Kenny gets my backing

[Sir X]

Lets not fool ourselves LFC doesnt appoint THE legend for the interim , Point is its his interim.

Daglish until he feels like walking away.

[Sir X]

Big man talk fi Big side......The King sits on Rafa throne , let the wars begin.

Just one day into his job and hes coming up with some crackers.

reporter - you mentioned fernando torres there, no ones got a magic wand but clearly there are some confidence issues that youre going to have to start rebuilding.

kenny - fernando torres has got a magic wand.

haha.
Reply With Quote
Yesterday 05:52 PM #2
mr mustard
TIA Reserve Team


Join Date
Jun 2007
Location
Neverland
Posts
394
Re: Dalglish quotes
Great!
Reply With Quote
Yesterday 05:57 PM #3
camdnz
Eden Hazard please.


Join Date
Jul 2008
Location
New Zealand
Posts
2,033
Re: Dalglish quotes
Love it! Was that in the post-match presser?
Reply With Quote
Yesterday 06:00 PM #4
coffe82
TIA New Signing


Join Date
Jan 2011
Location
wavertree
Posts
4
Re: Dalglish quotes
was funny before kick off when the itv interviewer said to kenny whats your 1st team talk going to be ? and kenny replyed your not going to tell alex ferguson are you haha, still cant believe kenny is back
Reply With Quote
Yesterday 06:58 PM #5
Bigleg
TIA Reserve Team


Join Date
Aug 2010
Posts
261
Re: Dalglish quotes
Kenny`s answer when asked where he was when John Henry called him asking him to take over:

Kenny: Being a professional athlete, I was at the bar!

Brilliant man!
Reply With Quote
Yesterday 07:02 PM #6
Hope in your heart
media room caretaker


Join Date
Jul 2007
Posts
6,725
Re: Dalglish quotes
Asked what his old adversary Alex Ferguson said to him before kick-off, Dalglish replied:

"He said 'Welcome back'. I thought he'd be up here first to warm you up before I came in to be honest!"


Reply With Quote
Yesterday 07:12 PM #7
mickSFfan
TIA Youth Team


Join Date
Oct 2009
Location
San Francisco Bay, US
Posts
92
Re: Dalglish quotes
Most of the post match press conference is on the Sly Sports website video section if you search around.
I have to admit that watching it brought back happy memories of the gold old days when Marina used to pick the team.
The King has always taken the right approach to dealing with the half-witted filth that is the English football press.
Last edited by mickSFfan; Yesterday at 07:17 PM. Reason: capitalization ...

[Sir X]

Forgive me but bwooy a suh mi feel my dear pool.After such abuse at the hands of Roy , a man said Roy is a man u agent ....gooonnnne..return of the King.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nREV8bQJ1MA&NR=1

[Sir X]

So, Roy Hodgson has left Liverpool by mutual consent, and has been replaced by Kenny Dalglish for the remainder of the season. Hodgson leaves with a dignified statement, but his time at the club was disastrous (although the man who replaces him knows the true meaning of ‘disaster’).

Back in November I thought that this would be the best solution, at least in terms of uniting the club again after the difficulties of the past couple of years; I just didn’t get the impression that it was going to happen. Points at Anfield are easier to come by if the Kop is in full voice, and if there’s one thing the appointment can guarantee it’s that the place will be swinging for a while now. Lifting the gloom (and uncertainty) will surely be a great help. This gives the club breathing space in order to find a permanent manager once the season ends.



It’s easy to paint Dalglish as someone who has been out of the game for too long (and back in the summer I shared some of those concerns), but since then, having spoken to those closest to him, I’ve come to see things differently. I appreciate that his work at the Academy since 2009 has acted as a refresher course (as were his discussions with Rafa Benítez), and if you have a great footballing mind, you can adapt. Dalglish was always a thinker. And with his son, Paul (who has managed in Major League Soccer), a big fan of the fast-pressing game of Pep Guardiola, the family is very much in touch with the modern game.

And as outlined in Pay As You Play, Dalglish did a great job at Blackburn, with his work at Ewood Park all the more impressive for not having spent as much (relatively speaking) as people imagine.

After a good start, he had one bad season at Newcastle, but as at Liverpool and Blackburn, showed he was, on the whole, a good judge of a player, having bought Didi Hamann, Shay Given, Gary Speed and Nolberto Solano.

Above all else, he understands what Liverpool fans want, and will rid the place of the negativity and the divisions that have hampered progress for a while now. Comparisons with Kevin Keegan’s return to Newcastle are a little wayward, not least because Dalglish was always a far better manager.

John W Henry said of the appointment: “We are delighted that Kenny Dalglish has agreed to step in and manage the team for Sunday’s FA Cup tie at Old Trafford and for the remainder of the season.

“Kenny was not just a legendary footballer, he was the third of our three most successful managers – three giants. We are extraordinarily fortunate and grateful that he has decided to step in during the middle of this season.”

Chairman Tom Werner said: “No one who cares for this great club has been happy with the way this season has unfolded and we have examined options and considered at length what is best for us going forward. Kenny will bring considerable experience to the position and provide management and leadership for the rest of the season.”

So, how good was Kenny first time around? What follows is the chapter from “Dynasty: 50 Years of Shankly’s Liverpool” (which, having been written in 2008, will now need updating!)

Kenny Dalglish 1985-1991

Note: There are a couple of tables that, despite an accompanying key, will not necessarily be 100% clear without having read the book itself. Briefly, the Quality mark relates to the average – out of 10 – awarded by the Brains Trust (journalists and long-time fans) for every player between 1959 and 2009. The Inheritance value was worked out by taking age into account. And the Value figure was a coefficient calculated from the Quality, fee paid, fee later sold for (or an equivalent mark if the player remained a valuable player into his 30s), and .01 point for every game played for Liverpool.

Introduction

It’s certainly far harder to judge where Kenny Dalglish fits in at the top end of the Liverpool management table than it is to judge him as a player. As the latter, he was simply the best –– the King. No argument. His six years as manager were also full of success, and in the middle of his reign, the football was resplendent, and at times breathtaking — almost certainly the most aesthetically pleasing seen in the club’s history. But his tenure didn’t quite reach the heights of Paisley’s, and he hadn’t had to build the club up like Shankly. Meanwhile, his six years marked the club’s exact exile from Europe, which removed one area of comparison, particularly with the man who had brought him to the club in 1977 and who dominated on the continent.

