19 Feb 2012

Dalglish admits: I let Suarez 'sentiment' get in the way against Brighton

Liverpool hammered Brighton 6-1 in the FA Cup earlier today, and the scoreline could've been bigger had Luis Suarez scored from the penalty spot. As soon as the penalty was given, Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish signalled from the bench that he wanted Suarez to take the penalty. The Uruguayan missed, and after the game, the Dalglish conceded that he perhaps made the wrong decision.

Liverpool dominated the game, and despite the three own goals (!), the club thoroughly deserved the victory. Speaking to LFC TV after the game, Dalglish was asked why he wanted Suarez to take the penalty. He said:

"That was my fault - I just let sentiment get in the way, but I'll learn my lesson".

Dalglish needn't have worried; Suarez scored soon after the penalty miss, which allowed him to bask in the warmth of the Anfield crowd's appreciation.

The ironic here is that over the last 4 months, Dalglish has persistently allowed sentiment over Suarez to (negatively) cloud his judgement, but this time, it was a positive thing.

Dalglish was happy with the win overall, but accepted that it was not as easy as it seemed:

"It's a good victory but it was more difficult than the scoreline suggests. Brighton played very well against us at the AMEX in the League Cup and for half an hour or 40 minutes here they were very good as well.

"We deserved to win and go through but whether the score is a true reflection of how the game went, that's open to conjecture."


With a goal and an assist respectively, it's great to see Andy Carroll and Stewart Downing making a creative contribution to the team. However, let's not kid ourselves - Brighton are inferior opposition, and those two need to consistently start scoring/creating goals where it matters, i.e. in the Premier League.

Jaimie Kanwar


22 comments:

  1. i have no idea when 6th round of FA cup will play. Suspensions work for all domestic matches.

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  2. He will be back for the quarter final, 3 league games before they play us.

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  3. if you're worried about his long throws-shotton has as good a throw so delap wouldn't be missed.

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  4. Id like to see carroll winning headers over fabio from manu last wk whos half of his height!!! Let him earm his salary and the respect of our crowd since hes been very non convincing to say the least...

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  5. Suarez can't score easy goals, only the hard ones!

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  6. Even i wanted Suarez to take the penalty pity he missed again but glad he got a goal at the end.

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  7. Suarez should be banned from penalties. He will always try to outsmart the keeper, so his chances of converting them will always be 50-50. It should be Gerrard or Carroll! It would take superhuman reflexes to beat the pace of their shots.

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  8. "when suarez was asked how he felt about the double own goal, he simply stated in my country he would be known as the silly white cunt..."

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  9. Never say sorry . All ur failed decision will be hardly dealt by the press. There is a valid reason for doing something even if it fails.

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  10. just like patrick berger

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  11.  just like patrick berger

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  12. Anybody notice we had all the Carling cup ties away (except for the 2-legged tie against Man City), and all the FA cup ties at home??? It has to be some sort of record :)


    Are we going to play at wembley for the semi-finals if we beat Stoke City?

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  13. Sentiment or something like it has affected our league showings all season chopping and changing the side week in week out just to let everyone have a game so " players don't feel hurt " . Cup runs are wonderful , but let's not forget we are 21 points off top of league after 25 games , and that is pathetic , bit of a whitewash to talk about 4 points off champs league spot after 25 league games we've got 39 points won only 10 games , there has been no improvement , the league is the judge of that . Nevertheless less two cups would be terrific .

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  14. We will play two finals this year and definitely achieve top four in EPL

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  15. 17-18 March is the 6th round (q-final) games. I think Delap will be back by then.

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  16. We have improved mate, we're playing better football than the first half of last season and all that's letting us down, at the moment, is our conversion rate. I find that a game like this when we get 6 goals will do the forwards' confidence the world of good. For all the slating Carroll & Downing have been getting, they're still plugging away and, eventually, seeming to be getting the business done. I know Brighton are not top, top opposition but look at who we've fallen to in the past couple of years. They gave a very good account of themselves back in the Carling Cup and played some really good football.

    Just for the record, that was the first match in which Gerrard, Suarez and Carroll all started together and we scored 6. Maybe it's a sign of things to come?

    And yes, I know, 3 of them were own goals but the Brighton players didn't fire pot shots at their own keeper for the hell of it, we pressurised tham enough to make mistakes.

    Attemtps at goal; 28
    Attempts on target; 15
    Goals scored; 6

    Not a bad day's work.

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  17. Still alot of work. We played just as terribly as we did against Man U till after Carroll's goal. We are clearly a confidence team and can't turn it on at will. Our midfield also looked largely purposeless until Jonjo came on!

    For the record and for the sake of assessing our conversion rate, goals scored = 3. Brighton scored 4.

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  18. He did score from one yard out so he can !

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  19. Gerrard's shot was going in, so I don't know why people are calling it an own goal. That's like saying goalkeepers are scoring own goals every time they get a hand to the ball but just push it into the top corner!

    Furthermore, there was a good chance that one of the many Red men in the box would've tucked away a desperation clearance from the line (following Johnson's header) if it hadn't ricocheted straight back into the net.

    There was only one really avoidable own goal that Brighton conceded yesterday.

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  20. I'm glad Suarez took the pen, even if only to prevent Kuyt from getting the opportunity to massage his stats again! lol

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  21. As a club we now orbit around the whims of Suarez. We have elevated him to a level of importance that actually leaves us looking like a relatively small club. Sad really. I know the fans like a hero but this guy has just come from bullshitting the club and making the manager look like a moron. He doesn't exactly qualify for more ego stroking. This collective bumlicking has gotten to ridiculous levels.

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  22. Oh Christ... Here we go again...

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