Empire of the Kop
·20 February 2026
Dalglish sends clear message about Slot patience after scrutiny

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Yahoo sportsEmpire of the Kop
·20 February 2026

Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish has offered his verdict on the team’s recent performances and believes patience is essential if Arne Slot is to succeed at Anfield.
Speaking to The Athletic, the 74-year-old Scotland icon addressed the reaction surrounding the club’s form and suggested modern football moves too quickly to judgement.
Dalglish said: “It’s always easier to criticise someone than it is to praise them. There’s a lot less patience these days and that’s a problem.
“If you don’t have patience, it’s unlikely you’ll have success. Nothing just grows overnight. Nobody has ever walked into a club and won a trophy straightaway.
“Everyone has an opinion but things could be a bit more constructive at times.”
The comments come after a mixed campaign that has seen strong runs interrupted by difficult spells, something that has naturally brought pressure on Slot in his second season following last year’s title win.

(Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)
Dalglish also highlighted the 3-0 FA Cup victory over Brighton as evidence of what this squad is capable of when rhythm and confidence align.
“The way we were brought up, it was all about the next game. Don’t look any further ahead than that.
“Liverpool’s last game was excellent. If we can put on performances like that most weeks, we’ll have a lot of pluses.”
That performance fits a wider pattern across the season, because Liverpool’s campaign has not been one straight line but instead three very clear phases.
The fixture list shows we opened the season with five league wins in our first six matches, then hit a worrying run around October and November, before stabilising again across December and into February aside from the Manchester City defeat.

(Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)
There has been debate around expectations this season, with former striker John Aldridge saying Champions League qualification is the key target and Jamie Carragher also arguing the squad balance is a factor behind inconsistency.
Dalglish’s intervention is important because it reframes the conversation around development rather than instant results, especially with Liverpool currently sixth on 42 points and still fighting for Champions League places.
His point is essentially that progress is rarely linear.
We have seen flashes of the level but also reminders that a team evolving after a title season will fluctuate.
Dalglish is not dismissing criticism, but he is warning against impatience, and coming from someone who both played and managed through title-winning eras at Anfield, that perspective carries weight.
The message is simple: if the Brighton performance becomes the standard, the outcomes will follow.
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