Liverpool boss backs Dalglish

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Werner spoke out just hours after director of football Damien Comolli was released, a development which came after a poor run which had seen the team lose five out of six matches, ending their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League.

But with the League Cup safely secured and an FA Cup semi-final date at Wembley with local rivals Everton on Saturday, Werner was quick to assure fans that Dalglish enjoys the “full support” of owners Fenway Sports Group.

“We’ve got great confidence in Kenny,” he told liverpoolfc.tv.

“We feel the team is going to make strides in the future and he enjoys our full support.”

Werner also said that the club’s transfer strategy was solid and would pay dividends despite question marks over the likes of Andy Carroll (STG35m), Stewart Downing (STG20m) and Jordan Henderson (STG16m).

“We’ve had a strategy that we have agreed on. There was some disconnect on the implementation of that,” said Werner, who confirmed they had made the decision to remove Comolli.

“That strategy is a strong one and it will continue. We need to build a strong system under the first team. We’re hard at work identifying transfer targets and we will be better next year.

“Frankly, we make these decisions with a great deal of care because it’s our track record in Boston to give people authority and we’ve had great success with our manager, who was there for eight years, and our general manager, so we prefer stability.

“But when it’s time to act, we need to act. We’re coming close to the end of the season and the transfer window for the summer, and we felt it was important to make this change expeditiously.

“We feel there is enough talent on the pitch to win and I would say we certainly have the resources to compete with anybody in football.

“But we’re also talking about the future – we have a strategy we need implemented and we felt Damien was probably not the right person to implement that strategy.”

Principal owner John Henry’s target at the start of the season was to make it back into the top four but Liverpool’s recent run of poor results scuppered those chances.

“We’ve been dissatisfied, as most supporters have been, with the results so far,” said Werner, of Liverpool’s eighth-placed league position.

“We feel we are a club that needs to be perceived as the strongest club in football and we want to get there.”

Comolli joined Liverpool as a director of football strategy in November 2010, with his role redefined in March last year.

During that time he oversaw a number of high-profile signings, including the club-record acquisition of Carroll from Newcastle, while he also survived a change of manager when Dalglish returned to the club to replace Roy Hodgson.

“I had a fantastic working and personal relationship with Damien since he came here,” said Dalglish.

“It is disappointing but I suppose there is not much in football which comes as a surprise.”

Publisher: AAPNewswire

13 Apr 8:12 AM