Kenny Dalglish Apologises For Behaviour Not 'Befitting of a Liverpool Manager'

Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish has apologised for defending the actions of Luis Suarez after the club's 2-1 loss to Manchester United.

The Anfield supremo conceded his post-match interview with Sky Sports was not delivered "in a way befitting of a Liverpool Manager", suggesting Suarez was wrong to reject the aforementioned Manchester United defender's offer of a handshake at the beginning of the match at Old Trafford on Saturday.

"Ian Ayre has made the Club's position absolutely clear and it is right that Luis Suarez has now apologised for what happened at Old Trafford," Dalglish said in a statement on the club's official website.

"To be honest, I was shocked to hear that the player had not shaken hands having been told earlier in the week that he would do.

"But as Ian said earlier, all of us have a responsibility to represent this Club in a fit and proper manner and that applies equally to me as Liverpool Manager.

"When I went on TV after yesterday's game I hadn't seen what had happened, but I did not conduct myself in a way befitting of a Liverpool Manager during that interview and I'd like to apologise for that."

Having seen his side lose 2-1 to Manchester United on Saturday, Dalglish suggested he had not seen Suarez snub Evra, and evidently irked by Sky Sports interviewer Geoff Shreeves' line of questioning on the Liverpool striker, the Scot intimated the media were playing their part in exasperating an already fractious situation.

"I think you are very severe and I think you are bang out of order to blame Luis Suárez for anything that happened here today, right." The Liverpool boss told Sky Sports in his post-match interview.

"I think predominantly that both sets of fans behaved really well. They had a bit of banter between each other, no problem, right. How many bookings were there? End of story.

He added: "Do you know something else? See when we had the FA Cup tie, because it wasn't on a 24-hour news channel in the build-up to the game, nothing like this happened "

Suarez and Liverpool's managing director Ian Ayre also issued statements on Sunday, apologising for the former's behaviour during the defeat to Manchester United.