Kenny Dalglish says Liverpool need to change their philosophy

Kenny Dalglish shows his frustration during
Liverpool's 2-1 home defeat by Wigan.  

Kenny Dalglish, increasingly under pressure after five Premier League defeats in six games, has expressed his "amazement" at suggestions that Liverpool have endured an underwhelming season, yet admitted his team needs to "change our philosophies a wee bit", by "not playing the lovely football that we have been".

Liverpool were widely expected to challenge for Champions League qualification this season after lavish investment in the summer but Saturday's anaemic home defeat by Wigan Athletic, which followed an extraordinary reverse to another team in the relegation zone, Queens Park Rangers, has left them seventh, 13 points adrift of fourth place, and intensified criticism towards Dalglish. The manager claimed those defeats were events of happenstance and that there is excessive gloom being directed towards a team that has won the Carling Cup and reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup, although he admitted all was not rosy for the Reds.

"It's amazing," said the manager of the criticism of his team. "You can pick out our league form and then you can look at someone else who has been knocked out of three cups, yet they take that as a good season for them. It depends how you depict it. We are not saying we were at our best [against QPR and Wigan] but there were circumstances, with three games in six days [seven in fact].

"We have got a problem winning games in the league. We have to educate ourselves and maybe we have to not play the lovely football that we have been." Asked whether that meant he was considering deploying a more direct style of play, he replied cryptically "maybe we have to change our philosophies a wee bit" and declined to elaborate. (Guardian.co.uk)