Issue No 1: Is the job too big for Roy?

LIVERPOOL’S new owner John W Henry is said to be anxious to avoid the trap of over-promising and under-delivering at Anfield, having already been hailed by the Kop as the club’s white knight, But, after watching his first match in England, he knows that is by far the least of his worries.

Henry will begin his new regime with his team sitting second bottom of the Premier League, his manager under growing pressure and his players under-performing and desperately short of confidence. So any talk of bringing back the glory days at Anfield and restoring the team to its European heyday is almost embarrassingly premature, no matter how much money is to be thrown at the project in the ensuing months.

. So the biggest decisions ahead are not over building a new stadium or which trophy to aim for – but whether to retain the manager and how many players to buy in January.

The latter should not be a problem for Henry, who has already indicated money is available and a list of targets is being drawn up. However, the former is a far more difficult decision.

Roy Hodgson is one of the most highly-respected managers in football and arrived at Anfield on the back of a remarkable year at Fulham in which he took the west London club to the Europa Cup fnal. But already there are whispers in the corridors of Anfield that the job is too big for him.

He did himself few favours in a prickly post-match press conference yesterday in which he defiantly insisted Liverpool had played well at Goodison – “the best Liverpool performance since I arrived at the club” – which was bordering on delusional.

He also dismissed suggestions his players were lacking in confidence or struggling to deal with the pressure of a relegation fight, grew increasingly frustrated at suggestions his team had played badly and even suggested Everton’s goals were in some way down to bad luck.

But considering Hodgson has two-and-a-half months before he can bring in fresh players, this is a crucial time in Liverpool’s season regardless of what is happening off the field – and you have to say the signs are not good.

They were outmuscled, outrun and outmanoeuvred by Everton in the first half and gave away possession more times in one match than the Liverpool legends of the 1980s did in an entire decade.

It was only when Everton were 2-0 up that Liverpool came to life and even then, as Hodgson finally admitted, Torres is desperately low on form and the Reds defence are conceding too many goals.

The only way for Liverpool right now is up – unless you dare to consider they could slip below West Ham to the very bottom of the Premier League.

Whether they can rescue the situation without a change of management, however, is a tough call. While Hodgson appears to have the support of Henry and NESV, the new owners know the biggest disaster that can befall them is to become deeply immersed in a relegation battle before they can even bring in new players.

In Hodgson’s favour is the fact that so many of Liverpool’s previous problems heralded from instability – a time when Rafa Benitez blamed the owners for a lack of success and the owners, ultimately, blamed him. But against him are a string of poor performances, some questionable signings and the conundrum of why Torres has gone from world-beater to anonymity in such a short time.

The striker had two chances on target at Goodison, both comfortably saved, and at times looked a forlorn figure – although no worse than Joe Cole, Maxi Rodriguez, Lucas Leiva or the woeful Paul Konchesky.

The most uncomfortable part for Liverpool was the realisation that Everton not only worked harder for victory but could boast the better players – what Hodgson would give for Arteta, Cahill, Jagielka, Yakubu and young Donegal man Seamus Coleman who was a constant thorn in Liverpool’s side.

That, at least, is something Henry and his NESV group can address in January. Unless, of course, after his first visit to Goodison, he surmises he bought the wrong team.