Dalglish turns on players for lack of respect

IT was a classic, if desperate, diversionary tactic by Kenny Dalglish, the Liverpool manager, after his team’s inept defeat at Bolton on Saturday — turn all the blame onto someone else.

The surprise in this case was the identity of the “someone else”.

This stunning loss, at a club with eight defeats from their opening 10 home league games this season, may prove to be a pivotal point in Liverpool’s campaign and Dalglish’s second spell as the self-styled Messiah and guardian of Anfield.

A year into the job, the canny Scotsman faces a week in which his team has the chance to reach Wembley, via the second leg of a Carling Cup semi-final with Manchester City which they lead 1-0, and advance in the FA Cup, scoring a potentially massive morale-boosting victory over Manchester United at Anfield on Saturday in the process.

Yet this defeat, and the performance that brought it about, suggest such targets may be beyond them and, with a run of six points from their last six league games, that sorely-needed top four finish and place in next season’s Champions League currently look as distant as at any time during the ill-fated Roy Hodgson reign at Anfield.

Of course, as more than one observer has dared to point out, if Hodgson were still in charge of the club, the natives would be restless to the point of outright revolt.

Instead, because King Kenny has the helm, it MUST be the fault of somebody, anybody, else — Alex Ferguson, the media, an FA conspiracy, referees, dumb bad luck...

In the wake of this Reebok disaster Dalglish had a more straightforward explanation — it was all the fault of the players. And, considering how defensive Dalglish is of his charges, how he has, in some eyes, tarnished his own and the club’s reputation in his staunch, blinkered defence of Luis Suarez in the recent race controversy with United’s Patrice Evra, for the manager to turn on his players, there must be something seriously wrong within his dressing room.

“The most disappointing thing for me is I don’t think we were ready to play the game,” said Dalglish.

“I don’t think the approach was correct, I don’t think the way we went about our work was correct. The foundation of the football club has always been built on respect for other people, built on the philosophy that the next game is the most important one, not the one that’s two or three down the line.

“If that was what the problem was, if they thought this game was not as important as the next one, then fine — but they won’t be here.

“If they needed a lesson to be taught to them then today was it. If they thought they could just turn up and get a result and not match the opposition for effort and commitment then they got a lesson today. If they have learned it, then fine.

“But we have to look at ourselves and see what we can do to try and prevent it happening in the future. That’s what we will do.”

The response of Liverpool’s players to the tirade went unrecorded — after being locked in the dressing room for half an hour after the game, none of them would speak on their way to the team bus — but Dalglish’s tactic does distract from one increasingly apparent fact.

In his year in charge, Dalglish has now spent £107.8 million on six players, topped by the staggering £35m invested in Andy Carroll and his four league goals to date. Even allowing for the fact that £50m of that was offset by the sale of Fernando Torres — a player currently looking almost as bad in terms of value as Carroll — that is a staggering sum for Liverpool’s current state.

And, while Dalglish can freely threaten that players “won’t be here” if there is a repeat of this performance, it is debatable what his options are or how the club comes up with another £100m-plus to invest.

Naturally, Dalglish is well above and beyond being questioned by his supporters or, one suspects, his employers, which makes this surrender all the more alarming for the Kop nation.

Mark Davies set the rout in motion with a well-taken fourth-minute effort which was doubled, following more woeful defending, by Nigel Reo-Coker. Craig Bellamy briefly gave Liverpool hope before defender Gretar Steinsson completed the scoring after 50 minutes.

For Bolton, the performance was the perfect response to the loss this week of defender Gary Cahill, sold to Chelsea for £7m, lifted them out of the bottom three and breathed genuine life into their hopes of survival.

“When you lose a player of Gary’s quality it could have an adverse effect but when things like that happen it can also bring a group together,” said Coyle. “I told the lads that they had to understand that players come and go and that when it happens they have to batten down the hatches.”