• Premier League

Dalglish bites his tongue over refereeing decisions

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

Dalglish was unhappy with a number of incidents in their 1-0 defeat at Stoke - their first Premier League defeat of the season.

"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.

"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,'' Dalglish added. "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.

"We don't have anything but appreciation for the way they played and the way they held on to win the game. There is nothing for me to say which is anything other than complimentary to Tony and Stoke, but I just cannot see how it is a penalty kick.''

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.''

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