Mark Lawrenson: FSG Were Wrong to Sack Dalglish

Liverpool legend Mark Lawrenson feels the club were wrong to sack Kenny Dalglish after just 16 months in charge but admitted the Scot struggled to adapt at Anfield after over a decade out of the Premier League.

Dalglish won the Carling Cup, Liverpool's first trophy for six years, and took the club to the FA Cup final but an eighth-placed league finish led Fenway Sports Group to dismiss him following an end-of-season review in Boston earlier this week.

And BBC pundit Lawrenson believes Liverpool's owners did not give Dalglish enough time to build a side capable of challenging for a top-four finish.

"I fear Liverpool FC's American owners Fenway Sports Group have made a mistake by getting rid of Kenny Dalglish as manager," Lawrenson told the Liverpool Daily Post.

"Twitter almost went into meltdown when it emerged Dalglish had flown over to Boston for showdown talks.

"Dalglish brought that meeting forward himself so he could go on holiday. And I can imagine there was some tough talking behind closed doors.

"I didn't think Dalglish would have gone to Boston and be sacked. If John Henry had wanted to remove someone from his position, I'd have thought he'd fly across the pond to do it to the person's face, such as with Comolli. I guess I was wrong."

But Liverpool managing director, Ian Ayre, insists the club had to dismiss Dalglish because results this season failed to match their long-term goals.

"The most important element which isn't quite there is the football," Ayre told the official Liverpool Web site.

"If you don't believe the results are right and feel 37 points off the champions and 17 points off Champions League pace is a long distance you have to make a change.

"You believe you have to improve that part because without it things begin to fall away."

Nevertheless, Lawrenson believes Dalglish's reign was doomed from the start, as the footballing landscape had altered so dramatically since he last managed in the Premier League.

"The problem for Dalglish was that football has changed massively since he was first in charge at Liverpool and he has struggled to deal with the demands of the media, and in particular the paymasters of television," added Lawrenson.

"The days when Liverpool could hold a snap press conference having signed a new player out of the blue are long gone."