Houllier was supposed to be a very highly rated technical coach after his successes in setting up the Clairfontaine academy for the French FA and was largely credited for his background/foundation work which set the stepping stone for France winning the 1998 World Cup.
However, it has been proven that he is horrible at man management and to some extent, tactics, as he publically lambasted David Ginola for the French defeat a the 1994 World Cup play-off against Bulgaria where France conceded 2 very late goals. Still, after this public debacle, Moores still hired him and stuck by him when Liverpool's game deteriorated into a long ball punt upfield ala Wimbledon in the 80s.
His player purchases and judgement is appaling at best yet he was the best supported Liverpool manager in terms of transfer financing by Moores. Liverpool have bought very bad players, especially by Houllier but Moores was the culprit because of his blind loyalty and willingness to finance the purchases of nobodys at ridiculous prices until Liverpool had a large squad of dodgy foreignerw who Houllier himself dare not put in the starting line up!