Sort out bad attitude or you can forget winning FA Cup! Dalglish slams Kop flops
PUBLISHED: 22:38 GMT, 1 May 2012 | UPDATED: 06:09 GMT, 2 May 2012
Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish criticised his players' attitude after a much-changed side lost at home to Fulham but also questioned his own decision-making.
With Saturday's FA Cup final against Chelsea in mind the Scot made nine changes - leaving out the likes of Luis Suarez, Steven Gerrard and Craig Bellamy - but saw his team lose to Martin Skrtel's fifth-minute own goal.
Prior to the match Dalglish had challenged his squad to play for cup final places but admitted after the tally of dropped points at home reached an incredible 30 that he may have made a mistake.
Plenty to ponder: Dalglish watched his second-string side lost at home to Fulham
'Their attitude was not right and if you get a bad attitude you are going to get a bad performance and that is what we got,' he said.
'I think that is an accurate appraisal.
'I am culpable as well as I changed a lot of players to try to give everyone an opportunity to get in the frame for Saturday.
'I suppose by doing that it was a contributory factor to what happened but you can only be fair. I tried to be fair and give everyone an opportunity - maybe I was wrong.
'There were one or two positives but there were too many negatives. We cannot play at that tempo, we have to play at a quicker tempo than that. We deserved nothing.'
Fulham recorded their first win at Anfield after 30 previous attempts and the only down side was manager Martin Jol was not there to see it as he missed his second successive match with a chest infection.
Net result: Skrtel's own goal was enough to seal the points for Fulham
However, unlike Saturday's woeful 4-0 defeat at Everton, first-team coach Billy McKinlay was expecting an easier phone call to his boss.
'Hopefully I'll have a better conversation with him than I did after the game on Saturday and that performance will cheer him up a bit,' he said.
'He was close to coming today but an extra day or two was needed to shake off this chest infection.'
McKinlay said he was not aware of Fulham's previously poor history on Merseyside - they had not won in 48 league visits to the city's two clubs.
'I wasn't aware. I don't worry about history or statistics too much,' he added.
'The response to Saturday's poor performance was evident and they deserve the plaudits.
Kop that! Liverpool have squandered a whopping 30 points at Anfield so far this season
'I am delighted. Many things pleased me tonight: the performance, first and foremost, with the result a consequence of that. I couldn't be more pleased. Everything which could go wrong went wrong on Saturday but tonight there were lots of pleasing things.'
The demoralising defeat prompted former Liverpool midfielder Jan Molby to say claim money has to be spent on players in the summer if they are to challenge for Barclays Premier League.
Liverpool take on Chelsea in the FA Cup final on Saturday looking to add to their earlier success in the Carling Cup and Molby feels that despite a poor league campaign two trophies would still signify a good season for Kenny Dalglish's side.
He said: 'This season we can't deny it (being a cup side), hopefully that'll change next year. Sometimes you fall into seasons and you do particularly well.
'Sometimes you do particularly well in away games whereas Liverpool have fallen into doing well into cup competitions.
'I hope that is not going to be the way going forward, I hope we are going to get back to doing very well in the Premier League next season but if we can win two cups this year then it has been an extremely successful season.'
Voting with their feet: There were many empty seats around Anfield for the visit of the west Londoners
Ex-Denmark international Molby, who spent 12 years at Anfield and won two FA Cup finals, reckons the competition is still the best in the world and thinks the fans may rather see their side lift silverware than compete for a top four position in the league.
'Well I think it is the biggest there is,' he said.
'We can talk about the Champions League and World Cup but I think this is the biggest. I have had no better feeling in my career than walking around Wembley after having won the FA Cup, that was the ultimate.
'I think it is really difficult because when you go to Wembley the feeling is great and the day lives in the memories of the fans - it has been six years since Liverpool have won anything so I think the fans would take a couple of trophies this season and then exchange those for a top four finish next season.'
Former Liverpool striker Fernando Torres has found form for the first time since his controversial move to Chelsea last January and Molby is under no illusions that the Champions League finalists will offer a tough test and that a winning goal from their former hero would hurt the Liverpool fans.
'There are a number of players you have to be worried about, Chelsea have shown over the last few weeks how good they are,' he said.
Repeat performance: Dalglish will be hoping to make it three wins in three recent visits to Wembley
'Fernando Torres is one of them, we know what he can do we know what he is capable of on his day, I just hope they start with (Didier) Drogba.
'I don't know if the pain will be easier to take if it is Drogba and not Torres (who scores a winning goal for Chelsea) but I hope it is a great game and I hope that Liverpool win.'
The 48-year-old Molby played under Dalglish during the Scot's first managerial reign at Anfield and is of the opinion there remains no better man for the job.
He said: 'I think as we stand here he is 100 per cent the right man, that might change in the long term; it is a project, it is going to take time.
'I hope the owners have more money and more appetite for spending in the summer because that is the only way I can see us getting closer to the top teams. As far as Kenny goes he is most definitely the right man.'
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