martin O’Neill resigned – we are all in that situation.”

Liverpool’s owners New England Sports Ventures have put their faith in Hodgson, the former Fulham boss confirmed, to lead Liverpool gradually back to their top-four billing.

“The owners have made it perfectly clear they are in it for the long term and they are going to be patient; they realise it is going to take time,” Hodgson said.

“They realise we can’t turn things around overnight and they also realise that the team I am working with is not the team I put together.”

“You don’t turn things around overnight and they are aware of the magnitude of the task but they are very focused on what needs to be done and I am convinced they will help me get it done.”

Hodgson said anybody could see they were underperforming in the league, hence criticism directed at the club’s executive’s at an online phone-in this week was expected.

“Had we been top of the league it (the phone-in) might have been different but we are not, we are ninth and we are Liverpool Football Club,” Hodgson said.

“You don’t have to be Albert Einstein to work out more people will be unhappy with that than are happy with it.”