Liverpool job is the best I've ever been offered, says Kenny Dalglish

Posted Saturday, January 22, 2011 by theguardian.com

Kenny Dalglish talks to his suspended captain, Steven Gerrard, during preparations for the trip to Wolves.

It may only last five months and there will be no double this time, yet Kenny Dalglish has described his Liverpool return as the finest job of his career as he attempts to improve their embarrassing away form at Wolverhampton Wanderers today.

Liverpool have won only once on the road in the Premier League this season and suffered their eighth away defeat in Dalglish's first league game in charge at Blackpool.

Unlike 1985, when a then 34-year-old Dalglish replaced Joe Fagan in the wake of the Heysel disaster and won a league and FA Cup double in his debut season, the 59-year-old now finds himself working on the fragile confidence of a team four points above the relegation zone.

Having feared the opportunity to manage Liverpool again had gone forever when Roy Hodgson was favoured last summer, Dalglish admits his second chance means more than any other appointment in his illustrious career.

"This is the best job I've ever been offered," said Dalglish, confirmed as a candidate for the post full-time this summer by the chairman, Tom Werner, this week. "Why? Because it is Liverpool Football Club. The first time was brilliant but this time is even better. I was only a baby when I was in charge last time, now I'm a granddad, so I was running out of time. It was the best offer I could ever have had.

"It is very seldom you get offered a job and are fortunate enough to have most things in place. For me, coming in here was the best offer I have had in my life and I wasn't going to turn that down. There are problems that need to be solved but I wouldn't be here if there wasn't any problems. Hopefully we can solve them."

Attempts to improve the Liverpool squad with the signing of Uruguay international striker Luis Suárez are proving as complicated as Fenway Sports Group, the club's owners, anticipated when they targeted Ajax's captain for this transfer window.

The clubs remain poles apart in their valuation of the 23-year-old and so, for Dalglish, a more immediate concern is solving an away record that he admits has become a psychological problem for the Liverpool squad.

Mick McCarthy's team hastened Hodgson's exit as Liverpool manager with a 1-0 win at Anfield just over three weeks ago and Dalglish admitted: "We wouldn't be disrespectful to Wolves to say that, if we are right mentally, then we are going to win. They are tough opposition.

"But looking at ourselves, there will be a psychological element to it and we've got to overcome that. Everybody's got to overcome that and we will do our best to help the players through it.

"A victory would be pretty handy. I know it's not acceptable but they did win at Bolton, so they are capable of winning away from home. They've just got to do it more often. The only thing missing from the players is a bit of confidence. I don't think there's any lack of determination, lack of pride or anything. They just need a bit of belief."

Steven Gerrard serves the final game of a three-match suspension at Molineux and, despite continued weaknesses in defence, Dalglish believes the Liverpool rearguard are not solely responsible for the poor away form that has dogged the squad for over a year.

"The defence starts with Fernando," he said. "Everybody needs to chip in, it's not just the defence. I know this may sound repetitive but we could do with getting a bounce of the ball going our way for a change. That would be helpful."