Dalglish to consult owners over ref

11 September 2011 08:30

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish will consult the club's owners before deciding on how to deal with issues regarding refereeing decisions.

The Reds boss was unhappy with a number of incidents in their 1-0 reverse at Stoke, their first Barclays Premier League defeat of the season. Jon Walters' 20th-minute penalty was one of those, although Liverpool had a number of claims for a spot-kick turned down by referee Mark Clattenburg, with the most valid when Luis Suarez's cross late in the game hit the arm of Matthew Upson.

"We would like to be respectful to referees - and I'd like to think I have been - but more importantly than being respectful to the referees is having respect for my football club," he said.

While many other Premier League managers would come out ranting and raving and firing off complaints to the Professional Game Match Game Officials Limited Dalglish wants to take a more considered approach and will consult with principal owner John Henry and chairman Tom Werner of Fenway Sports Group.

"If I feel they are suffering in any shape or form I will need to go the same route other people go and see if we can gain some benefit from that. The first four league games have had contentious decisions in them and every one has gone against us. I'll speak to the owners first and see what they say because the last thing I want to do is for my behaviour to impinge on the club's success in any way."

Unlike many top-flight counterparts Dalglish stressed he had no issues with the way Stoke had played and praised their determination and resilience. But he felt his side should have got more from a match they dominated and said he did not think Jamie Carragher had fouled Walters for the spot-kick.

"I think it is a bit of an understatement to say we deserved something from the game," added the Scot. "We can only do what we can do ourselves, sometimes other things are taken outside your jurisdiction. If we continue to play with the same attitude and commitment then we will be okay this season.

"But if we continually get battered by things outside of our control we are not going to get much chance. We don't have any complaint about Stoke; they played hard and played well, they got the goal and defended courageously at times and maybe at times they got a bit of luck."

Stoke boss Tony Pulis, understandably, took a counter view to Dalglish.

"I think Kenny will be as biased [to his team] as I am to Stoke," he said. "I respect his opinion and whether the decisions were (less than impartial) or not I don't know. We were pretty poor in possession of the ball today and we are better than that but we were top drawer off the ball. We stopped them playing, although I thought Suarez up front was fantastic."

Source: PA