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• Liverpool face Hodgson’s West Bromwich on Saturday
• ‘Everyone knows he’s an excellent coach,’ says Dalglish

Kenny Dalglish has defended Roy Hodgson’s managerial record, insisting the man he replaced as Liverpool’s manager has “nothing to prove to anybody”. Hodgson, now in charge at West Bromwich Albion, has his first chance to exact revenge for his sacking on Saturday when Liverpool visit The Hawthorns.

“Roy hasn’t got anything to prove to anybody,” said Dalglish. “If you say he has extra motivation then you are doubting the man’s integrity and implying he never had enough motivation before.

“It’s Liverpool versus West Brom and we’ll face a team that has been prepared by Roy. I don’t have a problem with that. It’ll be nice to see him again.”

Hodgson’s six-month spell at Anfield ended in January after 31 games in charge, making him the most short-lived appointment in the club’s history. He was hired by West Bromwich in February, replacing Roberto Di Matteo, and his new club are unbeaten in his four games in charge.

“Roy brings his own management style to the club and they have done well since he went in there. We are looking forward to the game. I have great respect for him, as I said when I came in here, and that isn’t going to change now that we are playing against each other.

“So for me, the game is about Liverpool against West Brom and that’s the way I’ll go into it. I’ll see an old friend of mine standing in the opposite dugout. Everyone knows he’s an excellent coach so we know what to expect. We know how they will play so it’s up to us to be better than them on the day.”

Kenny DalglishRoy HodgsonLiverpoolWest Bromguardian.co.uk

Liverpool’s defeat in the FA Cup at Old Trafford pointed to the weaknesses their new manager will need to set right

The sound rolled off the ranks of visiting fans like a ghostly mist. The ominous staccato hand-claps, then a low, rumbling “Dal-glish! Dal-glish!”. Here was a war chant from Liverpool’s vast archive of treasured memories, disinterred in order to revive the present and secure the future.

Hearing the salute as he made his way along the Old Trafford touchline before the start of the match today, Kenny Dalglish broke into a broad grin and raised both fists in acknowledgement. From a distance, he looks virtually unaltered from the deceptively sturdy and magically gifted little inside-forward who scored 118 goals in 355 league matches in the Liverpool strip before leading the club to three league championships as their manager, between 1986 and 1991. The face, however, is that of a man a few weeks from his 60th birthday who has known authentic tragedy as well as triumph upon triumph.

God willing, Dalglish will never again have to face a challenge remotely as harrowing as the one that confronted him after the Hillsborough disaster in 1989. The exemplary devotion with which he consoled the hundreds of bereaved and tens of thousands of mourners on that occasion went so far above and beyond any possible expectation that nothing can jeopardise his standing at the club. And after that experience, not much in football can seem so serious.

There must, however, be a concern over whether John W Henry and Tom Werner have placed Liverpool in the hands of the Dalglish of the glory years at Anfield and Ewood Park or the one whose subsequent stewardship of Newcastle United and Celtic proved far less satisfactory. There is no doubt that he has spent the past decade observing the game with undiminished interest, but the true effect of so prolonged a hiatus will emerge only in the coming weeks.

“Now the Premier League goes on the back burner as we welcome Roy Hodgson and his Liverpool team,” Ferguson wrote in his programme notes for today’s match. You would think the United manager had been in the game long enough not to get caught like that. No serving manager has seen so many of his rivals come and go, his own resilience a standing reproach to those directors of other clubs who lose their nerve and cave in to pressure from discontented fans, as Henry and Werner did when they sacked Hodgson after 29 matches in charge.

Some managers, like José Mourinho and Sven-Goran Eriksson, make a difference straight away, imposing rational structures on dishevelled teams. Hodgson, however, was one who needed the sort of time that he was given at Fulham in which to bring his more conservative and gradual methods of rebuilding to bear. Given that scope at Liverpool, he might have shown the Kop that there was more to him than a safety-first approach.

But impatience and an instinctive dislike – not least of his southern origins – among the fans proved his downfall, along with the distrust exhibited by some senior players for his coaching methods. What looked a fine appointment last summer turned into an episode that should not be allowed to define Hodgson’s generally admirable career.

Dalglish could hardly have got off to a worse resumption, given the award of a penalty against his team after 31 seconds and a red card for his captain and talisman after 31 minutes. From his perspective, today’s defeat will have underlined what he already knew, which is that Rafael Benítez bequeathed Hodgson a seriously inadequate squad and that the latter’s efforts to strengthen it were at best ineffective. There was no sign on the pitch today of Paul Konchesky (dropped), Christian Poulsen (unused on the bench) or Joe Cole (injured), while the withdrawal of Raul Meireles on the hour, along with that of Maxi Rodríguez, prefaced Liverpool’s most threatening passage of play.