While Liverpool fans were not exclusively to blame for the European ban –– firstly, because the fans of other British clubs had caused plenty of trouble themselves in order to sully the reputation of English supporters, and secondly because the deaths of 39 Italians at Heysel came when a creaking old wall collapsed amid two fighting nations –– they did contribute to the dark ages of English football. By this point the best players had already started to move abroad –– most notably, technical players like Graeme Souness, Liam Brady, Ray Wilkins, Trevor Francis (and, er, Luther Blissett), with Chris Waddle and Glenn Hoddle to follow –– and the imports into England, bar the odd exception, were not of a similar quality. It meant that the top division was not at its strongest just a handful of years after the country’s clubs had dominated European competition. Even so, Dalglish’s job was to beat what was put in front of him, and it was not his fault that trips to Rome and Madrid were no longer on the agenda, and places like Plough Lane, Wimbledon, were.

The other question mark over Dalglish is the situation he bequeathed his successor. The Hillsborough disaster in 1989, in which 96 lives were lost, effectively marked the end of the great league-winning dynasty. One more title was bagged, in 1990, but Dalglish was feeling the strain. The team his successor inherited was ageing badly.

Situation Inherited

The day before the final at Heysel, Sir John Smith announced to the club’s directors that he’d appointed Kenny Dalglish as the new manager, following Joe Fagan’s retirement. To some it came as a massive shock, although a year earlier Graeme Souness had told a Scottish journalist that he expected Dalglish to be the club’s next boss. With Fagan the third, and final, remaining member of the original 1959 Boot Room to take the role, it would have to be someone from the next generation. All eyes were on Ronnie Moran, the most senior coach, with Roy Evans, still in his 30s, a less likely option. Chris Lawler was seen as having an outside chance, and from within the playing staff, Phil Neal was a strong candidate. But Dalglish was the man Smith wanted.

Liverpool were still the envy of England, but the situation at the club was far less rosy: Dalglish took the reigns in the immediate aftermath of the Heysel tragedy, when a shellshocked Joe Fagan, hoping to retire with a wonderful win, found his last game to be the stuff of nightmares. Quality was still very much in abundance on the playing staff in 1985. Graeme Souness had moved to Sampdoria in 1984, but otherwise all the key players from the phenomenal treble-winning side were in place –– including, of course, Dalglish himself. The player-manager aside, the squad included key men such as Alan Hansen, Ian Rush, Ronnie Whelan, Mark Lawrenson, Steve Nicol and Bruce Grobbelaar, plus Jan Molby, a player who hadn’t quite found his form in his debut season as Souness’ replacement, and who had struggled to hold down a place in the team, but who would go on to net 21 goals in Dalglish’s first campaign as manager. One player who presented Dalglish with a problem was Phil Neal, the club captain, who was upset at being passed over for the manager’s role. In an act of pettiness, he refused to call Dalglish ‘boss’. Before the subject had been raised, Neal told the press he didn’t have a future at Anfield; as a result he was stripped of the captaincy. He quickly took a move to manage Bolton.

Due to the post-Heysel exile, Dalglish is the only manager covered in this book not to take his team into Europe. The ban affected all clubs, and while Liverpool were seen as being to blame, the supporters of other clubs had played their part. A year earlier, also in Brussels, a Tottenham fan was shot dead and a further 200 held by police following a riot before the UEFA Cup Final against Anderlecht; the same year England fans had caused almost £1m of damage in Paris following defeat to France. To further highlight the trouble of the times, in 1986 five people were stabbed in a riot between 150 Everton, Manchester United and West Ham supporters on a cross-channel ferry, which was severely damaged and forced to return to England. But the rest of the English clubs returned to European competition in 1990, with Liverpool, who would have qualified for the European Cup, having to wait an extra year. By this time Dalglish had resigned and Graeme Souness was in charge. Europe was back on the fixture list, but alas the Liverpool of old had withered away in the interim.

Players Inherited






Key: Quality 0-10; Age = -1 point for every year from 28 onwards, eg -4 for 31 year-old, and -1 point from 30 onwards for keepers, eg -4 for 33 year-old; Adj = adjustments for players either exceptionally fit/unfit for their age, or soon to leave; Inheritance = total out of 10. Excludes players not part of first team picture.

In terms of Quality, the First XI, fresh from back-to-back European Cup finals, was still incredibly strong in 1985. But Phil Neal and Alan Kennedy were in the twilight of their careers, so replacements were needed. As a result of Neal moving to Bolton, Steve Nicol was moved to right-back. In Jim Beglin, Dalglish already had a player capable of filling the left-back slot, and before too long he was in the team, while Gary Ablett would emerge in 1986. Alan Hansen had turned 30, but was an especially good reader of the game. And of course, there was Dalglish himself, who had now turned 34. These age adjustments weaken the First XI Inheritance rating to an average of 7.23, a full point lower than the side Paisley inherited, and half a point lower than the side Paisley left for Fagan. So it was still a great side on paper, but some key players were beginning to edge over the hill.

While players like Paul Walsh, Kevin MacDonald and Jim Beglin were in the squad and ready to either fill in for, or replace, the older members of the side, none was at quite the same standard as his predecessor. In Dalglish’s first season, Hansen remarked to the manager that this was the worst Liverpool side he’d played in. Within a few months the Reds would land the league and FA Cup double. Even so, it was clear that some serious work in the transfer market would be needed before too long.

State of Club

Sir John Smith and Peter Robinson — two of the game’s sharpest administrators — were still running the show. Smith had phoned Dalglish prior to the team leaving for Belgium for the 1985 European Cup Final, and asked if he and Robinson could come visit him at home. “I said aye, that was all right,” Dalglish recalled. “Then they told me what it was about, and I said they could still come.”

Towards the end of Dalglish’s tenure, Noel White replaced Sir John Smith as chairman. Smith had been spending an increasing amount of time with Sport England, of which he was also chairman, as well as with his own business. It would be alongside White that Dalglish would sit and announce his resignation to the world in 1991.

Assistance/Backroom Staff

In 1985, Ronnie Moran and Roy Evans, like the floodlights, were still permanent fixtures at Anfield. Chris Lawler, appointed by Joe Fagan, was still in place as reserve team coach –– although he would soon be departing in acrimonious circumstances.

