Roy Hodgson
Was the difference, Liverpool took their chances and Watford didn’t?
I think that’s probably a little too simplistic way of looking at it. We knew we’d be under some pressure from them because they are very good at what they do. We tried to prepare the players as best we could for what would be coming their way. Unfortunately, the cross was something we were very aware of, the danger from that cross, but we didn’t defend that well enough and we go a goal down. Because strangely enough up to that time, we’ve actually defended very well, not really conceding many charges at all. But we, in my opinion, we did a good job keeping Liverpool at bay, I thought the way we made life very difficult for them, they didn’t find it easy to cut. though us. They weren’t peppering our goal with shots, our goalkeeper wasn’t needing to make save after save. And on occasions, we created some occasions of our own. But if you want to get a result, you are quite right. If you want to get a result up here with one of the two very clear chances, the one with Kucka, and the one with Pedro, you need them to go in really. Because if they don’t, they’re not going to be an amazing amount chances coming your way after, you have to fight so hard for. That’s why they’re top of the league today.
Do you take heart from the Watford display?
I’ve been taking heart for the performances for a while now, even the two games we lost heavily, we didn’t deserve to lose them heavily. And you know, we were very much in those games as well. More so than today of course. You don’t expect to be 50/50 with Liverpool when you come up here, Man City might and a few other teams, but even some of the teams just below Liverpool have to accept the way they do, what they do is hard to deal with. But I think it’s gonna be very important for the players to not forget that they’re capable of doing what they did today. Well, they’ve really got to understand too, that we’ve got to get out and do this again. Sometimes it’s difficult after you’ve done something well, when you think you’ve done it well, but you still haven’t gotten a result, you want the next game to be easier. You don’t want to work quite so hard. You don’t want to have to do quite so much running. Quite so much desperate defending in and around your penalty area, not quite so many runs to chase balls which maybe don’t land at your feet. We’ve got to understand what we did today and the way the team played today, that is our only chance of survival. And hopefully, we won’t be playing teams of Liverpool’s quality every week, where we might get a bit more joy from the attacking moments we had.
What did you make of the penalty decision?
It’s the only sad moment for me today. You know, VAR has done a lot of very good things. You know, since it’s been instituted in English football, and this year, I think better than last year. But I still find it very hard to accept that when a situation happens, which literally nobody, the referee didn’t see a penalty, Jurgen didn’t see it, he is asking me what’s happening. I’m saying, I don’t know. What is it? Not one Liverpool player complained about having been fouled. For the game to be stopped in the 88th minute and then being given the chance to seal it 2-0, it leaves a rather unpleasant taste in the mouth. But whether or not we would’ve got back, that’s another matter. You know, I’m not certain we would have peppered their goal and created another three or four chances but there was a possibility we would get a chance and could take it. So that just totally dismissed that. And what’s more, it opened up to a goal or two more, and that would have been hard. Because two-nil is pretty harsh, I think. Had we lost it four-nil with two goals in injury time, that would have been really harsh indeed. But that’s what the penalty did. And I don’t know whether people outside of the coaching fraternity understand that. When you lose, you say it’s only a goal, what’s the problem? The problem is everything your players have worked for, and they’re feeling quite good about, they can come in and say, well, we lost but we played nil-nil second half, and we even had a chance or two. All of a sudden, they can’t do that. And if it goes to four-nil, not only can we not do that, three days from the game at the moment, you’re analysing the game in the same way I would. But at my next press conference, it will be, well you were smashed up at Anfield, how are you going to come back in this game? And that’s what those decisions do. The biggest myth in football that I’ve ever come across is that refereeing decisions don’t change games. Everyone I know in football thinks they do.
I wasn’t criticising his refereeing performance in the game. That I can say. I don’t think he refereed the game badly at all. What I had to say to him was on another matter. I talked too much anyway. So what’s the point?
How have the players reacted in the dressing room?
Yeah, probably similar to myself. Mixed feelings in a way. They weren’t hopping around: ‘Oh we were robbed. What a terrible decision’. They weren’t doing that. They were more bemused, like me. ‘What on earth is happening? Why did they give them that penalty? Why do we have to succumb to that?’ It was bemusement more than anything else. And I think that when I see them tomorrow, when they come in to get their warm down, or we get a chance to work with the ones who didn’t play, I think they’ll actually be feeling reasonably good about themselves. Knowing what we did on the field, what we set out to do. You know, we were working for a while together now. And in particularly these last two or three weeks, you know, we’ve been exacerbated the amount of work we’re doing on our style of play, if you like, or the way we want to play. And I think they’ll look and think, ‘Well, actually, we stuck to the task quite well. And we can see that if we keep doing this, maybe there will be some joy for us going forward.’ That’s what I’d like to think, but it was it was a quiet dressing room. It wasn’t people ranting and raving anyway – not even me.
Were you caught out on the first goal after missing a big chance with Juraj Kucka?
Well, yeah, I mean, I thought their counter-attacking play was was was excellent. I mean, we had four, four or so corners in the first half, and a couple of wide free-kicks, and they weren’t bad set plays, you know. They asked a serious question, but they were so quick to counter. And it seemed to me, especially in the first half that we didn’t get a lot of luck with ricochets, it seemed to me that ricochets always seem to sort of bounce their way. That’s partly because they back things up so well. But even with that, I thought were a little bit unlucky in most areas. But the fact is, you’ve got to be a good team to play Liverpool at the moment. You’ve not only got to have the discipline and the work rate, and the desire, and maybe even the tactical understanding that some of our players showed today. You’ve got to have all that, plus. And obviously, we’ve got to keep working on the plus.
You fought the penalty was harsh, but were you frustrated with Kucka giving the referee a decision to make?
No. Because if I were to do that, every game I watch, I’ll slow down every corner kick, and I’ll be blaming somebody in the game for it. Because it was a tussle. It wasn’t a clear foul. It was a tussle. And probably you can end up arguing, who grabbed who first? But I know one thing, that the player who won the penalty, he just jumped up and got with the game. He was trying to get involved in the next attack. So he obviously wasn’t too bothered about the penalty. I think players are good judges, better judges than you give them credit for. Now, I know there is people that do cheat a bit and some people will go down whether they are fouled or not. But it happens less and less. And I think when you find four or five players who have been right around the incident surrounding a referee and complaining quite as bitterly as that, often they are right. That’s been my rule of thumb, experience.
