ROY Hodgson knows he is under huge pressure after Crystal Palace were thumped 5-0 by Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Eagles supporters displayed banners venting their anger and frustration at Steve Parish – who was at the game – and the American co-owners.
One banner read: ‘Wasted potential on and off the pitch; weak decisions taking us backwards’.
‘No shared vision; no structured plan: Parish out, Yanks out,’ read another.
Palace have won two of their last fourteen Premier League games and were knocked out of the FA Cup in the third round by Everton last week.
Mikel Arteta’s side were 2-0 up at the break after Gabriel’s header and Dean Henderson’s own goal. Leandro Trossard added a third before Gabriel Martinelli scored twice in two minutes in added-time.
Former Brighton and Chelsea boss Graham Potter was at the game, while another out-of-work manager, Steve Cooper, has also been linked with replacing Hodgson.
“Managers always take responsibility, the full brunt of it,” Hodgson said when asked about the criticism of the supporters.
“How does it make me feel? It makes me feel a bit sad, it makes me feel a bit disappointed of course because I think we are doing the best job we can possibly do.
“But I’m a manager of a football club that isn’t in a very good position at the moment, so everything that happens to managers in that position will happen to me.”
Hodgson said he understood the anger of the fans.
“I can, because we are going through a very bad spell. We were hoping this year to really kick on and that has not happened. I think there are reasons for that, it’s not quite as simplistic as all that, but fans are always entitled to their opinions,” he said.
“They care, they want to see a strong Crystal Palace team and at the moment today they have seen a team that has been outplayed by a superior opponent and I think they are entitled to make their opinions felt.
‘But I’m afraid there are times when we look at it from our position and say, ‘what more can we do?’ We need people we are trying to get on the field to try and get us results and it is not always that easy.
“As far as I am concerned, the fans are quite entitled to their opinions and I’m pretty certain now they will let the club know.”
On Palace’s website, Ebere Eze insisted Palace had given their best.
Eze said: “We conceded a few cheap goals but against the kind of team that they are they are always going to punish you. We move on to the next one and we will try to play it right.
“It wasn’t through any lack of effort. We tried, we did what we could, we had a few good spells but we didn’t take our chances and they will punish you. If small mistakes and small details go wrong, that’s how it goes.
“Being honest, I’m going to forget this very quickly and try to move past it. We will focus on the game we have at home [against Sheffield United on Tuesday week].
“We want to win it, we want to do everything we can to get it right and that is the main thing.”