Perhaps the key involvement for Dalglish should have been that of Bob Paisley as an advisor — which is akin to having Leonardo Da Vinci on hand to teach you how to paint. Dalglish had stipulated that Paisley’s assistance would be vital if he were to take the role, and the club was able to persuade the great man out of retirement, on a two-year contract. But as it transpired, Dalglish would not need much help from his former boss.

A year into his reign, and with the 1985/86 double freshly under his belt, Dalglish began to make a number of serious changes to the back-room staff. With Tom Saunders retiring at the age of 64, Steve Heighway took over as youth development officer. Saunders would later return to the club after being elected to the board of directors in 1993, and assist future managers in their administration tasks, until his death in 2001.

Also in the summer of 1986, Dalglish appointed Phil Thompson onto the coaching staff. Thompson had been training at Melwood twice a week; the former Liverpool captain had moved to Sheffield United two years earlier, but was now finding himself out of the first team picture. Interestingly, Thompson was offered the role of managing the reserves in conjunction with also playing for the second string — a slightly strange offer seeing as Thompson, now in his 30s, had been considered not good enough for Liverpool in 1984, and now the same was felt at Sheffield United. It can only have been to offer support and guidance on the pitch, in the way Ronnie Moran had between 1966 and 1968. Thompson had been appointed a couple of weeks before Lawler was told his services were no longer required. That conversation only came about after Lawler, wondering why he hadn’t received his bonus when the other coaching staff had, went to see Dalglish. Naturally, it came as a massive shock to Lawler, and given that he hadn’t done anything specific wrong — no serious failings, no misdemeanours — he did not take it well. But Dalglish was reshaping the club, and the first sacking of a member of the Boot Room was not something he would shy away from in order to maintain his vision, even if he didn’t handle the situation particularly well. While he’d been successful with the reserves, Dalglish saw Lawler as too quiet, not forceful enough. The same could never be said of Thompson; in fact, he’d often be charged with being the opposite.

If sacking Lawler was a shock, then replacing Geoff Twentyman, the club’s chief scout, with another ex-captain, Ron Yeats, was an even more stunning move. Yeats, who also took on Saunders’ role of scouting missions to assess the opposition, had no prior scouting experience, and was replacing arguably the best man in the business. Twentyman and Saunders had been two of the club’s great unsung heroes after two decades’ sterling service, with Twentyman in particular responsible for bringing some of the club’s greatest names to Anfield.

Saunders, meanwhile, had brought through some talented locals, like Phil Thompson and Sammy Lee. If anything, in his first twelve years Steve Heighway would surpass the work of Saunders, and unearth the best batch of home-grown talent the club had ever seen. By contrast, Yeats had little chance of matching the incredible feats of Twentyman, and, after one more summer of astute dealing, the next 12 years would see a change in quality of the players recruited to Anfield.

Shortly before his departure, Twentyman recommended two more players: Peter Beardsley of Newcastle and John Barnes of Watford. A year later Dalglish would sign both. By that time Twentyman was a year into working for Graeme Souness at Rangers. Beardsley and Barnes would be the last great signings made by Dalglish, and only one more enduring talent arrived at Anfield in the next four years — Ray Houghon, snapped up later in 1987. Whether or not it was down to the managers — after all, a scout can only recommend players and leave the decision to sign to the man in charge — it is damning to note that, with the exception of Jamie Redknapp and Rob Jones, the players signed by the club prior to the arrival of Gérard Houllier were mediocre at best; not all were necessarily mediocre in terms of ability or what they had shown at their previous clubs, but for one reason or another none shone as expected when wearing the red of Liverpool.

Was that down to Yeats? It’s hard to say. He was heavily involved in the spotting of Sami Hyypia, and Didi Hamann was also signed in 1999, so he can point to later successes. But Liverpool weren’t finding great hidden talents in the way they had with Twentyman as the club’s eyes and ears.

Management Style

Upon Dalglish’s appointment, Graeme Souness explained that his good friend had an ingredient vital for success: he scared people with a growl, and sometimes with even just a look. As well as being respected as a player, Dalglish was a strong character who could command respect as a man. He was no soft touch, as his former team-mates would discover.

As a neighbour, Mark Lawrenson had shared a lift to training with Dalglish for a number of years, but once the Scot became manager the relationship changed overnight. Lawrenson, struggling with injury, had agreed to coach at a summer soccer school in Dublin on the opening day of pre-season training in 1985, and was instantly rebuked. The centre-back felt firmly put in his place, and accepted Dalglish’s punishment.

While possessing more of a sense of humour than his dour image portrays, Dalglish had a poor relationship with the press. Terse, taciturn, and at times just plain rude, he did not play the media game. The result was that journalists became more critical, and less likely to give him the benefit of the doubt before putting the boot in. While his approach was understandable — the press can be difficult for a manager to deal with, as well as having their own agenda — rubbing them up the wrong way just increases the criticism, which ramps up the pressure. It may lead to a siege mentality that can inspire success, but it can also foster a sense of negativity around a club.

Ironically, Dalglish would later be called upon by the media to offer his views on the club, and appear on TV as a match summariser. To his eternal credit, he tries to see things from the perspective of the manager, and refuses to land the low blows so common from a number of other ex-players.

Unique Methods

In a precursor to rotation, Dalglish liked to be flexible with his line-ups. He was trying to be unpredictable, rather than protect legs for a long campaign, although that may have been in his thinking too. He didn’t go in for the wholesale changes seen from all big clubs in the modern era, just one or two from game to game. At times there would be a settled side for a run of matches, but never in the manner of the past. He liked to omit Peter Beardsley against the more physical teams like Wimbledon and Arsenal, while Jan Molby would be shifted from a standard midfield role to playing behind the front two (Ian Rush, and either the manager himself or Paul Walsh), and then converted to sweeping behind the back four. In time Beardsley found himself sitting out more and more games, and his selection — or lack of — became a hot topic. It wasn’t always apparent why he was omitted — the forward was left out even when he was the top scorer in the country. The Geordie started to feel victimised, although he later admitted that he came to understand it was not personal, but tactical. The manager claimed that the player had a stress fracture during his final months in charge, which partly explained some of the omissions. Dalglish also felt that Beardsley needed to be more ruthless as a finisher, and it’s something the player himself agreed with. In and out of the side, Beardsley’s confidence started to crumble — but Dalglish was merely trying to pick the right team to win each game.

