Dalglish's fixture fury

Kenny Dalglish has attacked the football authorities for their inability to rearrange fixtures and stop Liverpool playing two crucial games in 48 hours.

The Reds will now have to play in the quarter-final of the Carling Cup at Chelsea on November 29th, just two days after hostingManchester City in the Premier League at Anfield.

"It is disgraceful in this day and age that players are being asked to play a key Premier League game and then a quarter-final in London just 48 hours later," Dalglish told the club's official website.

"It's understandable with the Spurs v POAK Salonika match and the TUC rally that the Met Police have said that our game cannot be played on the Wednesday.

"But it's surely the duty of the football authorities to think of other solutions which consider the welfare of the players and this clearly hasn't happened."

Liverpool have won the League Cup seven times and, along with Manchester City, have often played strong outfits in this competition.

Think carefully

Yet, Dalglish feels their loyalty to the tournament is not being reciprocated, as City themselves have to travel to the Emirates to face Arsenal two days after their league game.

"Here you have two clubs who have treated this competition with the utmost respect over the years and they are being treated like this," added.

"I'd be interested to know what the sponsors think of the situation and what it does for the reputation of the competition."

He continued: "We've got the situation that both ourselves and Manchester City were happy for the League game to be moved back to the Saturday so we both had proper time to prepare, but again we are told by the Premier League that this is not possible either for TV reasons and just to get on with it.

"The one thing I will say to our fans is to think carefully before buying tickets for the League Cup game because we do not want them spending their money and then we decide there is no other option but to use only young players in the tie."