Sunday, February 13, 2011

Dalglish Unsure If Gerrard Will Return In Europe

Kenny Dalglish has admitted he does not know if Steven Gerrard and Daniel Agger will be fit for Liverpool's Europa League trip to Sparta Prague.

Both players missed the Reds' 1-1 draw at home to Wigan on Saturday due to injury and, with only one game in the next 11 days, Dalglish confessed he will wait to take a decision on the duo for the trip to Prague.

"Both Daniel and Steven will be days rather than weeks,'' said the Scot. "Obviously we've got the Europa League on Thursday, whether they are fit for that, we'll just have to wait and see. We've not got a game after that until the following Thursday so we'll see how they are and go from there.''

Dalglish said he felt his side's lack of spark against Wigan was partly down to the effect of the midweek internationals. He also bemoaned the Latics' equalizer, which was offside in the eyes of the Liverpool boss.

"I think it was a game where we started well enough, pushed forward and scored a good goal by Raul [Meireles] again,'' he said. "Luis [Suarez] hit the post but you could tell they had been playing Wednesday night a lot of them. There was just that little bit of an edge missing and if they had had that they the final pass would have been better. I think there were three or four occasions in the first half we would have been in, but the sharpness was just missing a bit, which is understandable.

"Obviously we are disappointed not to take the three points and with a bit of luck maybe we would have, despite the performance not being as good as it has been in the past. I think Wigan may have been a bit aggrieved if they had gone away without a point but Luis hit the post twice and their goal was offside - these things happen. We just have to brush ourselves down and get on with it. It's not been too damaging. We'll keep going.''

Suarez, a £22.8 million signing from Ajax late last month, enjoyed an impressive first start - having scored on his debut 10 days ago as a substitute.

Dalglish said of his new recruit: "It's not difficult to warm to him is it? He's very energetic and skilful. He loves to score goals and was unlucky not to get on the scoresheet. In normal circumstances maybe we would have taken him off because he's not had a game for a while. It probably pushed him that bit too far. We were just hoping he might get us a goal.''

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