Dalglish also refrained from naming the team until shortly before kick-off; a method, like rotation, employed by Rafa Benítez. The players weren’t always happy with it, but it did serve to guarantee that no-one could ease off in the build-up to a game, and complacency couldn’t easily set in. Ronnie Moran, a member of the ‘old school’, felt the new development was a brilliant move — there was a lot more intensity in training, with 16 strong possibilities fighting to be in the next line-up.

But of course, no method in football is fail-safe, and every philosophy involves weighing the pros against the cons. Dalglish was heavily criticised for his inconsistency of selection whenever the team lost, or hit a sticky patch of form, but his record over his six years in charge is testimony to the wisdom of his methods. Dalglish has by far the best win percentage out of all the club’s managers in the last 50 years, in both the league and across all competitions. Given that Alan Hansen felt the 1986 team was the worst Liverpool side he’d played in, and that many felt that the 1990 team wasn’t vintage either, that suggests Dalglish was doing something very right indeed.

[Sir X]

So, Roy Hodgson has left Liverpool by mutual consent, and has been replaced by Kenny Dalglish for the remainder of the season. Hodgson leaves with a dignified statement, but his time at the club was disastrous (although the man who replaces him knows the true meaning of ‘disaster’).Back in November I thought that this would be the best solution, at least in terms of uniting the club again after the difficulties of the past couple of years; I just didn’t get the impression that it was going to happen. Points at Anfield are easier to come by if the Kop is in full voice, and if there’s one thing the appointment can guarantee it’s that the place will be swinging for a while now. Lifting the gloom (and uncertainty) will surely be a great help. This gives the club breathing space in order to find a permanent manager once the season ends
its easy to paint Dalglish as someone who has been out of the game for too long (and back in the summer I shared some of those concerns), but since then, having spoken to those closest to him, I’ve come to see things differently. I appreciate that his work at the Academy since 2009 has acted as a refresher course (as were his discussions with Rafa Benítez), and if you have a great footballing mind, you can adapt. Dalglish was always a thinker. And with his son, Paul (who has managed in Major League Soccer), a big fan of the fast-pressing game of Pep Guardiola, the family is very much in touch with the modern game.And as outlined in Pay As You Play, Dalglish did a great job at Blackburn, with his work at Ewood Park all the more impressive for not having spent as much (relatively speaking) as people imagine.
After a good start, he had one bad season at Newcastle, but as at Liverpool and Blackburn, showed he was, on the whole, a good judge of a player, having bought Didi Hamann, Shay Given, Gary Speed and Nolberto Solano.
Above all else, he understands what Liverpool fans want, and will rid the place of the negativity and the divisions that have hampered progress for a while now. Comparisons with Kevin Keegan’s return to Newcastle are a little wayward, not least because Dalglish was always a far better manager.
John W Henry said of the appointment: “We are delighted that Kenny Dalglish has agreed to step in and manage the team for Sunday’s FA Cup tie at Old Trafford and for the remainder of the season.
“Kenny was not just a legendary footballer, he was the third of our three most successful managers – three giants. We are extraordinarily fortunate and grateful that he has decided to step in during the middle of this season.”
Chairman Tom Werner said: “No one who cares for this great club has been happy with the way this season has unfolded and we have examined options and considered at length what is best for us going forward. Kenny will bring considerable experience to the position and provide management and leadership for the rest of the season.”
'Times New Roman', Times, serif]So, how good was Kenny first time around? What follows is the chapter from“Dynasty: 50 Years of Shankly’s Liverpool” (which, having been written in 2008, will now need updating!)if]Kenny Dalglish 1985-1991Note: There are a couple of tables that, despite an accompanying key, will not necessarily be 100% clear without having read the book itself. Briefly, the Quality mark relates to the average – out of 10 – awarded by the Brains Trust (journalists and long-time fans) for every player between 1959 and 2009. The Inheritance value was worked out by taking age into account. And the Value figure was a coefficient calculated from the Quality, fee paid, fee later sold for (or an equivalent mark if the player remained a valuable player into his 30s), and .01 point for every game played for LiverpoolIt’s certainly far harder to judge where Kenny Dalglish fits in at the top end of the Liverpool management table than it is to judge him as a player. As the latter, he was simply the best –– the King. No argument. His six years as manager were also full of success, and in the middle of his reign, the football was resplendent, and at times breathtaking — almost certainly the most aesthetically pleasing seen in the club’s history. But his tenure didn’t quite reach the heights of Paisley’s, and he hadn’t had to build the club up like Shankly. Meanwhile, his six years marked the club’s exact exile from Europe, which removed one area of comparison, particularly with the man who had brought him to the club in 1977 and who dominated on the continent.
While Liverpool fans were not exclusively to blame for the European ban –– firstly, because the fans of other British clubs had caused plenty of trouble themselves in order to sully the reputation of English supporters, and secondly because the deaths of 39 Italians at Heysel came when a creaking old wall collapsed amid two fighting nations –– they did contribute to the dark ages of English football. By this point the best players had already started to move abroad –– most notably, technical players like Graeme Souness, Liam Brady, Ray Wilkins, Trevor Francis (and, er, Luther Blissett), with Chris Waddle and Glenn Hoddle to follow –– and the imports into England, bar the odd exception, were not of a similar quality. It meant that the top division was not at its strongest just a handful of years after the country’s clubs had dominated European competition. Even so, Dalglish’s job was to beat what was put in front of him, and it was not his fault that trips to Rome and Madrid were no longer on the agenda, and places like Plough Lane, Wimbledon, were.The other question mark over Dalglish is the situation he bequeathed his successor. The Hillsborough disaster in 1989, in which 96 lives were lost, effectively marked the end of the great league-winning dynasty. One more title was bagged, in 1990, but Dalglish was feeling the strain. The team his successor inherited was ageing badly
]Situation Inherited
The day before the final at Heysel, Sir John Smith announced to the club’s directors that he’d appointed Kenny Dalglish as the new manager, following Joe Fagan’s retirement. To some it came as a massive shock, although a year earlier Graeme Souness had told a Scottish journalist that he expected Dalglish to be the club’s next boss. With Fagan the third, and final, remaining member of the original 1959 Boot Room to take the role, it would have to be someone from the next generation. All eyes were on Ronnie Moran, the most senior coach, with Roy Evans, still in his 30s, a less likely option. Chris Lawler was seen as having an outside chance, and from within the playing staff, Phil Neal was a strong candidate. But Dalglish was the man Smith wanted.[/font]
