Friday, August 26, 2011

Dalglish Impressed By New-Look Liverpool

Kenny Dalglish believes his new-look Liverpool are beginning to hit their stride as the Reds look to maintain their unbeaten start to the season against Bolton on Saturday.

Dalglish has made wholesale changes at Anfield since taking charge in January - spending over £100 million on new players - and the Scot has already seen signs that his heavy investment is paying off.

Dalglish's revolution has seen him recruit the likes of Andy Carroll, Luis Suarez, Charlie Adam, Jordan Henderson and Stewart Downing to bolster a squad now tipped to mount a push for at least a top-four finish.

There is the promise of further signings, with Sebastian Coates, a 20-year-old Uruguay defender, thought to be close to completing a transfer from Nacional.

But Dalglish is already delighted with the way his squad is developing and the Reds boss said: "We're happy with what we've got. We've been absolutely delighted with, but not surprised, by the way the players have gone about their work in training and in games and we're happy with the way they've started the season.

"We've said before the squad this year is stronger than the one we had last year in every department. Going forward is part of that - you're not going to win too many games if you don't score goals. It's an important part of the squad making sure you've got enough people up front who are going to get you goals, but it's also equally important to make sure you don't lose any.

Dalglish's side began the new Premier League season with a draw against Sunderland. But back-to-back away wins against Arsenal and then Exeter in the League Cup have boosted morale at Anfield.

He believes the rapport between new strike pairing Suarez and Carroll is beginning to improve as well, with both players having got off the mark in the opening few games of the new season. "Luis is always going to score goals, but three in three is certainly a reasonable return from him," Dalglish said. "We're delighted with Andy as well. I'm sure we'll be happy with their contributions, not just this season, but throughout their careers at Liverpool."

Liverpool will be expected to continue their impressive start against a Bolton team whose convincing opening-day win over QPR was followed by a narrow defeat to Manchester City. "They got a fantastic result in the first game at QPR and were a bit unfortunate as they had a good game against Man City," Dalglish said.

"They've scored six goals in two games and they don't know when they're beaten. It will be a difficult game, but we know what to expect and it's up to us to overcome it. We're at home, so the onus is on us to take the game to them - and we'll try our best to do that."

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