Roy Hodgson admits his Liverpool mistake as he makes telling Steven Gerrard admission

Former Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson has confessed what he would have done differently if he could rewind on his stint as Liverpool manager, and Steven Gerrard's role topped his list

Roy Hodgson has revealed how he wishes he had leaned more on Steven Gerrard to make a success out of his ill-fated spell as Liverpool manager. The former Inter Milan boss was hired to replace Anfield icon Rafa Benitez in the summer of 2010 but lasted just six months before he was fired in January 2011.

The club was up for sale at the time of his appointment, which was met with consternation by many fans. Swathes of the Anfield support wanted club icon Kenny Dalglish appointed as Benitez's successor, and a tough start to life in Liverpool saw Hodgson fighting an uphill battle for almost all of his time at the club.

It's even been speculated Gerrard, who later worked under Hodgson with England, missed a penalty against Blackburn on purpose in January 2011 to help solidify Hodgson's sacking, claims which have been widely shut down. The coaching journeyman referred to his former captain while outlining what he might have done differently if offered the opportunity again.

"I don't think I dealt with it very well," he told Gary Lineker on The Rest Is Football podcast as he looked back on his tenure. "I think [Jamie] Carragher summed it up well. He said, 'You came in also wanting to coach us, we'd just been coached for three years by Benitez.'

"Maybe someone who came in with a softer, more human approach and less coaching-oriented [would have been better-suited]. But of course I'd had a lot of success during that period, so I think I didn't research mentally, 'Right, what is this job? What am I going into? What's it gonna need? What are they gonna expect? What will the players want?'

"I just went in, 'Right, this is what I've been doing. It's been working, let's keep it going.' Which was obviously a mistake. But it's one of those mistakes I have to forgive myself in a way simply because I don't how I could have washed away the feelings and the work that had got me there."

Hodgson also addressed the disruption that followed when Fenway Sports Group, then known as New England Sports Ventures, purchased Liverpool in late 2010. He revealed one of the new owners' first actions was to gain intel from supporter groups enquiring as to whether Hodgson was the right man for the job, and the consensus seemed to be a resounding "no."

"And that was being backed up on the field because we weren't winning," he continued. "The team actually wasn't really very good at that stage. We'd lost [Fernando] Torres [to Chelsea in January 2011]... who was left of that team? There was Jamie, I suppose. There was [Pepe] Reina, Steven, of course, was still there. But it wasn't the Liverpool team that had done so well [under Benitez]."

Asked what he would have done differently if he had a redo over the Anfield job, the 78-year-old responded: "I always thought Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard were on board what we were trying to do... but I might have tried to get more out of them.

"[Ask], 'Look, how has it been? What have you not liked? What do you think needs to be changed here?' And even get their ideas about some of the players. I did it very much as the old-fashioned manager-head coach, my responsibility, I've got to do it. I think I'd have done that."

Hodgson's efforts were made to look all the more insufficient after Dalglish replaced him and immediately got more out of the team. The Scot lifted Liverpool from their bottom-half battle to finish sixth and just miss out on European qualification.

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