As a Liverpool fan that score was expected. It's not Roys fault our club is in a complete mess!

Were in big big trouble. Even with a poor squad we let a 20 million pound player go out on loan! Awfull decision but it's obviously so he gets off our wage bill then we sign the likes of Poulsen who just isent good enough for a top European club.

Sort this mess out Liverpool.

So was last season not Rafa's fault?

And who bought this not good enough Poulsen fella?

Wire85, you really need to tell us how you feel rather than sitting on the fence!

Partly it was time for Rafa to go. But move on from that mate, Jose mourinho would of been on the end of that scoreline.

Our squad last season and this is awfull! Absolutely awfull! No real wingers and only one top striker at our club.

He's not blame less though and neither was Rafa last year.

Aqua on loan why?

Poulsen why?

Saying crap about 6-0 before kickoff WTF was that about not even funny before a 3-0 defeat but after me.

To me he's a yes man I said it from day one.

Lose one game and you might as well get the 'Woy out' banner up now with your reaction. Deary me.

Whats it got to do with you bluenose?

I said he wasn't good enough from the start

Also it was City fans singing the Rafa song

I've just got back now, garbage.

I fear that we could lose to West Brom at home next week.

Jesus, you're on a rampage tonight.

It's early days for Hodgson though isn't it. It's goning to be tough while he gets the side playing as he wants.

I'm with you, I don't see why a lot of fans wanted Benitez out and why he was sacked, if he was. He's a far better manager than Hodgson but it's a bit early to be hammering him already.

Sorry but am just fuming

I don't blame Roy for this mess I know more then anyone its the yanks but jesus he didn't help himself tonight.

But last season when people wanted Rafa out I said who we going to get? and you got stupid answers like Jose and Gus Hiddink, I knew we wouldn't get anyone anywhere near that level but still the clueless lot went on and on, now shock horror we have a mid table manager who jokes about 6 nil defeats before losing 3 nil, I want these knobs on sky and the radio etc to come out an say oh maybe Rafa and his zonal marking wasnt so bad, I highly doubt we would of lost 3-nil tonight with him.

I'd go along with that. Although I didn't expect 3-0 tonight either.

As I said before though it's bound to take time for Hodgson to get the team playing the way he wants them too. The anti Rafa people clearly expected a Mourinho or a Hiddink to walk over here for the job just because it's Liverpool. They forget football doesn't work like that now.

It seemed a bold move to go 442 away from home, especially against a team like City and there three defensive midfielders in there. Adam Johnson look really good again tonight, Tevez's movement upfront was as good as ever. They looked very comfortable overall, their midfield looked very assured.

It wasn't bold, it was stupid.

The limitations of the formation were there for all to see, as our main creative player was hamstrung by being sat back too deep in midfield and being over run by the three City midfielders. The two wide men couldn't give any width to create space for the two forwards because they were too narrow attempting to shore up the midfield, this meant that the two up front got no ball and were easily marked out of the game.

Hodgson was out thought tactically tonight, embarrassingly so.

Never saw tonight's game. I'm glad.

I won't bother talking about Hodgson, I've aired my views on him before he came here and whilst he's been here.

Won't bother talking about Benitez, the man made many a mistake last year.

Everything about our club has oozed mediocrity over the past year. I could spend an entire night listing all of the problems, with fingers pointing in all directions. It's pointless, they all amount to the current mess we view, the focus needs to be on getting rid of these current knobs holding us back. Once they got, fresh ownership will bring the fresh change we so desperately need.

Thats the only hope that results like that (more to come) will open peoples eyes to the bigger picture finally.

The bigger picture has always been the financial side, but, some people have used that to defend the indefensible at times. Last year, we weren't a 7th place side, even with the financial side of things. Benitez wasn't a 7th place manager, but he made consistent mistakes with his management and decisions, he made consistent errors in judgment, consistent errors in selection and consistent errors in choice of tactics. I felt Benitez's future was a toss of a coin last year, he'd done enough in past seasons to deserve another year, but he'd done so much bad last season, the 'sacking' was justifiable in many ways, too.

Roy made a criminal amount of errors last night, whilst I think he's already made a couple of mistakes in the transfer market. I want him to succeed, but there are only a few managers in the world who wouldn't be out of their depth in our current situation, Roy, unfortunately, is a manager who I feel is out of his depth.

Main problem I have Rob is that if we were going to get rid of Rafa we needed someone with a CV as good as his or we are making a mistake - enter Roy - not good enough.

You're right, in a way. I wasn't bothered so much about the CV, but the style/type of manager we were bringing in. We've been built on continental foundations over the past decade with Rafa and Houllier, the difference between a continental coach and an English coach is very different. People claimed we needed stability, but, if we did, we needed a continental coach who understood things and could steady the ship, not an English manager who is 'old skool' in many ways, to come and sign average players, letting one of our most talented go in the process.

Our 'search' for a new manager was pretty embarrassing, we had Purslow conduct it - a businessman, at best. Most names being thrown around were just managers whose agent threw their name in the hat.

I think the best coach we should have tried for would have been Felix Magath, an excellent coach with an excellent CV, but I'm unsure if he would have been interested in taking over here.

Been at Schalke a long time now though hasn't he, take some effort to get him to leave there plus the board/unrest isn't making it anymore attractive.

Aren't most people in Purslow's position businessmen though?

It's a big change from the likes of Houllier and Benitez as you say but not only that you've invested money in a lot of continental players, not gonna be easy for them to adapt to Hodgson's way of playing either. I'm amazed he let Aqua go out too, seems bizarre.

Why is there a liverpool forum on rlfans?

Think you have him mixed up with Schaaf at Werder.

Yeah, most people in Purslow's position are businessmen, but why are businessmen making these decisions? You don't employ a businessman to scout and sign your players, so why would you do it for your football club? Purslow, at the end of the day, doesn't have anywhere near the requisite judgment skills to judge a top class manager, so he shouldn't be making the decision.

Well the foreign player thing is already coming up, one of our best reserves - Chris Mavinga - has recently declared he's frustrated as Roy hasn't let him train with the first team, despite having an immense U-19 tournament in which France were victorious. He's also said Roy prefers the English lads over the foreign players, whereas Rafa was open to whatever and let him train with the senior team.

Purslow is a dirty rat.

Rumours this morning of administration due to no new owners.

I given up on rumours a long time ago. Too much spin put on things to figure out the real truth, too many people's opinions being taken as gospel and too many people reading between the lines.

Wouldn't surprise me, but administration won't come until October, no?

Time which we haven't got, I'm afraid. It's no good saying he needs time to get the team playing how he wants because that's basically like saying this season is a write off. He's had pre-season with the squad, he should be telling them how he wants them to play during that time so at least they have chance to practice the tactics.

We were clueless last night. Johnson was turning Skrtel inside out all night, there was nothing for Torres and Gerrard was swamped in midfield. The only plus point of the night was that I've got Tevez in my fantasy league.

As for Mascherano, don't get me started on him. Wish he'd just finally off so I don't have to listen to his constant whining and complaining.

This is possibly the best ever couple of pages of a football thread on RLF. Brilliant