Liverpool on road to recovery says Hodgson

Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson believes his team are making slow but steady progress on the road to recovery after scoring a morale-boosting win over Blackburn.

Hodgson has faced question marks over his future after the English giants slumped to their worst start to the season for 57 years, which has left them in the relegation zone even after Sunday’s 2-1 victory over Rovers.

But the former Fulham boss is refusing to get carried away by this weekend’s win over fellow strugglers Blackburn, even if he does believe Liverpool are showing signs of improvement.

“I’d be lying if I said it felt like a turning point. That would be a facile thing to say,” Hodgson said.

“I’ve got faith in the team and the way we played in several of the games. We were worse at the beginning but we have got better.”

Hodgson said he had been encouraged by statistics from Liverpool’s 2-0 defeat in the Merseyside derby to Everton, which indicated the team were on the right track.

“I saw the statistics the other day from the Everton game and I’ve never in my Premier League career seen statistics as positive as they were in terms of passing, accuracy and tempo of passing, number of shots and crosses,” he said.

“Those statistics hearten you because you know you are not playing badly but they don’t get you any points.

“We had the same level of passing and intensity against Blackburn but we were much more incisive, getting behind them down the flanks more.

“It was the right sort of performance; we’ve got to give another 29 like that and if we can do that then we won’t go too far wrong.”

Liverpool’s next league assignment is a potentially awkward visit to Bolton on Sunday.