Two years ago it was Rafa Benítez with his folded sheet of paper containing various "facts" about perceived Liverpool grievances. On Thursday in the same room Kenny Dalglish went one better, with a DVD display illustrating why Liverpool were more sinned against than sinning at Fulham on Monday, a match that earned the club a double dose of disciplinary trouble from the Football Association, with Luis Suárez accused of making an offensive gesture to home supporters and Liverpool charged with failure to control their players following the dismissal of Jay Spearing. "If anyone wants to see the truth it's on the screen," the Liverpool manager said.
"If we have infringed rules we will have to accept it and take the punishment, but I'm not certain what the rules are when it comes to disputing a decision," Dalglish added. "What I do know is that referees are inconsistent with their interpretations. The only intent in Jay's mind was to get the ball, and normally our discipline is good, as our film clip can prove.
"If you look at the way Craig Bellamy was being provoked [by Clint Dempsey] at Fulham you can only say his discipline was unbelievable. He didn't commit a foul, he didn't respond to the player shoving his head into his face, and yet he was the one to get booked. Once that happened we ended up having to take him off so we weren't left with nine players."
Footage from the game does appear to support that point, and Dalglish said it would be presented to the FA if Liverpool were asked to defend themselves, along with clips of Suárez being wrestled to the floor in the penalty area by Brede Hangeland and getting nothing, Andy Carroll being fouled and Bellamy being wrongly penalized for a harmless tussle with John Arne Riise.
"We just want to be dealt with fairly," Dalglish said. "We want the same rules to apply to us as to everyone else. At Fulham I think we got the short end of a lot of 50-50 decisions that on another night might have gone our way. Anyone watching the clips can see that for themselves."
Uppermost in Dalglish's mind is the latest charge to hit Suárez, two months after the Uruguayan was accused of racial abuse by Manchester United's Patrice Evra, a case which the FA has still to bring to a conclusion. Apart from being dismayed by the time that original investigation is taking – "Nine weeks to reach a decision is a joke, if it goes on any longer it will soon be due a testimonial" – Dalglish fears his player is being deliberately wound up by opponents and receiving scant sympathy from referees. "I've seen the picture [of the gesture] now and I'd rather be sitting here talking about football," the Scot said.
"The charge only landed yesterday afternoon and I have yet to speak to him about it, but everyone at this club will stand by him. We know what the truth is. Because he's such a fantastic player, opponents who can't stop him on the pitch find other ways to get at him. People are entitled to tackle him, but tackle him fairly. That's all we are saying.
"People are just jumping on the bandwagon now and accusing him of this, that and everything else. He is happy here, happy in his environment, but we need the outstanding issues to be cleared up before we can start talking about the man as a footballer."
Dalglish claims he can list four other players who have made similar gestures to the one Suárez made and escaped without charge, though he is reluctant to say who they may be. He disagreed that the Suárez gesture to the Fulham crowd was in any way comparable to the Wayne Rooney outburst into a television camera at West Ham that saw the Manchester United player charged and banned for a couple of games last season.
"I don't see any similarities between the two incidents at all," he said. "Saying they are a bit like each other is like saying a man is a bit like a woman. We have picked out at least four other instances that were just the same and the players were not charged. All we are asking for is some clarity on the matter."
Despite being without a league goal since the start of October, a fortnight before the United game and the trouble with Evra, Dalglish is convinced Suárez remains popular with supporters and will continue to be central to the club's plans.
"The contribution he makes is important, it is not necessary for him to score every week as long as he continues to terrorize people," he said.
"As long as opponents have to resort to verbals to try and get to him he must be doing something right. The fans recognize that. They will be right behind him on Saturday, because they know what's been going on. At the end of the day he's not been getting a fair crack of the whip."
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