SOCCER ANGLES/MICHAEL WALKER:There is already an opinion that Hodgson is not the man for Liverpool. He might not be but it still feels early to be making that call.

THANK GOD for Roy Hodgson. That may be a minority opinion on Merseyside – and elsewhere – and the sentiment might not last until the end of this column, never mind until the end of the season, but there was something very admirable in Hodgson’s reaction on Wednesday regarding the out-of-the-blue-and-into-the-red appointment of Damien Comolli as Liverpool’s “director of football strategy”.

The background is that Comolli is basically distrusted in England, a perception that stems from his time at Tottenham when he and Martin Jol saw eye-to-eye in a toe-to-toe kind of way.

Ultimately both men left White Hart Lane distressed, but Jol departed admired. For Comolli, well, it was different.

He was the problem.

That notion was put to Hodgson on Wednesday, that Comolli was a problem, and a failure to boot. This man who now has an office at Anfield where they keep the cheque-book for players.

Hodgson’s response was: “I think that must be a gross simplification of the matter.”

Will there be a better answer to any question in football this season? Doubtful. Not only did Hodgson sound like a character from Jane Austen in tone, he simultaneously stood up for that shellacked concept called common sense. For that alone, he merits our good wishes.

Of course it was a gross simplification of the matter. This is the Premier League. If it’s not a gross simplification, it should be appearing somewhere else. If it doesn’t fit into a snappy one-line assessment, then it will demand to be looked at from different angles, with context and all the rest of it. Who can be bothered with that when you can text in “Roy Out”? When you can just call someone you’ve never met and never seen at work, a tube, and dismiss them, that’s much easier.

More satisfactory. And quick. Suits the format of our football-watching lives.

You don’t need to think. But that could be part of Hodgson’s own problem. Not only does he have charge of a misfiring team – one that’s been misfiring for a while now, Rafa – Hodgson is a thinker. He talked on Wednesday of the era of the dictator-manager being over and that while Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley and so on were great, he has to “live in this time”.

Thinking in football gets a bad press in this time, even though the good managers never stop doing that. But who has time for long-termism? Roy, you’ve been here more than 15 minutes, get it sorted.

What some appear to prefer is action without thought. In that, we live in bountiful times. Yaya Toure’s decision to leave a Manchester City match at half-time falls into this category, a classic of its type.

So does City’s excusing of it. Yaya had to beat the traffic, apparently.

You don’t need gross simplification when it comes to this matter. There is Yaya’s bottom line and that is all there is.

Hodgson would have been pilloried if that had happened at Anfield. There is already an established opinion that he is not the man. He might not be but it still feels early to be making that call.

Some of the scepticism has arisen because managing Liverpool at a time of such instability is wrong-footing, but some of it is because Hodgson is different.

He probably said things of skyscraper-sized common sense at Fulham but who was listening? At Liverpool they listen to other people listening. It is a manic football club.

Even when Hodgson has uttered populist clichés, some just have not felt right. But that does not mean he is wrong. His achievement at Fulham cannot be erased due to a few bad results at the beginning at Liverpool with a squad he did not assemble. Yet nor does Fulham mean that Hodgson is a fit at Liverpool.

This is the kind of non-gross simplification Hodgson deserves. Judging by what we know already and by other remarks surrounding Comolli on Wednesday, Hodgson does not think his is the right answer every time. There are plenty in management, and not just football management, who are not wise enough to see that for the strength it is.

Those who know him say Hodgson is tougher than he can seem, so perhaps he can ride this season out. His consultative style may even suit the new Americans in control and Comolli. What is perceived as a weakness could turn into the factor that keeps him in his post.

One other thought. For someone who has managed Inter Milan along the way to surviving in professional football until the age of 63 – and with his grammar intact – it could be a gross simplification to portray Roy Hodgson as someone immune to being cute.

He may have a strategy to show to Comolli.

Bruce's first step after fork in road

A MONTH ago this column wrote that Sunderland were on the cusp of something, it just didn’t know what. That afternoon Sunderland outplayed Manchester United yet only drew 0-0. Sunderland then went to Ewood Park and drew 0-0 there, though Blackburn were reduced to 10 men for the second half, thereby reducing the quality of that Sunderland point.

But a point it was. Then Sunderland defeated Aston Villa at home, a touch luckily by common consent. That left Steve Bruce’s squad staring at fifth place if they won their next match. Sunderland were on the cusp.

Long before Newcastle belted in their fifth last Sunday, however, that looked more than fanciful. It looked unrealistic, indulgent even. Sunderland were humiliated by their great rivals and the black and white guts on show in the shape of Kevin Nolan and Andy Carroll, in particular, made Sunderland look lightweight and scared.

It was a shattering result for Bruce. Sunderland have still won just one Premier League game away from home this calendar year. And it’s November.

The pressure that places on home performance will tell one day and if that is this afternoon when Stoke visit Wearside then Bruce will be tap-dancing nervously. Locally, an anti-Bruce feeling is simmering.

Then on Tuesday Sunderland go to White Hart Lane, and after that to Chelsea next Sunday. The following game is at home to Everton on a Monday night live on TV.

It is a hazardous run of fixtures in any context. But on the back of an historic embarrassment it is treacherous.

The Sunderland hierarchy want to stand by Bruce and avoid panic but they could soon be on the cusp of thinking differently, especially if Sunderland fans vote with their feet. Bruce needs a win today. It is just the first step on another journey after last Sunday’s fork in the road at St James’ Park.