“The result is disappointing, but the most disappointing thing for me was that I don’t think we were ready to play the game,” Dalglish said in his postgame press conference. “I don’t think the approach was correct and I don’t think the way we went about our work was correct.”
LFC fell behind in the fourth minute, and never assumed control of the contest. Mark Davies gave Bolton the early lead, and Nigel Reo-Coker doubled the advantage 25 minutes later.
Craig Bellamy got one back for the Reds in the 37th minute, and it looked like the visitors were growing into the game by halftime. But five minutes after the break, Gretar Steinsson scored the goal that proved to be the knockout blow for LFC.
Dalglish refused to speculate why his team delivered a flat performance Saturday. Reporters asked him if he thought the upcoming Cup games against Manchester City (Wednesday) and Manchester United (Saturday) caused his players to overlook the Premier League’s 19th place team.
Dalglish said it’s not the Liverpool way to look past any opponent. He also suggested that any player that fails to treat each game with the utmost importance will walk through the exit door.
“There’s nobody been at this football club that’s not had respect for other people. If that is what the problem was then, that they thought this game wasn’t as important a game as the next one, then fine but they’ll not be here. The key now for us is not to repeat what we’ve done.”
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