Liverpool Needs A Lot Of Changes

Roy Hodgson prides himself as
being a man who has rewritten
records since joining Liverpool
but this is one from which he
should not take any great
distinction.
Presiding over the first ever
humilation by a team from the
fourth tier of English football in
the club's 118-year history, on
home soil and in front of a half-
empty stadium no less, is not a
badge of honour any manager
ever wishes to possess.
Nor is being the first Liverpool
manager since 1959 not to win
a trophy, which has become
more of a requirement than a
continuing tradition.
The Carling Cup, a semi-
permanent resident in the
Anfield trophy room once upon
a time, represented Hodgson's
best chance of silverware this
season.
But, worryingly, his
despondency over the club's
current off field predicament.
which continues to dominate
the headlines, appeared to have
transferred itself to the team
against a Northampton side
that danced in the rain after
recording a famous victory over
Liverpool.
If that scene sounds familiar it
is because it happened last
season, twice. Fiorentina were
the first to do so in December
after stealing maximum points
in a Champions League group
stage dead rubber before
Reading followed suit less than
two months later in the FA Cup.
The boos that rang around the
ground on both those
occasions were heard once
again as unrest swept through
a crowd of little over 22,500 at
the lack of quality on display
from the home side as Hodgson
rested his big guns ahead of
Saturday's visit of Sunderland.
There was a time when
Liverpool fielding a weakened
side in this competition was
deemed semi-acceptable. Whilst
humblings at the hands of
Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs
usually followed, the likes of
Cardiff and Crewe Alexandra
were usually put to the sword
in advance.
But Hodgson is not Rafael
Benitez and if some of the
Spaniard's most ardent
devotees had viewed him as an
uninspiring appointment in the
summer, this performance did
him no favours in trying to win
them over.
Daniel Agger attempted to
redeem himself with Hodgson
after the fallout over his Danish
TV interview by threading a
defence-splitting pass into the
path of Milan Jovanovic, who
danced past the Cobblers' back
line before firing beyond Chris
Dunn on eight minutes.
When allowed to do so, the
defender has proved to be a
useful option when attacking
from the back and his assist for
the Serbian's first ever goal for
the club was one to savour.
But it proved to be Liverpool's
only effort on goal in the first
half, and one of just four on
target in the whole 90 minutes -
hardly the mark of a Premier
League side with an esteemed
history - and Agger was guilty
of allowing Billy McKay to peg
Northampton back shortly after
the restart.
The half-volley was a just
reward for the League Two
outfit, who had begun to stamp
their authority on the game,
Martin Kelly was called upon as
the League Two outfit started to
dominate in the latter stages of
the second half but even his
goalline heroics could not
prevent Michael Jacobs giving
the visitors the lead eight
minutes into extra time after
Brad Jones was left stranded.
Kelly's last-ditch clearances won
him a legion of new followers
following his full debut against
Lyon last season and his
continuing efforts saw
Nathaniel Wedderburn denied,
providing a brief shining light in
what has proved to be very
dark days for the club.
Jones joins Chris Kirkland in
making his Liverpool debut in
this competition against lower
league opposition and the
outcome was exactly the same
despite David Ngog scrambling
in a header from Sotirios
Kyrgiakos - shifted up field by
Hodgson as a last throw of the
dice.
Despite his equaliser minutes
earlier Ngog missed his penalty
in the resulting shoot-out, as
did youngster Nathan Eccleston
to sum up a night and start to
the season for Liverpool that
requires wholesale changes,
and not just on the pitch.