Why Hodgson became Liverpool's most wanted...

The following story has been reproduced from today's media. It does not necessarily represent the position of Liverpool Football Club:

Roy Hodgson will be unveiled as the new Liverpool manager this afternoon. With Fabio Capello fighting to keep the England job after a disastrous World Cup, Hodgson had also been touted as a leading contender to replace the Italian. How has the 62-year-old from Croydon become the hottest asset in English football?

Fulham had just reached the Europa League semi-final courtesy of a 1-0 win in Wolfsburg - at that point arguably the biggest game in their 131-year history - and Roy Hodgson was asked how he felt to be flying the flag for English football. 'It'll help our UEFA co-efficient,' he replied, without a hint of irony.

It was pure Hodgson: straightlaced to the point of suffocation but making an intelligent, considered point. He does not deal in vacuous, off-the-cuff soundbites and devours Jewish-American fiction (Philip Roth, Isaac Bashevis Singer and Saul Bellow) in his spare time.

Hodgson is a manager who spends his days honing, organising and coaching on the training pitch. He was - briefly, from 1972-73 at Alleyn's School in south-west London - a PE teacher, after all.

'Of course it's nice for people to believe some managers are born with a magical quality that will transform bad into good, but I don't,' he says. 'It's about leadership skills, practice, repetition and bloody hard work.'

Repetition is the cornerstone of Hodgson's success. There were grumblings from within Fabio Capello's World Cup squad that the Italian didn't spend enough time on 'pattern of play' drills, but Hodgson's Fulham did this every day. Fellow coaches and managers, such as Steve Coppell and Glenn Roeder, often attended sessions to watch the 62-year-old in action.

'Every day in training is geared towards team shape on the match day coming up,' said midfielder Simon Davies. 'Every day is team shape and it shows.

'He gets the 11 that he wants on a match day and he drills everything in that he wants. There are no diagrams. It's all on the pitch with the ball, nothing unopposed.'

Hodgson has described his approach as 'player-orientated'. Words 'spill out left, right and centre' from a man who speaks five languages. His players know exactly what he expects and how they can be successful in their ascribed roles. They also know who's playing more than two hours before kick-off.

After failing to make the grade at Crystal Palace and playing non- League football, Hodgson gained his full coaching badge aged just 23. He followed the likes of Don Howe, Sir Bobby Robson and Terry Venables - tracksuited English coaches who relished their 'time on the grass', as Robson called it.

With Hodgson it was 11 versus 11 every day, the manager stopping play to make a tactical or technical point, or to tell a player they weren't in the right position at the right time. Hodgson was at the heart of everything, in his shorts with his socks pulled up to his knees.

Zoltan Gera said: 'We do the same thing in every session and sometimes it gets boring but we know it's working so I'm happy to do it. Put it this way, when I wake up in the middle of the night I know what I need to do in the game, I know everything about how we play.'

Fulham players could have slotted back into position in their sleep last season but, for all Hodgson's emphasis on repetition, he is not a man resistant to change. Quite the opposite, in fact. It is part of the reason the League Managers' Association's manager of the year has rarely been out of work during a 33-year coaching career.

At Fulham he introduced a basketball defensive system, called a 'zonal trap', where his team moved as a unit when protecting their goal. When he joined Inter Milan in 1995 he asked Italian World Cup winner Giuseppe Bergomi, who had always marked man-to-man, to mark zonally. The team switched from a libero system to a back four and Hodgson asked Bergomi to play at right back.

After taking over at Hamstad in 1976, his first management role, Hodgson and his great friend Bob Houghton revolutionised Swedish football. They abandoned man-to-man marking all over the field in favour of a zonal approach. It is no wonder Hodgson tends to bristle at the suggestion he is an old-fashioned manager.

Now he will find himself rebuilding a Liverpool side bereft of confidence and star quality, against a backdrop of high expectations. Hodgson will need to draw heavily on those decades of experience.

This story has been reproduced from today's media. It does not necessarily represent the position of Liverpool Football Club.