[FONT=Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif]Liverpool were still the envy of England, but the situation at the club was far less rosy: Dalglish took the reigns in the immediate aftermath of the Heysel tragedy, when a shellshocked Joe Fagan, hoping to retire with a wonderful win, found his last game to be the stuff of nightmares. Quality was still very much in abundance on the playing staff in 1985. Graeme Souness had moved to Sampdoria in 1984, but otherwise all the key players from the phenomenal treble-winning side were in place –– including, of course, Dalglish himself. The player-manager aside, the squad included key men such as Alan Hansen, Ian Rush, Ronnie Whelan, Mark Lawrenson, Steve Nicol and Bruce Grobbelaar, plus Jan Molby, a player who hadn’t quite found his form in his debut season as Souness’ replacement, and who had struggled to hold down a place in the team, but who would go on to net 21 goals in Dalglish’s first campaign as manager. One player who presented Dalglish with a problem was Phil Neal, the club captain, who was upset at being passed over for the manager’s role. In an act of pettiness, he refused to call Dalglish ‘boss’. Before the subject had been raised, Neal told the press he didn’t have a future at Anfield; as a result he was stripped of the captaincy. He quickly took a move to manage Bolton.Due to the post-Heysel exile, Dalglish is the only manager covered in this book not to take his team into Europe. The ban affected all clubs, and while Liverpool were seen as being to blame, the supporters of other clubs had played their part. A year earlier, also in Brussels, a Tottenham fan was shot dead and a further 200 held by police following a riot before the UEFA Cup Final against Anderlecht; the same year England fans had caused almost £1m of damage in Paris following defeat to France. To further highlight the trouble of the times, in 1986 five people were stabbed in a riot between 150 Everton, Manchester United and West Ham supporters on a cross-channel ferry, which was severely damaged and forced to return to England. But the rest of the English clubs returned to European competition in 1990, with Liverpool, who would have qualified for the European Cup, having to wait an extra year. By this time Dalglish had resigned and Graeme Souness was in charge. Europe was back on the fixture list, but alas the Liverpool of old had withered away in the interim
[Key: Quality 0-10; Age = -1 point for every year from 28 onwards, eg -4 for 31 year-old, and -1 point from 30 onwards for keepers, eg -4 for 33 year-old; Adj = adjustments for players either exceptionally fit/unfit for their age, or soon to leave; Inheritance = total out of 10. Excludes players not part of first team picture.[/font]
In terms of Quality, the First XI, fresh from back-to-back European Cup finals, was still incredibly strong in 1985. But Phil Neal and Alan Kennedy were in the twilight of their careers, so replacements were needed. As a result of Neal moving to Bolton, Steve Nicol was moved to right-back. In Jim Beglin, Dalglish already had a player capable of filling the left-back slot, and before too long he was in the team, while Gary Ablett would emerge in 1986. Alan Hansen had turned 30, but was an especially good reader of the game. And of course, there was Dalglish himself, who had now turned 34. These age adjustments weaken the First XI Inheritance rating to an average of 7.23, a full point lower than the side Paisley inherited, and half a point lower than the side Paisley left for Fagan. So it was still a great side on paper, but some key players were beginning to edge over the hill.[/font]
[FONT=Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif]While players like Paul Walsh, Kevin MacDonald and Jim Beglin were in the squad and ready to either fill in for, or replace, the older members of the side, none was at quite the same standard as his predecessor. In Dalglish’s first season, Hansen remarked to the manager that this was the worst Liverpool side he’d played in. Within a few months the Reds would land the league and FA Cup double. Even so, it was clear that some serious work in the transfer market would be needed before too long.[/font]
Sir John Smith and Peter Robinson — two of the game’s sharpest administrators — were still running the show. Smith had phoned Dalglish prior to the team leaving for Belgium for the 1985 European Cup Final, and asked if he and Robinson could come visit him at home. “I said aye, that was all right,” Dalglish recalled. “Then they told me what it was about, and I said they could still come.”Towards the end of Dalglish’s tenure, Noel White replaced Sir John Smith as chairman. Smith had been spending an increasing amount of time with Sport England, of which he was also chairman, as well as with his own business. It would be alongside White that Dalglish would sit and announce his resignation to the world in 1991.]Assistance/Backroom Staff
In 1985, Ronnie Moran and Roy Evans, like the floodlights, were still permanent fixtures at Anfield. Chris Lawler, appointed by Joe Fagan, was still in place as reserve team coach –– although he would soon be departing in acrimonious circumstances.[/font]
[FONT=Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif]Perhaps the key involvement for Dalglish should have been that of Bob Paisley as an advisor — which is akin to having Leonardo Da Vinci on hand to teach you how to paint. Dalglish had stipulated that Paisley’s assistance would be vital if he were to take the role, and the club was able to persuade the great man out of retirement, on a two-year contract. But as it transpired, Dalglish would not need much help from his former boss.A year into his reign, and with the 1985/86 double freshly under his belt, Dalglish began to make a number of serious changes to the back-room staff. With Tom Saunders retiring at the age of 64, Steve Heighway took over as youth development officer. Saunders would later return to the club after being elected to the board of directors in 1993, and assist future managers in their administration tasks, until his death in 2001.
Also in the summer of 1986, Dalglish appointed Phil Thompson onto the coaching staff. Thompson had been training at Melwood twice a week; the former Liverpool captain had moved to Sheffield United two years earlier, but was now finding himself out of the first team picture. Interestingly, Thompson was offered the role of managing the reserves in conjunction with also playing for the second string — a slightly strange offer seeing as Thompson, now in his 30s, had been considered not good enough for Liverpool in 1984, and now the same was felt at Sheffield United. It can only have been to offer support and guidance on the pitch, in the way Ronnie Moran had between 1966 and 1968. Thompson had been appointed a couple of weeks before Lawler was told his services were no longer required. That conversation only came about after Lawler, wondering why he hadn’t received his bonus when the other coaching staff had, went to see Dalglish. Naturally, it came as a massive shock to Lawler, and given that he hadn’t done anything specific wrong — no serious failings, no misdemeanours — he did not take it well. But Dalglish was reshaping the club, and the first sacking of a member of the Boot Room was not something he would shy away from in order to maintain his vision, even if he didn’t handle the situation particularly well. While he’d been successful with the reserves, Dalglish saw Lawler as too quiet, not forceful enough. The same could never be said of Thompson; in fact, he’d often be charged with being the opposite.
sacking Lawler was a shock, then replacing Geoff Twentyman, the club’s chief scout, with another ex-captain, Ron Yeats, was an even more stunning move. Yeats, who also took on Saunders’ role of scouting missions to assess the opposition, had no prior scouting experience, and was replacing arguably the best man in the business. Twentyman and Saunders had been two of the club’s great unsung heroes after two decades’ sterling service, with Twentyman in particular responsible for bringing some of the club’s greatest names to Anfield.Saunders, meanwhile, had brought through some talented locals, like Phil Thompson and Sammy Lee. If anything, in his first twelve years Steve Heighway would surpass the work of Saunders, and unearth the best batch of home-grown talent the club had ever seen. By contrast, Yeats had little chance of matching the incredible feats of Twentyman, and, after one more summer of astute dealing, the next 12 years would see a change in quality of the players recruited to Anfield.Shortly before his departure, Twentyman recommended two more players: Peter Beardsley of Newcastle and John Barnes of Watford. A year later Dalglish would sign both. By that time Twentyman was a year into working for Graeme Souness at Rangers. Beardsley and Barnes would be the last great signings made by Dalglish, and only one more enduring talent arrived at Anfield in the next four years — Ray Houghon, snapped up later in 1987. Whether or not it was down to the managers — after all, a scout can only recommend players and leave the decision to sign to the man in charge — it is damning to note that, with the exception of Jamie Redknapp and Rob Jones, the players signed by the club prior to the arrival of Gérard Houllier were mediocre at best; not all were necessarily mediocre in terms of ability or what they had shown at their previous clubs, but for one reason or another none shone as expected when wearing the red of Liverpool.[/font]
[FONT=Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif]Was that down to Yeats? It’s hard to say. He was heavily involved in the spotting of Sami Hyypia, and Didi Hamann was also signed in 1999, so he can point to later successes. But Liverpool weren’t finding great hidden talents in the way they had with Twentyman as the club’s eyes and ears.

