Dalglish Claims Reds Focus

Kenny Dalglish insists his Liverpool players have not been distracted by off-field issues while preparing for Saturday's visit of QPR.

The Reds' 11-match unbeaten run ended in controversial circumstances on Monday night as Jay Spearing was sent off during a 1-0 defeat at Fulham and, after the match, Luis Suarez allegedly made an offensive gesture to the crowd.

Those incidents resulted in two FA charges, one for the club failing to control their players after the red card and the other for Suarez's apparent misconduct.

But Dalglish claims it has been business as usual at Melwood this week and the Reds boss is confident his side will need no extra motivation as they look to bounce back from their first defeat since mid-September.

"It has only distracted me because I've got to answer questions about it," said the Scot.

"It is a distraction which has to be covered but it should never take precedence over what we are trying to do on the pitch and the training ground.

"We will do what we always do and that is our best, as well as we can, and see if we can get a bit of luck going our way."

Monday's defeat was Liverpool's third in the league this season but their first since losing 4-0 at Tottenham in September.

Dalglish does not believe the Fulham setback will have hit his team's morale as hard as the defeat at White Hart Lane, though.

"I think it is worse to pick them up when they are rubbish and you can never accuse them of that," he added.

"Defeat is never pleasant but we set our standards higher than that so it won't be difficult to pick them up.

"The only reason you wouldn't back your players was if they were continually producing performances like the one at Tottenham.

"They haven't done that. This season they could have won every game they played in apart from Tottenham so I don't see why we have to be disappointed.

"We are only disappointed for the players that they haven't got what they deserved in terms of points and goals. The performance against Fulham was good enough to have won the game.

"We were on a great run. We didn't over-react when we were on a good run so we're not going to over-react when we lose a game."