zocoss

22 Jan 12, 09:03

Furious Dalglish blasts his Liverpool players after Bolton humbling

Taxi for Dalglish: The frustrated manager was left fuming

Furious Kenny Dalglish threatened to get rid of his under-performing Liverpool stars after they suffered a humiliating defeat at Bolton.

The manager was enraged by his team’s under-par performance and ripped into them after the game for their disrespectful attitude. ‘They will not be here for much longer if that is the way they perform,’ said Dalglish.

‘We expect a much higher standard than that. It is all very well saying they might be distracted by a game on Wednesday, but every game is a massive game for us.’

Liverpool defend a 1-0 lead against Manchester City in the second leg of the Carling Cup semi-final at Anfield on Wednesday, but Dalglish was embarrassed as his team were rolled over by opponents facing a fight for their Premier League lives.

‘If they think they can turn the clock on and off, they will not be turning it on and off at this club,’ he added.

‘If it is a one-off, fine, but if it is going to be repeated then there will not be too many repeating their appearances in a red shirt because we won’t stand for that.

‘Respect is a huge part of being a successful club and if they do not have that respect for other teams and, most importantly, this club, they are in a bit of trouble.’

Liverpool never recovered from conceding a Mark Davies goal after just four minutes and Bolton raced into a 2-0 lead through Nigel Reo-Coker, before Craig Bellamy pulled a goal back.

Humbled: Steven Gerrard and Liverpool put in an abject display

Group hug: Bolton players celebrate their third goal

It was only a second home League win of the season for Owen Coyle’s side, whose third was scored by defender Gretar Steinsson early in the second half. But Dalgish said his players’ approach was an affront to the Liverpool way.

‘If they thought they could just turn up and get a result then they got a lesson today,’ he said. ‘The most disappointing thing for me is that I don’t think we were ready to play the game. I don’t think the approach was correct, I don’t think the way we went about our work was correct.’

To make matters worse, Liverpool goalscorer Craig Bellamy was caught up in a row with Bolton’s Nigel Reo-Coker by the tunnel at half-time over a first-half challenge.

The pair first fell out in 2007 and Reo-Coker said afterwards: ‘I have no respect for him so he can do what he wants.’

I.imba

22 Jan 12, 10:56

You can see how screwed liverpool is now, without lucas and suarez they are just an average team or even worse. Gerrard is good but football is a team game and everyone needs support, but i cant see any support for gerrard. He is lacking a holding midfield to cover him when he needs to go forward, this leaves him stranded in the midfield. During attack bellamy is the only one in the team able to keep their defence on their toes and everyone knows he is in his 30s, who knows what can happen. Still, a striker is priority for liverpool, suarez is not a finisher but an excellent support for a striker. Carrol is just not that standard yet

Medicated Oil

22 Jan 12, 11:21

His charges were saving their legs for the C & F cup match next week.

So, they do not want to waste energy on this match.

Their highest chance of a medal is C cup since they won by a single goal in the 1st leg.

As for the F Cup, they have to try harder to beat their old rival.

I dun blame them for their lousy performance since the squad is pretty lean now.

As for axing players performing below par, Ah Ken have a heavy task in hand as he bought a lot of lousy players who cannot performed.

I dunno who can he replace from lousy to worse.

As for ponytail, enough is said about him but what can Ah Ken replace with since Kuyt also out of form. (Kuyt is a better choice at least he can provide assist)

Liverpool will not qualify for champion league next season unless they can get a ready made striker.

But, Ah Ken's buy UK only approach will most probably land Liverpool another white elephant.

zocoss

23 Jan 12, 11:36

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish feels the heat as signings fall flat with Bolton defeat the latest blow

Liverpool publicly apologised to Bolton earlier this season for questioning their global appeal in the midst of the Premier League TV rights debacle.

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Barren spell: Andy Carroll has struggled for goals and form since moving to Liverpool from Newcastle a year ago Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Little did we know the full extent of the club’s remorse: in the event, the Reebok Stadium was the backdrop to the most sorry performance of Kenny Dalglish’s second reign in charge as Liverpool were beaten 3-1 by Bolton Wanderers.

John W Henry and Tom Werner plan to fly into Merseyside on Monday, expecting to see their club progress to their first major final in five years. A glance at the Premier League table suggests Carling Cup progress will do little more than apply a sticking plaster to yet another sickly campaign.

When Dalglish returned as Liverpool manager, he endangered the infallibility he enjoyed as a club ambassador. For many of his brethren, querying his judgment is still akin to questioning the celibacy of the Pope. Such historical, unconditional devotion will be tested if performances and signings continue to fail to match expectations. There’s no Hicks, no Gillett, no Parry, no Purslow, no Benitez and no Hodgson to blame any more, so for the time being alternative non-provocative, populist targets are being located.

