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Posts Tagged ‘dalglish’

• £35m striker believes he is finally showing best form for club
• Got second goal in three starts during 6-1 win over Brighton

Andy Carroll believes his Liverpool career is finally under way having rediscovered the confidence and contentment that had eluded him following his £35m transfer from Newcastle United 13 months ago.

Liverpool’s record signing endured a poor start to life on Merseyside as injury, loss of form and the lack of a sustained run in Kenny Dalglish’s team increased scrutiny on the club’s decision to make the 23-year-old the most expensive British player in history. Carroll, however, has prospered in recent weeks from the first consistent spell in the team since his arrival from Tyneside and admits his self-belief has been a major factor in the

• Kenny Dalglish may not start striker against Spurs
• ‘It’s not automatic [he] will come straight into the team’

Kenny Dalglish says Luis Suárez is keen to play against Tottenham Hotspur on Monday night following his eight-match suspension for racially abusing Patrice Evra but the manager is not sure whether to throw him in at the deep end.

The Liverpool manager said of Suárez, who has not played since the 1-1 draw with Blackburn Rovers on Boxing Day: “He’ll want to play, won’t he? There is a lot to be taken into consideration – the way the other boys have played without him and the fact he has not played for a month.

“After five or six weeks out, it’s not automatic someone will come straight back into the team. It depends on the individual, it depends on our needs; not just who we have available but who we are playing against.”

Suárez has always been good at beginnings; almost exactly a year ago he scored at Anfield 16 minutes into his Liverpool debut. It was his first domestic club game since a seven-match suspension for biting PSV

Anfield captain justifies Kenny Dalgish’s stance after Bolton debacle and insists the Reds are still challenging for all three of their pre-season targets

Steven Gerrard has the offer of an ambassador’s role from Liverpool but they are not spoiling him yet. The 31-year-old, along with the rest of Kenny Dalglish’s squad, was subject to another calm, composed but cutting critique before training at Melwood on Monday as the manager showed that two nights’ sleep had not lessened his disgust at their performance against Bolton. Backed into a corner and challenged to respond; it seems it was forever thus for Liverpool’s talismanic captain.

Manchester City’s arrival at Anfield for tonight’s Carling Cup semi-final second leg marks the start of a four-day period in which Liverpool could vanquish both Manchester clubs from domestic cup competition and book a first appearance at Wembley for 16 years. Or retreat into renewed self-doubt as City and United move further into the distance while hysteria attaches itself to Dalglish’s rebuilding work. There is no middle to squeeze at Liverpool.

Gerrard, of course, has seen it all before and having converted the penalty that separated the semi-finalists in the first leg, he will be the man Liverpool turn to for the way through once again. The difference in this potentially defining week, however, is that the most strident criticism of Liverpool came from their own manager, a man immersed in the traditions and expectations that he declared his team betrayed at the Reebok on Saturday night.

“It was definitely justified,” Gerrard admits. “When you put in a performance like we did as a group you expect criticism, especially from your manager. Kenny spoke in the dressing room after the game and on Monday before training. He wasn’t angry, he just said it as it was. He didn’t lose his rag or his control. He told individuals and us as a group that it wasn’t acceptable. As captain of the team that is down to me and he went through all of us.”

Gerrard does not dispute Dalglish’s claim that the City second leg contributed to the complacent showing at Bolton. “We didn’t need telling really. I knew at half-time and I knew after the game that that hadn’t been good enough. Maybe the lads had one eye on this and one eye on that. At the beginning of the season the big objective for this club was top four so if you look at it that way, Bolton is bigger than Manchester City.” He rejects outright, however, the idea that the 3-1 defeat represents an opportune wake-up call ahead of City and Saturday’s inflamed FA Cup fourth-round with Manchester United.

“There is no good time to perform like that when you play for this club,” he insists, the disdain clear in his voice. “You have to win every game. The people new to the club will appreciate and understand that a bit more after a performance like that. You can’t do it here. The fans won’t accept it, they don’t deserve it. It’s not allowed. Otherwise you get criticised by your manager, like we have all experienced. I have been here a long time and experienced days like that and the important thing is to move on from it fast. If we perform like that against Manchester City, there will be no Wembley trip.”

Dalglish insisted players would be moved on if the attitude at Bolton prevailed. His problem is that five of the team that started against Owen Coyle’s then bottom-placed team were his signings and Craig Bellamy, the veteran signed on a free, was the only one to impress. The £75m spent on Andy Carroll, Jordan Henderson and Stewart Downing remains a weight upon the manager and, with the occasional exception from Henderson, poor value for Fenway Sports Group, the club’s owner.

Gerrard says only: “Those players know themselves. They know how they are playing. They know what form they are in. What I can say is that those players are working so hard to put in good performances. They are not giving up, they are not throwing the towel in, they are working day in, day out. The effort is there. Maybe they just need a little bit of luck, something to turn their way and they can go on a fine run. We all know those three players you have mentioned are good players.”

An outlay of over £100m in the past 12 months by Dalglish and Fenway, with £50m recouped from the sale of Fernando Torres alone, has not transformed Liverpool from a team hovering above the relegation zone when Roy Hodgson was sacked last January into convincing contenders for Champions League qualification. But they are where most expected them to be; competing for a top-four finish, playing far better football – Bolton being the most obvious exception – than in recent seasons and a home draw away from a first visit to Wembley since the 1996 FA Cup final. The murmurs of discontent about Dalglish, and not for his handling of the Luis Suárez controversy, have not escaped Gerrard.

“Our targets were to get into the top four and go on two long runs in the cup and it’s still possible. Why change? Why are we crying out for change?” he asks. “We’re six points off fourth and there are 16 games left. You’re not telling me that this team and the players we’ve got here are not capable of making that up? The sides who we are competing with aren’t on all-out consistent runs. Man United got beat 3-0 by Newcastle the other week, Chelsea drew with Norwich and Arsenal have lost their last three. Why isn’t it possible? Why are people crying out for change?

“Don’t get me wrong, it’s not all great here. We’ve got a fight on for fourth but we had a fight on at the start of the season, when we were telling people our aims for the season. Of course you go into every season wondering if you can get into the title race but at the moment we’re not in it and our realistic aim at the start was top four and two good long runs in the cup. At the end of this week we could be going to Wembley, we could be in the fifth round of the FA Cup and six points off fourth. The flip side of that is different but big weeks happen at big football clubs and this is a big week.”

And what would it mean to the Huyton-born midfielder to lead Liverpool out at Wembley? “Nothing,” he states. “But to lift the cup at Wembley would mean an awful lot. To get to Wembley is the target, to win it is the dream.”

Steven GerrardLiverpoolManchester CityAndy Hunter
guardian.co.uk