Hodgson: Team Needs To Impress New Owners

Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson believes his team now have a responsibility to back up the efforts of the new owners off the pitch with results on it. After a disappointing start to the campaign the club have put together back-to-back wins in the Barclays Premier League to lift them out of the relegation zone. That has happily coincided with the recent takeover at the club by New England Sports Ventures (NESV), the owners of the Boston Red Sox baseball franchise. NESV principal owner John Henry and chairman Tom Werner have set about putting in place a structure behind the scenes which they think will revitalise fortunes at Anfield. Yesterday that involved appointing former Tottenham sporting director Damien Comolli as director of football strategy, with a brief to improve transfer policy and scouting. On Tuesday Hodgson met with Henry, who will be at tonight's game, in the latest of their series of meetings and has been heartened by what was discussed. But the Reds boss knows failure to improve further on the field will hamper development. 'The owners are very interesting people and every discussion you have with them is a pleasurable one because they have good questions and clear ideas and they listen to what you have to say,' he said. 'I have been more than impressed. Sometimes people buy clubs and you don't see or hear them but it has been quite the opposite. 'John and Tom have taken an enormous interest, spending a lot of time with the club and it is something which can only be to our benefit because we need people to look into this club. 'It is a great club and will be a great club in the future but it needs people like John and Tom to look into it and see where we have been going wrong and where they can step in and help us improve and that is what they are going to do. 'I regard that as positive and what I have to do as team manager is ensure we win as many games as possible so their improvements take place in a positive atmosphere rather than in a negative atmosphere. 'As far as they are concerned they understand that you don't wave magic wands in sport, if things need putting right it is going to take some time. 'But they are determined to get things right and the quicker the better but they are realistic that what needs to be done needs to be done. 'In the meantime we have to be making the best efforts we can to keep the club as high in the table as possible and the more we can do in that respect the easier their job will become.' Napoli coach Walter Mazzari believes his side have the ability to match Liverpool but insists it is games like tonight when they have to prove it. 'We need to be extremely focused, concentrate on our own game and also try to restrict the great players we will be up against,' he said. 'We played Liverpool two weeks ago and we didn't lose so we are equal. 'But it is one thing to say we are equipped to deal with Liverpool but another thing to actually do it.'