The most expensive Liverpool players fit the bill, although if the club continues to play like this the politically vulnerable director of football, Damien Comolli, will be well advised to stock up on a ready supply of tin hats.

Dalglish has accumulated over three decades of credit at Anfield, so it will take longer than 12 months for his reign to be subject to the same scrutiny within Merseyside’s boundaries as it necessitates beyond it.

His break with tradition with a full-frontal rebuke of his players in the aftermath of the 3-1 defeat surprised many, but there was a flaw in his argument.

He bought at least six of those players, and in some cases the dip into the abyss of abominable badness was not an especially severe drop. For many of them, it was not a lengthy journey from being plain mediocre to wretchedly appalling.

Luis Suárez, absent for three more games, stands alone as the unqualified success of Liverpool’s recent investment. Anyone who thinks he’ll hang around for more than another 18 months if Liverpool are not back in the Champions League has learned nothing from the final chapters of Fernando Torres’s Anfield story.

Liverpool’s scorer and sole contributor here, Craig Bellamy, also underlined why of all last summer’s purchases he was the one that made most sense.

Herein lies another irony. Liverpool have been sucked into a world where players are judged on flip charts, statistical data and youthfulness. Bellamy does not fit the profile of the Moneyballderdash cult Liverpool have championed.

He is 32, he cost no transfer fee and he will be worth nothing once his contract is up. But try telling anyone on The Kop those in their early 20s purchased for in excess of £20 million represent forward thinking while the pursuit of ageing, experienced, proven talent is a retrograde step.

Liverpool’s transfer outlay has been seduced and sabotaged by the most dangerous word in football: ‘potential’. Andy Carroll, Jordan Henderson, Charlie Adam and Stewart Downing were signed at huge cost not because of anything extraordinary they had ever done, but for what they might eventually do. And they are not doing it.

Carroll is the most striking case of all, and the most imaginative work of fiction to have been written in Liverpool recently must surely be the scouting report valuing him at £35 million.

Various theories have now been proposed as to why he has been so abysmal, but the most simple is surely the most convincing: he is not a particularly good footballer. There is nothing there: no first touch, no burst of pace, no physical presence. Milk turns quicker than Carroll.

The contrast with David Ngog was devastating. Ngog, a former emergency Liverpool striker of limited means, was sold to Bolton for £4 million last summer. As a lone striker, he was everything Carroll was not, his delicate flick in the build up to the excellent Mark Davies’s fourth-minute goal setting the tone for a comfortable evening for Owen Coyle’s side.

Nigel Reo-Coker and Gretar Steinsson made Bellamy’s first-half strike irrelevant and lifted Bolton out of the bottom three.

Coyle believes the money invested from the sale of Gary Cahill will enable Bolton to emerge from the transfer window stronger. Exactly a year ago, Liverpool argued the same when they re-invested the Torres fee.

They’ve collected six more points this season than this time a year ago. Get your sabermetric calculator around that, Mr Henry.

If everyone at Anfield believes this is a consequence of a single poor display at the Reebok Stadium, you can add lack of self-awareness to Liverpool’s mounting Premier League problems.

Medicated Oil

23 Jan 12, 22:32

I think Ah Ken and talent director should come to Singapore to become talent since their obession with statistics is in sync with the elite system.

Can study does not mean can manage and lead a country.

Ah Ken have a lot to explain to Henry for being unable to make his UK pets perform.

Although a lot of fans are giving themselves dumb excuse that we are buying for the future, there is no future if these millionaires cannot play up to standard.

I dun see any future if we are at the lower half of the BPL table.

If they forgot how to play, please look how hard the man utd and arsenal players played every single game.

They are paid millions and they deserved every single penny.

Liverpool millionaire players are overpaid and not performing at all.

Another clearance is on the way.

I.imba

24 Jan 12, 18:46

The liverpool players are bad compare to those in United or City. Then the manager's starting eleven is also not the best from all the available player. All the midfield players has a whole lot need to learn from gerrard before gerrard decide to hang his boots. Sometime i dun blame carrol for his lousy performance because his style is totally different from the liverpool's style of football. Thinking hard why Kenny wants to buy him. And he later bought Downing to try put in more crosses for carrol and its obviously not working. I think liverpool in some serious over haul with all its not-good-enough players before able to compete for the top4. At this rate they will be out of top4 in next season also.

Medicated Oil

24 Jan 12, 21:28

Henry already set the target for champion league soccer next season.

