Steven Gerrard Says Players, Not Roy Hodgson, Are to Blame for Liverpool’s Poor Start

Liverpool will head to The Hawthorns this Saturday for just their third Premier League match in over a month, with Steven Gerrard looking to return to the lineup.

That return, however, will be overshadowed by an even more notable one, as Roy Hodgson will be managing his first Liverpool match since January — except he'll be on West Brom's sideline.

Prior to Hodgson's Anfield exit, the former Fulham manager was repeatedly made the scapegoat for the team's poor performance. Gerrard, however, believes that such was unfair, according to Daily Mail.

"He's [Hodgson] such a good guy and a fantastic coach – it just didn't work out for him at Liverpool. The players didn't perform consistently for him," Gerrard said.

"We, as players, maybe have to take responsibility. It's not acceptable for Liverpool to be outside the European positions and you can't just point the finger at the manager – we have to look at ourselves."

Hodgson, Gerrard believes, was simply put in the difficult position of being compared to Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish.

"I think it's more that they idolize Kenny, and when a decision was made that Rafa was going to leave the two front-runners were Dalglish or Hodgson – and the fans absolutely love Kenny," Gerrard explained.

"Every time there were a couple of bad results or maybe the tactics were slightly wrong or we went a goal behind, the fans were getting on the manager's back."

Dalglish has tallied 20 points in his first 10 league matches this season. Hodgson amassed 25 in his 20 games at the helm at Anfield.