KENNY DALGLISH has insisted he will not change his management style. The 61-year-old has presided over six defeats in his last seven league games and one of the criticisms levelled against the Scot has been the aggressively defensive way he responds to questions about his players.

Dalglish was forced to make a public apology to Sky Sports over the way he dealt with questions about Luis Suarez’ failure to shake Patrice Evra’s hand at Old Trafford in February.

“Is that a fault or a bonus?” he said when asked why he stayed so firmly behind players who, since winning the League Cup, have picked up fewer points than Wigan. Sunday’s debacle at Newcastle, in which Andy Carroll appeared to swear at the bench when substituted, and the goalkeeper, Jose Reina, was dismissed, was no longer up for discussion. Dalglish has never fined a player in a managerial career dating back to 1985, he added.

“If someone goes out and gives you the best they can, then that is not a problem,” he said. “If they are looking for direction or help, they will get all the help they want, as long as they are 100 per cent genuine. If they are not genuine then there is a problem, but it will not be sorted out publicly. We will do it privately.

“We said that would be the case when we came in. We wanted to go back to what the club was before, in its ethos and principles. I won’t condemn a player in public.”

Dalglish admitted he could not recall a worse sequence of results in his career than the eight-game league run in which Liverpool have earned four points.

“We are actually not too pleased with the results,” the manager added. Guardian Service