If Ah Ken and his pets cannot deliver, Henry will not hesitate to sack him as the return for his investment have brought about lousy results.

The players he bought cannot deliver that high standard day in day out like Man Utd players.

They are not that kind of material so how to expect them to be ?

So, Ah Lex still have the key to motivate his players though his hairdryer approach.

Ah Ken's liking for UK players have also affected his foreign players and the whole team standard have dropped altogether.

I believe Ah Ken know what is his best 11 but he is trying very hard not to get his star player like Ah Bell injured. (The only professional that I see in Liverpool is Luis, Agger, Ah Bell and Reina; they played hard every single minute)

My only hope is for Ah Ken to use Shelvey and Spearing as Adam really cannot make it.

Ah Gong

24 Jan 12, 21:45

they should not have sold torres

zocoss

25 Jan 12, 11:39

Honesty the best policy for KD

Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish has defended his very public criticism of the players after insisting there can be no hiding place from failure.

Dalglish: No regrets about outburst

The Scot diverted from his usual stout defence of the squad to lambast their attitude and lack of application in Saturday's abject 3-1 defeat at struggling Bolton.

In arguably the worst display since Dalglish took over for a second spell a year ago the Reds boss pulled no punches in telling the group any repetition was likely to result in a swift exit.

Because the 60-year-old is usually so protective of his players the hard-hitting comments carried far more resonance and attracted plenty of headlines but he does not regret speaking out.

"I think what was said had to be said," Dalglish explained.

"It's a difficult thing to do but I think it was an honest thing to do as well.

"At the end of the day I don't think anyone can object to the fact that we never played anything like we're capable of playing.

"I don't think anybody can hide behind a performance like we had on Saturday and I don't think anyone would try to do that.

"In the past we've rightly praised them when they've deserved it, we've given them plaudits when we've done well and we've congratulated them for the way they've gone about their work.

"We have to be honest in our appraisal when we've been bad as well.

"When you've been critical it doesn't mean to say you're getting any pleasure from it because at the end of the day we're all in it together.

"It's not the coaching staff and the players, it's everybody."

The woeful display at the Reebok Stadium could not have come at a worse time with two huge matches ahead in the next few days.

Premier League leaders Manchester City visit Anfield on Wednesday as they attempt to overturn a 1-0 deficit from the first leg of their Carling Cup semi-final.

Three days later arch-rivals Manchester United arrive for an FA Cup fourth round tie, an encounter which is always fiery on and off the field but has been given extra spice in the wake of striker Luis Suarez's eight-match ban after being found guilty of racially abusing United's Patrice Evra.

Dalglish suggested one of the reasons his side were so off their game at Bolton was because they were focusing on these games, the first of which could present Liverpool with their first trip to Wembley since 1996 and a first final since their FA Cup triumph six years ago.

But the Scot, wary of what happened at the weekend, will not entertain any mention of Wembley until their place has been secured.

And that is no easy task against a City side who are averaging almost three goals a game in the league this season.

"Let's not be running away with ourselves, let's make sure we get the hard work done first," Dalglish told liverpoolfc.tv.

"We have a slight advantage, we just need to go into the game and compete.

"It's not going to be a game that's going to be anything other than really difficult for us.

"They got a fantastic result on Sunday against Tottenham (winning 3-2) which keeps them at the top of the league, so I'm sure they'll be well up for it.

"For us it's important to do our own job, and if we do that then a bit of luck as well wouldn't go amiss.

"Hopefully it will be a fantastic occasion for everyone."

While they are unbeaten at home this season Liverpool's record at Anfield is disappointing, having drawn seven of 11 league matches.

Those performances have left fans disappointed and Dalglish, having seen a packed away end at the Reebok Stadium empty well before the end, has called on the players to put in a performance which will give supporters something to cheer.

"There'll be loads of support for us but we need to do something that's going to get the supporters on our side," he added.

"We can't always leave it for them to lift us, sometimes we need to lift them.

"We should never assume we're going to get the fantastic support that we do - we've got to earn that.

"They've got to see that we're up to put in a tremendous effort on Wednesday night to get a result for the club."

I.imba

27 Jan 12, 22:15

Originally posted by Ah Gong:

they should not have sold torres

I dun think is they want to sell torres, but is torres want to leave liverpool.

Dalglish defend his very public criticism of his players

Furious Dalglish blasts his Liverpool players after Bolton humbling

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish feels the heat as signings fall flat with Bolton defeat the latest blow

Liverpool publicly apologised to Bolton earlier this season for questioning their global appeal in the midst of the Premier League TV rights debacle.

Honesty the best policy for KD