Personally, ive been hoping for Dalglish since the says of Houllier, always believed we needed a Scot in charge, and Kenny did a fantastic job in the lat 80's, and was the last manager to win the league back in 1990.
However, im not overly worried by the appointment of Roy Hodgson, I rate him a decent manager, with a lot of potential given the right backing and support. If I recall, he was a bigger household name in the 90's, when he did quite well at both Inter and Blackburn from memory, although his last season at Rovers did end quite funny.
Im sorry Waddi, but id have to disagree with "it doesnt take much to make a crap team into a good team"... if anything, it takes a lot more to take a failing team, and to take a team from battling against relegation and save them, and then guiding them to 7th in the Premiership the following season, and then actually guiding that team to a major European final, takes someone pretty special imho. If I remember, he won the English Club Manager of the Season award this year, which is chosen from the top 92 clubs in England, by all the other managers in the English leagues. Id say they know what they are talking about, better than most, when it comes to football management.
Liverpool is a massive challenge, and sometimes you need to think outside the box. Your logic of "getting a big name manager" has been tried by both Liverpool and England already... I mean Capello has enjoyed wonderful success since he took over as England coach of course (not!), and Benitez (and to a lesser extent Houllier - being in charge of the France 1998 world cup winning squad), were both big name managers, and neither delivered the title to Anfield, despite some fantastic times and successes along the way.
When one considers the games won success of Benitez was only in the 50% region, it suddenly makes Hodgson look very promising - if he has managed 40% without the finances or standard of players that Liverpool have, then id say that is pretty remarkable, when you consider the gulf between the two teams.
Lets give him a chance, its a new start, he's a low-key manager and maybe thats what we need, someone who does not play a game for the press or look for media attention, but instead gets on and does his job. If at the end of the season, we are in a similar or worse position than we were at the end of the 2010 season, then it will be something im pretty sure the board will review, but if he can make the improvements needed for a top four finish, then it will be a-okay for me. I for one don't expect him to deliver the Premiership before 2013, but who knows what could happen, it is football after all.
Don't write him off just because his name is not Fabio Capello or Jose Mourinho etc... give him a fair chance, if anything, it's the managers who save small and struggling clubs, who usually tend to be better at getting the existing players playing at their top levels and the team flowing as smoothly as it should be - contrary to popular belief, Liverpool are technically skint right now (the £13m extra we have gained through our new record sponsorship deal, has been far outweighed by the £20m+ lost through our failiure to qualify for the Champions League, and thats before you consider the millions we had to pay Benitez for his failiure, just to get rid of him), a big name manager who has only ever managed big clubs, would only want to come in if they given tens of millions to spend on new players, and not forced to work with the existing players or sell to fund new players, there are a lot of fantastic players at the club, indeed some of the best players in the world (Mascherano, Gerrard, Torres for instance), and many other players who when they play as a team, at their best, can beat just about any team in the world on their day, but for the past season, we have simply not had a manager who has been able to get them to do this; in addition, continental managers often have a serious problem with playing players in their correct position (again I refer to Capello, Benitez and Houllier) and make the most bizarre decisions with regards the sales of players (Xabi Alonson anyone?) in an act of stupidity or stubborness, a low-key English manager is more likely to think before he does and play his best team, week in, week out, in their best formation, in their favoured positions, with the sole aim of winning each and every game (Benitez and his flawwed rotation system NEVER worked in the league in the 6 years he was doing it, but was too stubborn to change, also his hatred of playing players in their correct positions, and his love of Shite Dirk Kuyt above everyone else including poor Crouch).
Though I must admit I have enjoyed the Spanish influence of Benitez upto about 2008 when it all started to go horribly wrong, I for one am glad to see a straigh-talking, down to earth British manager at the helm again!