Dalglish: Manager of the Year

Roy Hodgson's last game as Liverpool FC's manager was the defeat at Blackburn on 05.01.2011. That left Liverpool in 12th - a lofty position given the positions occupied for most of Roy's ill-fated reign - with a goal difference of -3.

Today's League table shows Liverpool in 6th place, 1 point below Spurs who have yet to visit Anfield. Barring a total collapse by Man City and a flawless run-in for Liverpool, the Champions League places appear to be out of reach but being best of the rest is a strong possibility. This is amazing given that for long spells before Christmas relegation was a scarily real possibility.

This is the League table excluding all results prior to 06.01.2011.















Since Kenny Dalglish was appointed caretaker manager, only Carlo Ancelotti has managed to win more Premiership points. Dalglish has picked up more points than Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Roberto Mancini and [cough!] Harry Redknapp. No team has scored more goals than Liverpool in this period. Only Chelsea have conceded fewer. Given the relative strengths of Liverpool's and Chelsea's squads, it is to be expected that Chelsea should reap more points than us but the same is true of Man Utd, Man City and Spurs.

None of those teams have been as hard hit by injuries as Liverpool with Gerrard barely playing under Kenny and injuries to the likes of Carragher, Aurelio, Kelly, Aurelio, Agger, Aurelio, Johnson, Aurelio and Carroll, not to mention squad players like Ngog, Shelvey, Cole and Aurelio. None of those teams had to sell their star striker on the last day of the transfer window.

And on the 5th January when Hodgson led Liverpool to a 9th League defeat of the season, the top 5 in the League were Man Utd, Man City, Arsenal, Spurs and Chelsea so none of these managers had to pick up a team so lacking in form and confidence at the same time as Kenny.

What Kenny has done is quite simply alchemy. He has turned lead into gold. He has somehow managed to get his under-strength and unbalanced team to outperform far more expensively assembled outfits.

Let's be clear, we are talking about the Manager of Year. Of course the LMA will vote for someone with Ferguson's jizz round his mouth instead but after the experience of having last year's LMA Manager of the Year in charge at Anfield, I won't complain if we don't begin next season with the LMA prize winner at the helm.

Kenny Dalglish IS the Manager of the Year and more importantly, is the right man to lead Liverpool into a new era. King Kenny, I salute you.