Criticism of Liverpool may be mounting after a run of poor results but manager Kenny Dalglish will not bow to the Twitter generation who crave instant success.
A run of five defeats in six league matches has led to all manner of questions being asked, ranging from the appetite of the players to Dalglish's judgement on tactics and in the transfer market.
The team were booed off by a rapidly-emptying Anfield after a 10th loss of the season at home to Wigan last weekend and there were some isolated calls to radio phone-ins and on social networking sites suggesting the Scot be replaced.
Liverpool may have already won the Carling Cup - their first piece of silverware for six years - and be in the semi-finals of the FA Cup but Dalglish bristles at the use of the phrase "instant success" in relation to his second spell in charge which began 15 months ago.
He believes it suggests there has been an element of luck over the work actually put in to achieve it.
"It is a modern idiom; you have social media which is instant and when you ask a question you get an instant reply," said the Reds boss.
"Everything is instant now - even coffee. There is no way it is anything other than that.
"But what has not changed at this club is the desire of the players to take the club forward and that is what we are trying to do.
"I don't think it will be done overnight, it won't be done on Twitter, it will be done with a lot of hard work and that is what we are trying to do.
"There is no success in football which is instant - you can forget instant.
"They won the Carling Cup because they deserved to win it and it was fantastic.
"But that is not us finished and we want to progress the club as far as we can.
"I wouldn't let the Carling Cup get in the way of anything - and it hasn't done."
Dalglish accepts their league results invite scrutiny but he is determined to take a longer-term view of the situation at Anfield.
And he does not believe the criticism coming their way will make the players perform any differently.
"I think there is a demand on everyone in any walk of life, whatever profession they work in," added the 61-year-old.
"I think if you are losing games you are not going to be praised.
"From our point of view we never get carried away when we win a game and we will not be suicidal when we lose.
"We need to get it in perspective. We will analyse it professionally - and as well as analysing the performances you also analyse yourselves.
"We will all work together to get a solution and at the moment they are working really hard.
"Their effort and determination to get it right is second to none.
"All we can do is try our very best and see if it will turn for us.
"We just have to keep believing in what we are doing. We haven't got any magic wand but what they have got is a great desire to get there.
"We just have to manage that desire and make sure we don't put ourselves under too much pressure."
Dalglish's opinion that the club have made progress on and off the pitch - referring to the record kit deal agreed with Warrior Sports from next season - has been ridiculed in some quarters.
But he maintains their recent run is purely bad results and not poor performances.
"I think you undermine them (the players) if you say they have played quite well in those six games because you can rate the performances quite highly apart from one (against Wigan)," added the manager, who takes his side to Newcastle on Sunday.
"It depends how people view success. I view success as the club moving forward, and that's what we're doing. We've moved forward in lots of ways.
"Maybe at times it isn't always apparent, but on the pitch the club is moving forward, in and around Melwood it's moved forward, off the pitch it's moved forward, the academy has moved forward.
"We certainly have made progress over the year, in lots of areas - not just the first team."
Source: TheIndependent
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