Management Style
Graeme Souness explained that his good friend had an ingredient vital for success: he scared people with a growl, and sometimes with even just a look. As well as being respected as a player, Dalglish was a strong character who could command respect as a man. He was no soft touch, as his former team-mates would discover.As a neighbour, Mark Lawrenson had shared a lift to training with Dalglish for a number of years, but once the Scot became manager the relationship changed overnight. Lawrenson, struggling with injury, had agreed to coach at a summer soccer school in Dublin on the opening day of pre-season training in 1985, and was instantly rebuked. The centre-back felt firmly put in his place, and accepted Dalglish’s punishment.while possessing more of a sense of humour than his dour image portrays, Dalglish had a poor relationship with the press. Terse, taciturn, and at times just plain rude, he did not play the media game. The result was that journalists became more critical, and less likely to give him the benefit of the doubt before putting the boot in. While his approach was understandable — the press can be difficult for a manager to deal with, as well as having their own agenda — rubbing them up the wrong way just increases the criticism, which ramps up the pressure. It may lead to a siege mentality that can inspire success, but it can also foster a sense of negativity around a club.[/font]
[FONT=Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif]Ironically, Dalglish would later be called upon by the media to offer his views on the club, and appear on TV as a match summariser. To his eternal credit, he tries to see things from the perspective of the manager, and refuses to land the low blows so common from a number of other ex-players.

Unique Methods in a precursor to rotation, Dalglish liked to be flexible with his line-ups. He was trying to be unpredictable, rather than protect legs for a long campaign, although that may have been in his thinking too. He didn’t go in for the wholesale changes seen from all big clubs in the modern era, just one or two from game to game. At times there would be a settled side for a run of matches, but never in the manner of the past. He liked to omit Peter Beardsley against the more physical teams like Wimbledon and Arsenal, while Jan Molby would be shifted from a standard midfield role to playing behind the front two (Ian Rush, and either the manager himself or Paul Walsh), and then converted to sweeping behind the back four. In time Beardsley found himself sitting out more and more games, and his selection — or lack of — became a hot topic. It wasn’t always apparent why he was omitted — the forward was left out even when he was the top scorer in the country. The Geordie started to feel victimised, although he later admitted that he came to understand it was not personal, but tactical. The manager claimed that the player had a stress fracture during his final months in charge, which partly explained some of the omissions. Dalglish also felt that Beardsley needed to be more ruthless as a finisher, and it’s something the player himself agreed with. In and out of the side, Beardsley’s confidence started to crumble — but Dalglish was merely trying to pick the right team to win each game.[/font]
[FONT=Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif]Dalglish also refrained from naming the team until shortly before kick-off; a method, like rotation, employed by Rafa Benítez. The players weren’t always happy with it, but it did serve to guarantee that no-one could ease off in the build-up to a game, and complacency couldn’t easily set in. Ronnie Moran, a member of the ‘old school’, felt the new development was a brilliant move — there was a lot more intensity in training, with 16 strong possibilities fighting to be in the next line-up.[/font]
But of course, no method in football is fail-safe, and every philosophy involves weighing the pros against the cons. Dalglish was heavily criticised for his inconsistency of selection whenever the team lost, or hit a sticky patch of form, but his record over his six years in charge is testimony to the wisdom of his methods. Dalglish has by far the best win percentage out of all the club’s managers in the last 50 years, in both the league and across all competitions. Given that Alan Hansen felt the 1986 team was the worst Liverpool side he’d played in, and that many felt that the 1990 team wasn’t vintage either, that suggests Dalglish was doing something very right indeed.[/font]



http://tomkinstimes.com/2011/01/hodgson-gone-dalglish-returns/

[Gamma]

"in kenny we trust"?

[Assasin]

Kenny is English?

