Roy Hodgson says it would be "a sad day for Liverpool" if the club's new owners abandoned the Anfield tradition of loyalty to managers and dismissed him after the team's worst start to a season for 57 years. He called questions about his future "insulting" and revealed that senior figures from New England Sports Ventures had discussed a "tie-up" with Fulham when he was in charge at Craven Cottage.

Despite 35 years in club and international management Hodgson has been shocked by the antipathy of some Liverpool fans and the ferocity of the media inquisition on Merseyside. Before today's lunchtime derby at Everton, he said: "I think it would be a sad day for football and for Liverpool if someone who had been brought in with the pomp and circumstance, and the money it took them to release me from my previous contract, and being feted as one of England's best managers – if after eight games people are deciding this guy has got to go.

"It would be sad for me. These things happen in football. You can't have the years in football I've had without ever being sacked, but it would be a sad day for Liverpool because that isn't Liverpool's style. So I find that type of question insulting to me and even more insulting to the club.

"They didn't employ me lightly. It took them two months to make the decision, they interviewed a lot of people before they decided I was the right man and they paid Fulham the compensation they wanted. For me the job is not two and a half months, it's longer than that. But I'm aware that if we keep losing then people might say 'this is not the right man'."

Liverpool are 18th in the Premier League table with six points from seven games, one place below Everton. In his first interview since Friday's takeover, John W Henry, who engineered the purchase from Tom Hicks and George Gillett, said the club faces "real challenges".

Hodgson, who has a three-year contract, said: "I met them when I was at Fulham. They were interested in a tie-up. As far as I know Fulham were never for sale during my time there. Mohamed Al Fayed never wanted to sell Fulham. If they were trying to buy the club it is something only Al Fayed would know about."

Everton are without Marouane Fellaini and Phil Jagielka as well as Jack Rodwell, Louis Saha and Steven Pienaar for the 183rd league derby – and the 214th overall – while Liverpool's striker Fernando Torres has recovered from a muscle strain sustained 10 minutes into the home defeat to Blackpool two weeks ago.

Hodgson said: "I think his future is relatively secure at the club. The one thing we have to remember about Fernando Torres is that he's a human being who has come in for an enormous amount of criticism, not least during the World Cup from people in Spain and around the world.

"The cry goes up 'What's happened to Fernando Torres?' Maybe nothing's happened to Fernando Torres. Maybe he's not playing very well and he's not happy not playing well. Could it just be that? Maybe I see things too naively at times. He's trying very hard to play well but he's been hampered by one or two minor injuries. Certainly in training I see him trying to help our cause as best he can."

Of the extreme reaction to Liverpool's poor early season form, Hodgson says: "Like everyone else I get really immersed in the subject. I start looking through the eye of the microscope at the miniscule particles of dust, trying to see if there is an atom there. Maybe it is just a bit of dust."