Roy Hodgson hits back at a reporter accused of trying to hurt him in what was a rather spiky post-match interview after defeat at Chelsea.
The 76 year old issued a strong response when asked about his body language and Crystal Palace’s relegation fears after losing 2-1 at Stamford Bridge in midweek after Noni Madueke scored a penalty in the 89th minute of the game.
Hodgson is under more pressure as his Palace side have now gone eight games without a victory and Hodgson looking a frustrated figure come the final whistle.
The result sees Palace sitting 15th in the Premier League table with 18 points from 19 games played, 3 points above the drop zone. Chelsea are 10th with 25 points from the same amount of games played.
After talking to referee Michael Salisbury, he could be seen spitting on the pitch at Chelsea, in disgust before making his way towards the tunnel.
talkSPORT’s Sam Matterface, who had been on commentary for the game, noticed Hodgson’s behaviour at the end of the game.
“Roy, you looked a little bit animated at the end. What was irking you?” he questioned in a post-match interview.
Hodgson at first laughed, but it was soon clear that he was far from happy with the question. He said: “Let’s talk about football, shall we?
“Telling me how I look and how I feel and then suggesting that I should have a reason for how I feel.
“That’s not what I came on the radio to discuss, ask me some questions about the game and I’ll answer them.”
Hodgson was in agreement that his side were unfortunate not to gain at least a point before being questioned about a potential relegation battle.
🗣️ “We’re trashing the referee’s decision and handing it over to someone in front of the TV screen.”
😡 Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson gave @johncrossmirror a passionate response when asked about Chelsea’s late penalty#cpfc | #epl pic.twitter.com/HOLlptM6X1
— Mirror Football (@MirrorFootball) December 28, 2023
He added: “Everything in football, as you know better than me, is decided by the result.
“If that goal hadn’t occurred, and I was talking to you at 1-1, you would have totally different questions.
“You’d be telling us how good you were and whether we should’ve won it.
“Now I have to answer questions about relegation because we didn’t win the game and we didn’t get the points.”
Matterface adds: “We haven’t asked you about that yet.”
Hodgson replied: “Oh, you will.”
Matterface: “But you have to look over your shoulder, don’t you? At this stage of the season, just to see what the gap is?”
“The gap now doesn’t matter, it’s the gap at the end of the season that matters,” Hodgson insisted.
“We know we’ve got to start winning games, we’ve got to starting getting points, but that will be the case irrespective really. It’d be worse if we’re actually in that relegation zone with the need to climb out, at the moment we aren’t there.
“We had a very difficult run of fixtures, we believe that the way we’re playing we’ll get ourselves further away from the relegation zone in the weeks and months to come.”
He added, as per the club website: “I thought we played very well and I thought that we deserved to get something from that game,” the manager said at his press conference. “I think that we really could have even said that a performance like that should have got us the three points, [but] that’s got nothing.
“So then the next question, am I frightened to death now because we are only a few points above the relegation zone? I’ll answer that one for you as well. No, I’m not because it doesn’t matter to me who’s top of the league at this moment in time.
“It doesn’t matter that Aston Villa could go top last night but lose and finish third or fourth. It doesn’t bother me. What bothers me is 38 games and where we’re going to be.
“What I think is that with this team and the way we’ve played the last four games – home to Liverpool where we certainly did not deserve to lose that one; Man City where we defended well and got ourselves an incredible point; Brighton, tough team, 1-1 and a decent performance; Chelsea here today, one of the top teams in the country, if not the world – we’ve come out here and we’ve matched them I think step for step.
“That gives me great hope and great heart for the future. I’m sad at the moment because I think I should be sitting here now with at least one point behind.”
Palace conceded following a late Noni Madueke penalty, awarded after a lengthy VAR check.
“We just have to accept there’s two referees every game, and every time something happens on the field of play and the referee makes the decision, you still have to wait several minutes just in case somebody in the studio, someone hasn’t whispered in his ear that he’s seen something different,” Hodgson said.
“So that happens. People will discuss and look at it themselves: ‘Was it, wasn’t it?’ But the fact is we are taking away the decisions or we are trashing, if you like, the decisions of the guy on the field close to it and we’re handing it over to someone in front of a TV screen.
“It wasn’t my obvious idea of what a penalty looks like of course, but that’s the same for so many penalties I see given are not my obvious idea of what a penalty looks like because I suppose I’m conditioned to some extent by having seen penalties given and not given for very many years.”
Despite the result, Hodgson praised his players application in a game he felt they were unfortunate to lose
“How did I think we matched Chelsea? I thought our pressure was good,” the manager explained. “I thought we stopped them building up a play for long periods of time.
“We had a good period in the first-half. We started the game very well. They had a period after maybe 15 or 20 minutes where they cut through us once or twice.
“But after that I think we sorted that out and I thought in the second-half really there was possibly more action in and around their penalty area than even there was around ours.
“I was comfortable with our passing throughout the game, but like everything else you need to convert if you like those opportunities and half-opportunities in around the opponent’s penalty area into goals, otherwise, unfortunately, you run the risk that you’ll get something at the other end.”
Hodgson was asked about the position Palace find themselves in, but felt the reporter was trying to upset him with the line of questioning.
He said on Amazon Prime Video: “Of course it is a concern. It is always a concern when you are not winning matches and we are not winning matches at the moment.
“But it would be even more of a concern if I thought the team was playing poorly, if I didn’t think the players were working as hard as they are, showing the spirit they are showing, that would be much more of a concern.
“And don’t forget our last four games have been at home to Liverpool, away to Manchester City, at home to Brighton and away to Chelsea
“So we’re not exactly playing the teams in the area we are in the league.
“So once again you are trying to hurt me with the statistic, of course it hurts to be near the bottom of the table, it does.
“But it’s a statistic, it would hurt me if we were bottom of the table after 38 games, but being near the bottom with 19 games to go, that doesn’t hurt me anywhere near as much as you are perhaps trying to suggest it should.”
This is how fans reacted as Roy Hodgson hits back at a reporter accused of ‘trying to hurt me’ in his spiky post-match interview…
@ksanneh_: Sack Roy @CEO4TAG
@IR7VS: Make roy get the tube home.
@PepiEnjoyer: Call me spoiled but I would love if we got more than one win since October
@apfarrington: There’s a reason we are one of the top teams to concede between 70-90 mins… Roy has to go.
@MattYoung82: Wouldn’t normally do this and I’m ashamed to do it @CEO4TAG, but something needs to change. We are in trouble. Roy needs to go and we need to be more progressive. Have the upmost respect for what Roy has done, but we need to move on now.
@JSB93x: ROY OUT. @CEO4TAG OUT
@kev_blaker: Now sack Hodgson, do us all a favour before it’s to late
@Mark_CPFC: Sack him
@Gordon_Reid1982: We were terrified of winning that game. There for the taking and we have butchered it.
@Superturk84: @CEO4TAG were so spoilt! How dare we dare to dream
@TheHurtLeg: Hodgson being a horrible rude wanker, what a shock
@Lauredblue4: Hodgson hasn’t even looked at the table over Christmas! Surely that is a sackable offence for a manager to not know the situation his club is in! He thought we were 6 points clear! I am fuming with that but Parish will just sit on his arse and do nothing. #cpfc
@iampeterkelly: Roy Hodgson’s post match interview is shocking.. Rude, obnoxious, abrasive.. guy is in denial and thinks we are 6 points off relegation.. it’s 3 points you mug!! #cpfc #royout
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