Dalglish angered by lacklustre Liverpool

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish has criticised his players’ lack of focus after losing 3-1 to Bolton in the English Premier League.

Visitors Liverpool conceded just four minutes into Saturday’s match at the Reebok Stadium and never looked like getting back into the contest.

With a League Cup semi-final second leg against Manchester City and an FA Cup fourth-round clash with bitter rivals Manchester United approaching, Dalglish felt his players paid the price for having one eye on upcoming fixtures.

“The result is disappointing but the most disappointing thing for me is that I don’t think we were ready to play the game,” Dalglish said.

“I don’t think the approach was correct, I don’t think the way we went about our work was correct.”

“The foundations of the football club have always been built on respect for our people and always built on the philosophy that the next game is the most important one, not one that’s two or three down the line.”

“If a lesson needed to be taught to them then today was it. If they think they can just turn up and get a result when nobody’s competitive and they don’t match the opposition for effort and commitment, then they’ve got a lesson today.”

Dalglish suggested the future of some his players would be in doubt if their attitude did improve.

“The start of the game, we lost a goal after four minutes but I think that we’ve got to make sure that we’re in there and ready to go before we start the match,” he said.

“There’s nobody been at this football club that’s not had respect for other people and that’s what the problem was, that they thought that this wasn’t as important a game as the next one, but they won’t be here.”

“The key is now for us not to repeat what we’ve done.”

Bolton manager Owen Coyle was proud of the manner of his team’s victory, one which took them out of the relegation zone.

“We were in good form coming into the game, so we had great belief in the way we went about it,” he said.

“We believed we could win today. The great thing was not just the win but how we won. It was a team performance.”