DURING his aborted Anfield reign, Roy Hodgson acquired the lamentable knack of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.

Speaking ahead of this afternoon’s first reunion with his former employers, it seems little has changed for the 63-year-old.

While Kenny Dalglish has been at pains to defend his predecessor’s stewardship and underline the support offered during those tumultuous six months, Hodgson admits the mere presence of the Anfield legend meant it "wasn’t easy" being at Liverpool.

And far from being the close friends Dalglish intimates, Hodgson claims to have endured a difficult relationship with his counterpart, not helped by the fact the Scot made clear a desire he should be the man to have replaced Rafael Benitez last summer.

A chastised Hodgson is now at struggling West Bromwich Albion, who host Liverpool at the Hawthorns this afternoon. And the Englishman admits attempting to overcome Dalglish will feel like nothing new.

"It's difficult to compete with icons," says Hodgson. "I came to the right club, perhaps I didn't come at the right time because Kenny did make it clear at that time that he wanted the job.

"The people who were making the decisions at that time decided to go for me, and as a result that left Kenny in a difficult position because he is one who wanted the job.

"So when things didn't go well, having him in the background wasn't easy and wouldn't have been easy for any coach.

"But that happens at virtually every football club, to be quite honest. There's always someone in the wings who's a little bit of an icon and who's ready to take over if the results don't go that way."

Dalglish will give Hodgson a warm handshake both before and after this afternoon’s game, with Liverpool looking to strengthen their claims for European qualification that looked extremely unlikely

And the Scot said: "I had a good close relationship with Roy when he was here and that is on record as well. I said at the time and I said when I came in that I’ve always been here to help the football club and the most important person at the football club is the guy in charge and that guy always maintains the respect of the people at the club.

"The guy who sits in the chair is the most important one and the one who always gets the support. As far as I know, it has been no different."

However, Hodgson says: "Kenny and I have never been particularly close friends. I don't know him that well but I have no animosity towards him.

"I'm perfectly happy to see him in the job and I'm happy to be in the job I'm in."

Hodgson was keen to stress his sole motivation ahead of the match lies with keeping West Brom in the Premier League, rather than proving a point to his previous employers.