It was an easy decision to appoint Kenny Dalglish – Liverpool director of football Damien Comolli

Sporting Director Damien Comolli (Getty Images)

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Liverpool director of football Damien Comolli believes the permanent appointment of Kenny Dalglish is great news for the club and was a ‘no brainer’ for the Reds board.

Dalglish, along with assistant Steve Clarke, agreed three-year deals with the club and Comolli thinks there was no-one better for the job.

He told the clubs official website: “We said at the start of the process we wanted somebody who was competent, had good man-management skills and who understood the philosophy of the Club,” he said. “Kenny fits perfectly with what we’ve been looking for. There is nobody better to say what the club’s playing philosophy is because that’s what he represents.

“This is the right thing for the club and is very positive news. I have been talking with players about stability, about keeping them long-term, and I think that’s even more important with the manager.

“I think the last thing anyone wanted was another change, so this is a strong sign of stability and that the club is settled in all areas.

“We didn’t really look elsewhere because Kenny turned things around very quickly, with the help of Steve Clarke. For us, it was a no brainer.”

Comolli believes Dalglish’s approach is similar to that of Arsene Wenger and also praised the former Reds player’s man management skills as he’s dragged the Merseysiders from the bottom half of the table to fifth.

“He hit the ground running and turned things around very quickly,” added Comolli.

“He came in from day one knowing what he wanted to do because he knew the boys anyway, especially the key players like Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher, and knew the young players in the Academy.”

“The impact has been great. Arsene Wenger was at Arsenal before I arrived there and so I could only see it from the outside but I think the two share some qualities.

“The first thing is the quality of the football. Kenny insists on quality of passing and movement on the pitch.

“Secondly, when you are talking about individual players they both like intelligent players who can see things. When Kenny talks about players, he talks about whether they can see a pass in the final third. What about their vision? That’s something Arsene talks about.

“They both have a massive ability to give confidence to the team and to the players. They bring self belief into the young players by saying ‘you are good so that is why you are playing’. That gives fantastic confidence to young players. The other thing they say is ‘don’t do anything different to what you have been doing.

“It doesn’t matter that you’re at Anfield or the Emirates, just play your normal game. If I pick you it’s because you are good enough’. That’s a fantastic approach Kenny has got with young players.”

“His man-management of the squad has been tremendous,” Comolli continued. “He has this ability to give self belief to the players, he has the ability to breed confidence in the senior players and to relax the young players and make them feel comfortable when they are playing the biggest game of their lives.

“When they make their first team debut, whether it’s at Anfield for John Flanagan or at the Emirates for Jack Robinson, he can relax them and that’s been the most impressive thing for me.”

The Frenchman believes Dalglish has given many Liverpool players a new lease of life at the club after building their self-esteem but conceded that the Reds do need to strengthen over the summer if they are to improve next season.

“It’s all down to confidence,” he added. “Within that you can mention a lot of things: man-management, tactics, style of play and training. Look at Maxi – he was not playing much in recent weeks, but has now scored two hat-tricks. The good thing is he is coming to a team which has confidence, belief and is playing good football. What Steve and Kenny have been doing has bred confidence.”

“We have a lot of quality in the team. Since January we are second in the league behind Chelsea which shows that if we’d had a season like this we’d have been in the top two, three, four or whatever. We know we have quality but we also know we have weaknesses and we’ll address that in the summer.

“The more quality football we play and the more feedback we get from people in football, I sense we are very attractive to top players, whether it’s at Academy level where a lot of talented young boys want to join us or at first team level where a lot of senior players want to join us.

“It shows the excitement is not just within the club and that it is spread around. We are attractive as a club and that’s very positive for the future.”