X nuh like English managers, so a who a post under his name?

[Gamma]

actually i think he is scottish ... british though

[Sir X]

Poor Sass...a im Fergie say im waan knock off im perch...one scots man to the next.

[Assasin]

yeah same thing from the British Isle.

Only foriegn coach good. Tell me another two good Scottish coach.

[Sir X]

Fan of Rafa....deal wid it Sass.

[Assasin]

deal with what? Rafa talk himself out a job. What more can I say?

[Sir X]

Top 4 side, said Kenny, plenty of quality to be a top 4 side.How the english press a guh deal wid a club storming up the tables with all dat dead wood Rafa left behind.No doubt it will be spun as the magic touch of Kenny or genius or excused as Punching above their weight, a line reserved for Rafa.

Kenny embraced Rafa youth system the Barca model.Yuh a guh talk outta both side a yuh mouth like dem.

Rafa came saw and conquered , now its Kennys turn and Rafa to continue the dynasty.The foundation is there,if yuh ave vision ,kenny ave 5 years the max then Rafa fi come back and continue the works.

Dynasty mi say.

[Sir X]

Roy Hodgson is a good manager. His relative success at certain clubs and his durability over 35 years proves that. However, he was never the right man for Liverpool Football Club.
If that seemed obvious to many of the club’s followers in the summer, it became unavoidable with his comments and tactics, both of which smacked of low expectations and mid-table mediocrity. If he remains a good manager, he proved that he is not a particularly adaptable one. And therefore, allied to his low win percentage in his three biggest jobs and lack of trophies at any of them, he’s not a great manager. Far from it, in fact.
This is a man who said in 2002 that he doesn’t believe in innovation (although perhaps he meant change for change’s sake), and who has proudly stuck to roughly the same methods for 35 years. Those methods – including a very British 4-4-2 formation – work well at clubs full of journeymen who need to be organised into a fighting unit and snatch the occasional victory, but as shown at Blackburn and Liverpool (and also Inter Milan), rather than see his results prosper, he seems to win the exact same percentage of games even when he steps up a level or two.
Maybe he would have adapted with time, but it’s unlikely. It’s baffling how someone with so much experience could make so many ‘rookie errors’ in every area of his performance; and at 63, and not a popular appointment to start with, how much time did he have? He managed to insult the fans, popular former managers and alienate supporters (with his words and his football) to the point where 10,000 empty seats for a New Year’s Day fixture told its own story.
Scott Murray sums up Hodgson beautifully in The Guardian, and Dion Fanning once again hits the nail squarely on the head here. It almost doesn’t need me to add to either of those pieces, but as ever, there are some small details to focus on.
Upon his appointment, Hodgson claimed that he’d get more than his predecessor out of this group of players. Indeed, that was his line in the job interview. Unfortunately, those interviewing him – as non-football men – didn’t know what they were doing.
Hodgson immediately offloaded some skilful ball-players and brought in some mediocre plodders and has-beens. He left out talented individuals like Agger (at the start of the season when everyone was fit) and played his only good signing on the right of midfield, where he performed like a fish out of water. Even after ending Meireles’ torrid time out there, and seeing the Portuguese find his feet – and the team its balance – in the centre, he was inexplicably stuck out there again at home to Wolves, when the last vestiges of hope died in a quite dire display. With the players at his disposal (including five he brought in), he made a right mess.
In returning to the dugout, Kenny Dalglish doesn’t have to prove himself a tactical master; these things are more vital when all is going well, and you need to eke out something extra. Right now, so long as he is sufficiently positive in his approach, and surrounded by the right lieutenants, the key is lifting a black cloud.
Hodgson was our Eyjafjallajökull, smothering us and stopping us getting off the ground.
Reality, Not Romanticism
While it may seem to fans of other clubs that we are living in the past, this is not about romanticism. It’s about uniting the club behind one man. It’s about finding a manager that the players – for 18 months a split group – will get behind.
Last season, Benítez lost the support of some key personnel from as early as the first week of the campaign, while Hodgson never really had the support of others – and almost certainly lost the faith of some of those who were open minded until they encountered his methods. But it’s hard to see anyone objecting to Dalglish.
It’s also about exciting the Kop to produce its full motivational power, rather than finding increasing gaps around the stadium where fans (who had always turned up, even when losing) started to refuse to spend their time and money watching Liverpool play without style or ambition. You can excuse bad games and defeats – you get them in any season – but it was uninspiring, overly cautious stuff from the moment Hodgson arrived.
Let’s not feel sorry for the departed boss. He dug himself into a hole too deep to get out of. Nothing was going to work, because all faith had been lost.
It got to the point where even acknowledging and amending the error of his ways was not going to win over a public who’d seen and heard too much. Even Phil Thompson admitted that he’d not seen the team play particularly well at all this season. Last season was horribly inconsistent, and that ‘did’ for Rafa Benítez, but at least Liverpool won some games with style and something to spare, including victories against Everton and Manchester United. The team were scoring a lot more goals than now, even though it was generally a poor season. That tells you how bad this has been.
As expected, managers are queuing up to say what a travesty the removal of Roy is, with Gérard Houllier saying that it’s now “brutal” and that managers are in the firing line after “losing a couple of games”. The trouble is, in the league, Hodgson lost nine and won only seven, as well as overseeing the worst domestic cup defeat since before Shankly’s time.
Hodgson was appointed under previous owners, by a since-deposed chief executive who began to think himself a football guru. Hodgson made the mistake of trusting that chief executive with regard to player assessments, and between them they messed up the summer’s transfer business. Hodgson seemed to side with Purslow rather than the fans.
Some of the criticism of Hodgson was daft, such as the outrage when he smiled when passing Alex Ferguson on his way to a seat at the JJB last weekend. And some of it got far too personal, as did the attacks on the owners from a few lunatics for not yet having sacked him. Ludicrous stuff.
But when Hodgson should have been putting Liverpool FC before his friendship with Ferguson back in the autumn – when Torres was first called a cheat by the United manager, and then linked with a move to United – he failed to do so. Sometimes diplomacy ends up upsetting someone regardless, because sitting on the fence can imply acceptance of a situation that needs to be spoken out against. (If you refuse to say that your wife is pretty when someone asks, you’ve just insulted her.)
Arsene Wenger said that Hodgson is a ‘great manager’, but how many Arsenal fans would have wanted him to replace the Frenchman this summer if the Gunners had performed badly last season? Seriously, can anyone see that as a sensible approach?
And before people get too snotty and say Arsenal were/are light years ahead of Liverpool, remember that Benítez won a trophy more recently than Wenger, finished in the top two far more recently, reached a Champions League Final more recently, and did so at a club far less stable behind the scenes.
And that’s coming from a huge fan of Wenger, too … Which is precisely the reason why I couldn’t see Arsenal ever appointing someone like Hodgson, or wanting to change from their sensible continental approach ‘for the sake of it’. The knee-jerking at Liverpool was in the summer, in terms of the direction of the club, rather than from the fans or NESV. The knee-jerking was in thinking that because things had gone stale under Benítez, everything about him (or Spanish football) was wrong. Instead of choosing Manuel Pellegrini, the board consciously and deliberately went ‘English’. English manager, more English players. I said in the summer that this was a daft way to go about things.
A lot of mocking supporters of rival clubs seem to think that Liverpool have become the new Newcastle by appointing Kenny Dalglish, after the enmity shown towards Roy Hodgson from the Kop.

