Dirk Kuyt has said that Liverpool can only get better, the longer the players get to work with Kenny Dalglish.
Liverpool has not won since Dalglish returned as manager nine days ago. They drew 2-2 with Everton at Anfield yesterday. Dalglish first met his players hours before their 1-0 FA Cup defeat at Manchester United last week. Liverpool lost 2-1 at Blackpool in midweek.
Kuyt scored a 68th-minute penalty to equalize against Everton. He said: "Between the games we just had recovery and preparation so we didn't have any full training sessions. It is never easy for any manager coming in the middle of the season but he has helped us a lot already and I am sure he will do better in the future. It is good that we have a couple of training sessions extra to get ready for the next game [at Wolves on Saturday].
"We all know we can perform better. It is sometimes difficult to change it quickly but I am confident with the manager and players we have we will do better than we did earlier in the season. It is just a matter of time before we perform again."
Dalglish, who resigned as Liverpool manager 20 years ago, was brought in this season to replace Roy Hodgson, who had been in charge of the team for six months. Liverpool, who have won seven of their 22 Premier League games, are four points above the relegation zone.
Kuyt said: "Six months ago I was playing in a World Cup final [for Holland] and last week I was beaten by Blackpool. That is something that shouldn't happen because I think we are better than that. It means a lot to all of us that Kenny has come to the club. He is a legend for all of us, players and supporters. It was really positive and I thought the way the supporters supported us was unbelievable. I think Dalglish is probably one of the most important former players and managers for Liverpool. You only have to listen to the crowd how important he is, and that is the same for the players.
"I don't want to be disrespectful to Hodgson because he gave everything he could. He just wanted to play a certain way. If you put every manager next to each other, every one has his own training sessions, his own tactics, his own way of playing. He gave everything for the club to do his best and it is just a shame it didn't work out."
Liverpool dominated the first half of 215th Merseyside derby and led 1-0 at the break, thanks to a goal from Raul Meireles. Everton scored two goals early in the second half, through Sylvain Distin and Jermaine Beckford, but Kuyt equalized after Tim Howard tripped Maxi RodrÃguez.
Kuyt said: "I thought we did really well in the first half, but it was obviously very disappointing how we started the second. To concede two goals in a short period was really disappointing but the team afterwards showed a great effort and it was good to come back in the game. We're still disappointed to only get a point from this game.
"There are a lot of positives but we still have to do a lot of things better and we know that. We are confident of doing things better than we did. We don't have to be afraid of Wolves. We just have to go there and play with the same effort and the same quality we showed first half and keep it going for 90 minutes."
No comments:
Post a Comment