We’re getting better, insists winless Dalglish

IT may not be reflected with results, but Kenny Dalglish is sure that Liverpool have improved since his arrival despite seeing his winless run extended to three matches.

The atmosphere may be different but since the former manager returned, Liverpool have been dumped out of the FA Cup at Manchester United, beaten at Blackpool and now held by neighbours Everton.

Some of the defending has been poor and although he talks of increased confidence, that has not been reflected in all of his players’ performances.

However, the caretaker manager remains positive that his side are moving in the right direction.

He said: “I’d say we deserved more from the game. I can see the belief coming back into those players and that’s great news.

“They’ve all got to adapt to that and it’s a great credit that they’ve adapted to what Stevie (Clarke), Sammy (Lee) and myself have asked them to do. The training is different to what it was. That doesn’t mean it’s better but it’s different but they believe in what they’re doing.

“The best way to turn it round is put our words into performances.

“I have not been surprised negatively by anyone since I came here. I’ve been really pleased with attitude.

“I think we were a little bit unfortunate to come in after the first half only 1-0 up. Overall I think we had more shots, more efforts and more clear-cut chances, so possibly we could say we deserved more from the game.”

David Moyes remains without a victory at Anfield in nine attempts since taking over Everton in 2002 and while he was impressed with his team’s second-half performance, he has challenged Tottenham to match Chelsea’s £3 million (€3.5m) offer for Steven Pienaar after leaving the South African out at Anfield.

He said: “Steven came to see me on Saturday and said that he didn’t feel he was in the right place to play.

“We’ve accepted an offer from Chelsea, we haven’t accepted an offer from Tottenham. Steven hasn’t agreed terms with Chelsea and felt that he isn’t in the right place and I felt it would be better not to use him if that was the case.

“He’ll be in training on Monday because at the moment we don’t have a deal.

“We gave his representatives a chance to talk to Chelsea but he hasn’t got permission to talk to Tottenham because they haven’t offered the same money.

“We’re disappointed we didn’t take all three points after the second-half performance but I am delighted we went in at half-time only 1-0 down.

“Liverpool had been the better team in the first half so we have taken a draw from a game where most people favoured Liverpool.”