For the next 20 minutes the match had the atmosphere of a genuine cup tie rather that of a weird post-mortem on the Hodgson era. Jonjo Shelvey, who will be 19 next month, replaced Meireles and injected some badly needed dynamism into Liverpool’s midfield with Ryan Babel coming on simultaneously and adding weight to an underpowered attack. Suddenly the home side were being reminded that, thanks to their own profligacy, their advantage was only a single goal.

Shelvey robbed Anderson, who then chased and fouled Fernando Torres five yards outside the United penalty area, giving Fábio Aurélio the chance to hit a fine free-kick that brought a marvellous flying save from Tomasz Kuszczak. Shelvey then robbed Rafael Da Silva in the corner and played the ball back to Babel, who just failed to connect. Martin Kelly broke down the right and dinked in a good cross to the near post, from where Babel sent a glancing header into the side netting. Only when Shelvey tried to surprise Kuszczak with a quick free-kick from 45 yards and saw his effort float well wide was the pressure relieved.

Dalglish was kind to the 18-year-old afterwards. “He was a bit ambitious with his free-kick,” he said, “but he’d looked up and noticed something.” In addition to waking up the underperforming seniors, the Scot must employ his intimate knowledge of Liverpool’s academy to infuse his squad with the unspoilt optimism of such as Kelly and Shelvey. The mere reflection of an aura, even one so devoutly worshipped, will not be enough.

Kenny DalglishRoy HodgsonLiverpoolSir Alex FergusonManchester UnitedFA CupRichard Williamsguardian.co.uk

To see Kenny Dalglish auditioning for the full-time job at Anfield is emblematic of Liverpool’s descent

It took Kenny Dalglish 20 years to return to a job he wished he had never surrendered in the first place, and now Liverpool face a new dilemma – or will do, in the summer. One warm day, if progress is slow, King Kenny will lose the post for a second time and another manager will arrive to find Anfield febrile again.

By the letter of the statement that confirmed Roy Hodgson’s removal by popular revolt, Dalglish is the world’s most eminent caretaker. But not in his own mind. Liverpool’s greatest player craved the role vacated by Rafa Benítez but was overlooked in favour of Hodgson, the recently anointed manager of the year. To say Dalglish has unfinished business in the boot room only hints at the regret he felt after walking out on his second home, suffering from stress, in 1991.

John W Henry and his team may not consider Dalglish a viable long-term appointment. The previous owners obviously did not endorse this quest when Benítez left. If they had, they would have handed him the keys back in July. More fool them, Dalglish’s supporters would say. Their man experienced the deep pain of rejection but elected to stay on anyway as an academy fixer while becoming an unwilling focus for anti-Hodgson unrest.

Calling an icon from the back office of ambassadorial duties gets the Kop off the owners’ backs and arrests the slide into the kind of unpopularity that saw off Tom Hicks and George Gillett. Once Hodgson was abandoned, it made sense to seek emergency cover from the last Liverpool manager to bring the league title to Anfield, in 1990, and to support his apparent wish to have Ian Rush alongside him in a dug-out that will double up as a mini hall of fame.

For Dalglish, though, this is a chance to join Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger in the ranks of elder statesmen. His mission will be to manage a declining team so well that it becomes impossible for Henry to send him back to the academy. The prospects are surprisingly bright.

Dalglish starts from Liverpool’s lowest base since 1953-54, when Don Welsh’s side were relegated. A Champions League place looks unreachable but any rise in the league could be sold to the board as the first signs of rebirth.

Rancour and depression have settled over Anfield. Nostalgia alone will clear that suffocating fog as Dalglish finds himself lining up against Ferguson at Old Trafford in the FA Cup less than 24 hours into his first managerial appointment since Celtic 10 years ago. With the future darkly clouded, Liverpool raided a clear past. Dalglish and Rush unpicked countless teams together but they must do so now in an industry unrecognisable from the one they dominated as players.

“Good luck King Kenny,” tweeted Xabi Alonso, who, with Javier Mascherano, formed the defensive shield in a Liverpool side who, two seasons ago, assembled 86 points and finished second before going on the slide. Alonso always had a sharp sense of Liverpool’s cultural heritage and Dalglish will need to recruit more players of his calibre if he is to clear out the underachieving passengers in a sprawling squad.