The problem was, Liverpool became the new Newcastle in the summer, by doing the classic ‘baby out with the bath water’ 180º u-turn. Undoing that was never going to be straightforward. Hodgson’s position became untenable – the atmosphere surrounding the club was getting unbearable – and in order to buy some time ahead of a permanent summer appointment, there needed to be the best possible kind of release of the building pressure.
Dalglish oversaw arguably the finest football Liverpool (or any other British team) have ever produced, winning the title three times in his five and a half years; and then, by spending money in line with (but not in excess of) Manchester United – see Pay As You Play for evidence – took the title to Blackburn in 1995. It was a long time ago, but it involved some absolutely fantastic signings, and a winning mentality. Even his short-lived time at Newcastle left them with Didi Hamann (sold for a big profit to Liverpool, whom he served with distinction), Shay Given, Gary Speed and Nolberto Solano. (Jon Dahl Tomasson, just a kid at the time, went on to prove what a great player he is over the next decade; it was just too early for him.)
Speaking on LFC TV, The Times’ Tony Barrett mentioned how Fernando Torres was nervous to simply kick a ball in the street with Kenny (following some promotional interviews the legends were doing), such is the awe in which he is held. If Kenny has the right people around him, then that respect, allied to the deep understanding of the game he possesses, can overcome any possibly issues of rustiness.
Modern Thinking
Two years spent at the Academy working with the ex-Barcelona FC gurus Borrell and Segura – where the tactics are far more modern than any Hodgson was implementing – will have brought Dalglish up to date, as will his conversations with Rafa Benítez, of whom Dalglish was a fan.
Indeed, anyone who has been following the youth team since Rafa overhauled the Academy in 2009 will know how much talent there is below the first team squad, and how progressive the approach is. On Saturday, the Reds tore apart a talented Crystal Palace side (top of their Southern league group, I believe, and victors over Arsenal 3-0) in the most one-sided game I’ve seen all season. It ended 3-1 to the Reds, but could have been a cricket score.
It was a beautiful exhibition of football – 4-2-3-1, passing and movement not so different from that of Barcelona – which revolved around the Spaniard wunderkind Suso (the side’s Messi), drifting in from wide areas. (Not saying Suso – who, thanks to Benítez chose Liverpool over Real Madrid – is, or ever will be, as good as Messi, just that, at this level, against boys up to 18 months older, he was on a different planet. Also, see this video clip from last year when, aged just 16, he was showing his talent against senior sides in pre-season friendlies.)
While Hodgson was happy to play some kids in his ‘B’ team, he rarely even picked the likes of Kelly and Pacheco for the bench in the Premier League, even though they are a year older than when they made their debuts last season. Dalglish is very much in touch with the up-and-coming talent on the books, and can link each section of the club. The comparisons with Keegan’s return at Newcastle are especially daft because while Keegan – an inferior manager – was noted for not even following football during his time out of the game, Dalglish has been following it closely.
And while Liverpool lost to Manchester United in Dalglish’s return, it was courtesy of a Howard Webb gift (Agger stuck out a leg but quickly withdrew it) and a moment of madness from Gerrard that left the Reds with ten men. (However committed Gerrard is in big games, he has to learn to stop diving in like that.)
The pleasing thing was that, as I’d expected, Dalglish set up in a modern 4-2-3-1, as opposed to Hodgson’s rigid 4-4-2. The Reds pressed higher up the pitch, even with just ten men, and showed greater movement. The side looked balanced, and everyone was looking to pass the ball. Agger strode confidently out from the back, and although Reina was the busier keeper, Liverpool came out of the game with their pride intact.
So, if Dalglish is a case of ‘going back to the past’, then it was mostly reminiscent of the Liverpool of 2008/09 that won 25 of its 38 league games and lost only two (as opposed to Hodgson’s antiquated, inhibited approach).
Above all else, Dalglish knows what Liverpool fans expect to see. When the Reds were 2-0 down at Manchester City earlier in the season, Hodgson didn’t make a change until the 80th minute, and in other games he left his substitutions very late (because he has never really had a Plan B). At Old Trafford, Kenny made two positive substitutions on 60 minutes.
Will it last beyond the summer? Quite possibly not. But if it goes better than expected, and the right people are brought in around him (Steve Clarke?) – as well as getting on well with Damien Comolli – then the Reds could do worse. After all, and much to our great pain, we’ve just spent the past six months witnessing just that.

[Paul Marin]

Lets not fool ourselves LFC doesnt appoint THE legend for the interim , Point is its his interim.

Daglish until he feels like walking away.

X - I see this differently. Kenny is "caretaker" because it gives everyone a chance to save face if he can't get the club to a respectable finish. While no one is expecting him to do worse than Roy, you can't rule out that possibility. With 18 games to go, King Kenny has to have a record that sports no more than 4 losses to be considered for the permanent role. My guess is that this is what has been put in front of him - cold numbers. If he doesn't make it, then he was "caretaker" anyway, if he does, then he should get the role. Everyone wins, but one thing is for sure, if he messes up, he's out (and the caretaker umbrella makes that possible). The good news here is that if my theory is right, then NESV mean business.