Keegan backs Hodgson

Former Liverpool star Kevin Keegan has defended manager Roy Hodgson for the Reds’ woeful form this season.

Wednesday’s 3-1 defeat at Blackburn sees Liverpool sit in 12th place on the English Premier League table, just four points above the relegation zone.

And with the club’s European ambitions fading fast, Hodgson’s job at Anfield has come under scrutiny.

But Keegan, who played at the club for six years in the 1970s, said Hodgson is not to blame for the rot, insisting the club’s fortunes were on the slide before Hodgson’s appointment in the close season.

“You have to look way beyond Roy Hodgson to see where things started to go wrong at Liverpool, the decline has been going on for at least six or seven years, maybe longer,” Keegan told Reuters.

“The problem is because of the history of the club and the expectations of the fans the bar is too high for the players that are there at present.”

“The players that are there can’t live with the standards that have been set in the past.”

Keegan also suggested that the Reds were playing to their full potential and still not getting results.

“If you win and play terrible everything is okay, if you lose and play well it’s a massive problem,” he said.

Liverpool face Manchester United at Old Trafford in their third round FA Cup clash on Sunday, before travelling to Bloomfield Road to face Blackpool on Wednesday.