But first let us marvel at the circle Dalglish has travelled from stress-related illness to the commanding role he first inherited from the greats: Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan. Here, a rebuke is in order for Henry, who wrote in his statement: “Kenny was not just a legendary footballer, he was the third of our three most successful managers – three giants.” Fagan, presumably, is missing from that homage.

Where the Shankly and Dalglish stories intertwine most poignantly is in the regret both men felt at walking away prematurely. Assailed by demons, each thought escape from the strain of management was the only solution: proof, if it were needed, of the unhappiness that can afflict even the most illustrious and capable football men when perspective breaks down.

Troubled by stress-related blotches and still haunted by the Hillsborough disaster, Dalglish resigned as Liverpool manager in 1991 but returned from a family holiday in Orlando a few weeks later horrified that Graeme Souness had taken over. In his autobiography he wrote: “Of course, I had no right to hope Liverpool would come back to me. Besides, at that time I thought Graeme was the right man for the job. But if Liverpool had waited until the summer, and then asked me, I would have gone back. Like a shot. Liverpool will always be in my family’s heart.”

Dalglish recalls the 4-4 fourth-round FA Cup draw with Everton that prompted his resignation. “Before the game, I lay on my hotel bed and decided I had to get out. The alternative was going mad.” The next day, “unwell and under strain”, he told the club: “I cannot go on. I am telling you now that I want to give up.”

This sorrow has coloured his professional life ever since. Although his judgment seemed to be fraying in his final months at Liverpool he recovered to become the only manager outside of United, Arsenal and Chelsea to win the Premier League – with Blackburn Rovers in 1995. Even with Jack Walker’s money, Blackburn winning the title remains a monument to clever team-building.

Newcastle United is often assumed to be the place where Dalglish’s managerial career crunched to a halt but his second and 13th place finishes from 1997-98 would be snatched at now by the club’s supporters. After St James’ Park the caravan stopped at Celtic for a while but then Dalglish disappeared into shadow. Unbroken, though, was his belief that he was a manager in exile, rather than a has-been: hence the earnestness of his application to succeed Benítez.

When people dismiss the idea of him saving Liverpool they point to his decade “out of the game” as an insurmountable handicap. This is the most fascinating aspect of his recall, because it will tell us whether managerial skill withers like an unused muscle.

His eyes and instincts will be stronger than ever because he has never stopped watching the elite game, as Kevin Keegan sometimes did. He will still spot a good player and a shirker. The complications fall in other areas. Liverpool’s squad is substantially more cosmopolitan than 20 years ago, young multimillionaire players are more powerful, agents more pervasive and the transfer market wholly altered from when scouting and recruitment were confined more or less to the English leagues.

It helps, of course, that he is a living deity who knows the precise state of the academy and its starlets. This should not be underestimated. If Liverpool are serious about Moneyball – the clever use of baseball statistics in order to obtain value-for-money-players that was the title of a book by Michael Lewis – and self-regeneration it helps to have a manager who knows which of the reserves and under-18s might step up to help Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher. One unknown is how Fernando Torres and Pepe Reina will regard the news: as evidence of panic or the start of a renaissance.

While Liverpool have been changing owners, not building a new stadium and dispensing with Benítez and Hodgson, Manchester City and Tottenham have pushed into the challenging places behind United, Chelsea and Arsenal. With no £50m budget to buy from the A-list (and reassure Torres and Reina), Dalglish confronts a daunting task.

To see him auditioning for a full-time job the then owners were reluctant to give him back in the summer, 21 years after the club’s last league title, and 10 years after he last picked a team, is emblematic of Liverpool’s descent, yet this is no creaking geriatric they have pulled in from a golf course. Dalglish is only 59. His 10-year absence distorts our sense of how old he is, and while American owners and foreign players may struggle from time to time with his Glaswegian accent it was no barrier to him winning three league titles as Liverpool manager from 1986, 1988 and 1990.

Since the losing Champions League final of 2007, Liverpool have been a club in convulsion. Factions have formed, stability has become elusive and many fans have grown venomously angry. Those who say Fenway Sports Group should have picked a full-time successor to Hodgson off an unconvincing list perhaps understate the need for Liverpool to recover their poise and identity as a community club.

Dalglish returns as a kind of revered patriarch, opening the front door to restore order in a house gone wrong. He has his own agenda too. We usually call it redemption.

Kenny DalglishLiverpoolRoy HodgsonPaul Haywardguardian.co.uk