'They've made it difficult for me'

The Reds made seven changes for the Carling Cup quarter-final tie, but were comfortable winners on the night to set up a last-four meeting with Manchester City.

Dalglish was left delighted by the determination of the players who stepped into the team and took their chance with both hands.

He told his pre-Fulham press conference at Melwood: "The strength of your squad is the ability of the ones who don't play as often as the others.

"There are some of the lads who started the other night who would like to have played more often than they have done, but there is strong opposition here for places. It's great credit to them they can go out and put in a fantastic performance like that.

"It does make it more difficult (to select a team), but it makes it more pleasant as well when you watch them play."

He added: "It's never easy to leave anybody out. They train all week and want to play, but until somebody allows us to put 20 on the pitch we're going to have a problem.

"All they can do - and they've done it to their great credit - is keep themselves fit and prepared. If they keep themselves prepared, they give themselves the best opportunity of impressing - and they certainly were impressive on Tuesday night.

"I don't get any enjoyment out of leaving anybody out of the team. You can sympathise with them if they're disappointed - but then you'd be disappointed if they weren't disappointed."

The likes of Jay Spearing, Sebastian Coates and Martin Kelly were amongst several stand-out performers at the Bridge, but Dalglish was never in any doubt the fringe members of his squad would rise to the occasion.

He said: "We trust every one of them. We believe in them and will stand by them. As long as they go out there and give what they have got to give then fine. They should never be left wanting for a lack of effort.

"Everyone will make a mistake, we ourselves make mistakes and we've got a week to prepare for the game. They've got a spontaneous decision to make - they won't always make the right one but as long as their heart is in the right place, we'll stand by every single one of the players."

Dalglish continued: "Some of the lads who haven't played as often as the other boys, it's more difficult for them than the ones who are playing all the time. For them to keep their spirits and desire up is a great compliment to them they have done that.

"Tuesday we made seven changes and there is not one of them who let themselves or us down in any way, shape or form and that's the thing that is going to keep us going - the momentum and strong dressing room we have.

"If they're enjoying coming to work, they're going to work and train harder, and produce good performances. They've done that."

Victory over Chelsea means Liverpool will now take on Manchester City in the semi-finals of the Carling Cup in the New Year.

Dalglish, however, is refusing to look beyond the Reds' next task - a trip to Fulham on Monday night.

He said: "We've got Fulham on Monday, so we'll just look forward to that. We got our reward for beating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and we're in the semi-final of the Cup. We accept that and we accept who we've got to play.

"When it gets closer to the game, when it's our next immediate one, then we can start to concentrate on it."

Fulham head into the weekend 15^th in the Barclays Premier League table having appointed Martin Jol as their new manager in the summer.

Last season, Craven Cottage was the scene of one of Liverpool's finest displays of the campaign when they ran out 5-2 winners in May, but Dalglish knows the Cottagers will provide a tough test.

He said: "Fulham have done well. It's difficult when there's a change in management and obviously that's their third one in a short space of time. Roy (Hodgson) was there first, then Mark Hughes came in and now Martin Jol is in.

"Martin is a good coach, so I'm sure they'll respond well to his thoughts. Sometimes it takes a little bit of time to put your own thoughts into the team, but Fulham are very good at home and very unlucky against Spurs in a game I saw there.

"We know it's going to be a very difficult game. We also know we went there and won 5-2 last year, but we got our reward for that by getting three points. We'll only get what we deserve from the game and the effort we put in on Monday night.

"It's the same every time we go to play a game - they're always going to be difficult games - but at the moment I think we're making it difficult for other teams as well."

Liverpool will aim to maintain an unbeaten run which now stretches to 11 matches when they make the journey south.

A strong finish to matches has characterised the Reds' displays during that sequence, and Dalglish believes that is a result of the hard work being done at Melwood.

"Everything that comes out in a game is a reflection of what you've done in the lead up to it, whether it's two or three days or two or three months," he said.

"The players have always trained very well and we've been delighted with their approach on and off the pitch. If you train well, you'll last the pace better and we've certainly not had a problem with fitness for anyone of our players. It's a credit to them as well as the coaching staff, Steve (Clarke) and Kevin (Keen), as well as the fitness people.

"You only get out of life what you put into it and I think the same applies to football.

"I don't think there is any one of our players who lack fitness or desire. We've got the best of both worlds and it would be very difficult to analyse which is the greater component - fitness or desire. We're happy we've got both of them in abundance in our players.

"They also start games quickly as well and the tempo of their play is quite high."

Liverpool's last Barclays Premier League outing resulted in a 1-1 draw against table-toppers Manchester City at Anfield.

The Reds won plenty of plaudits for an impressive display - but Dalglish is adamant there is more to come.

"We're never going to be happy with a draw against anybody - we're happy with wins," said the gaffer.

"We were delighted with the way we played, but I think we set our standards a little bit higher than drawing against people.  I think we deserve better than that, I think we are better than that, and it's up to us to stand up and be counted and start winning games.

"We've done fantastically well and in most of the games we've played at home, I think we should have come away with three points. To their credit (the players') their performances have been top notch.

"We'll continue preaching the same philosophy and eventually it is going to come good. As we've said before, if everybody sticks together we've got a better chance of being successful."