Dalglish Left Frustrated

Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish rued his side's lack of creativity as they dropped more points at home after being held by Stoke.

The Reds have drawn seven of their 11 games at Anfield this season to seriously damage their chances of a top-four finish.

The home side had the majority of possession but struggled to get to grips with their unfamiliar 3-4-2-1 formation and failed to create too many goalscoring opportunities against a resolute Stoke defence.

Dalglish conceded the onus was on his side to try and break Stoke down, but they only had one shot on goal in the whole game much to the disappointment of the home crowd.

"They came for a point and got a point and the responsibility is on us to be more imaginative to try and break them down but we didn't manage to do that," admitted Dalglish.

"The couple of opportunities we did have we never took, and in a game like that you've got to take your opportunities.

"We looked pretty solid at the back and I think they had one shot in the first half and not much more after that, but as I said it was our responsibility to be able to break them down.

"There was nothing wrong with the players' effort or determination, but on the day we just weren't good enough to break them down."

Liverpool had two claims for a penalty waved away in the second half by referee Howard Webb when substitute Andy Carroll and Dirk Kuyt went down in the box, but Dalglish did not have too many complaints with the decisions

"Probably in every game you go through there are a couple of penalty appeals. It's difficult to comprehend sometimes," he said.

"When they (referees) speak to people in the penalty area, I don't know what they say but obviously it must be about holding people back and then it's not punished - but we probably got away with a couple as well."

Dalglish used an unfamiliar 3-4-2-1 formation in the game and the Reds boss insisted he had no choice but to use it after losing Daniel Agger to injury.

"The boys at the back looked pretty comfortable, they were only playing against one person," noted Dalglish. "With the personnel we had, we didn't really have much of a choice.

"We were lucky to get Jose (Enrique) to play because he had a bit of a stomach virus and it was touch and go whether he was going to play.

"We left Daniel Agger out as a precaution because he's got a slight injury. We never had too many options."