Kenny Dalglish Sacked: Liverpool Still Moving in Wrong Direction

Just a little more than 17 months ago, Kenny Dalglish was hired by Liverpool to lead the club in what appeared to be an impossible task; Dalglish, who was a legend with Liverpool during the 1970s and 80s as a player and manager, was brought back to help bring Liverpool into an era of stability.

In some ways, "King Kenny" did just that during the first half of the season. He got Liverpool into the round of 16 in the UEFA Europa League and won 33 points in league fixtures, which allowed the club to table a sixth-place finish at the end of the season.

Considering how poorly Liverpool started the season, Dalglish more than fulfilled expectations—he exceeded them.

But this season turned into a nightmare for the club. An eighth-place league finish that included 14 losses and a paltry Carling Cup won on penalties against a championship side were clearly not enough for Dalglish to keep his job.

The sacking of Dalglish will probably mark the end of the Scot's managerial career.

For many Liverpool fans, this is a sad day.

However, sacking Dalglish is a smart move to help the club's image. It shows that Liverpool want to move ahead and return to the times when Dalglish was playing at Anfield and winning every competition that the club entered.

But, removing Dalglish is just putting a bandage on a wound that needs to be stitched up.

During Dalglish's time in charge, Liverpool ventured into the transfer market and made some expensive purchases.

The purchase of Luis Suarez for £22.8 million was a smart move. But, going after Andy Carroll with the extra money from the Fernando Torres transfer was one of the worst moves in recent memory in the Premier League.

Suarez was Liverpool's best player last season, but the issues that Suarez presented will be a big concern for Liverpool until the day that he leaves the club. The suspension for racially abusing Patrice Evra clearly showed this.

Carroll is still a good striker, but he is incompatible with Suarez. This past season, Carroll averaged 516 minutes between scoring goals. When taking a shot, Carroll was on target 35 percent of the time. No striker or midfielder had such an anemic shooting percentage.

Carroll's biggest issue is that he has to live up to unrealistic expectations from the transfer. Unless he puts in legendary performances from now until the end of his career, he will not be viewed fit for the mega transfer he was put through.

Then there were the additions of Charlie Adam, Stewart Downing and Jordan Henderson. Altogether, Dalglish spent £50 million on these three players. Not one of these three players came close to expectations and all are considered to be flops.

Last season, Liverpool scored 47 goals in Premier League action. With over £100 million invested in the club's offense, this was a major disappointment. Two relegated sides, Blackburn Rovers and Bolton Wanderers, averaged the same amount of goals this season as Liverpool did.

Despite the clear disappointment of the offense, Dalglish remained committed to this group just days ago. If he were to stay on, Liverpool could have been even worse offensively next season.

Right now Liverpool is heading in the wrong direction due to those transfers. Outside of Suarez, all of the important transfers that Liverpool have made since Fenway Sports Group bought the club all share a common bond: they are all from the British Isles.

John Henry and company don't understand how the transfer market works. They have decided to rely on outdated methods to secure average players.

It is somewhat acceptable for Liverpool to splash money at players considering the money that co-owner John W. Henry has, but not understanding how to make smart buys on players is detrimental to the club's future.

This is bizarre considering that Henry used smart buys in order to make Major League Baseball's Boston Red Sox so successful during the last decade. Henry was helped by using sabermetrics to acquire the players that made the Red Sox two-time world champions over the last decade.

Knowing that football is a completely different game than baseball, Henry has admitted that he uses scouting more often than stats to improve Liverpool's squad.

But Henry is primarily using British knowledge of scouting to make his squad better. Instead of having a foreign manager that could help his group make better moves, Henry relied on Dalglish and British scouts for this past season's squad, which was a failure.

Dalglish had been removed from managing professionally for over a decade before his return and was not prepared to understand the international transfer market that would help improve his squad.

The English scouting philosophy has been set to the curb during the last decade and English squads are making the right decision to take ideas from Western Europe to incorporate into their game, which allows them to not only do well in the Premier League, but to also play well in European competition.

If Liverpool decides to hire another manager from inside the British Isles to replace Dalglish, their current trend will continue.

Liverpool will need to hire a foreign manager in order to make their squad better. That manager doesn't need to be Jose Mourniho or Pep Guardiola, but the candidate will need experience at the top level and has to know footballing tactics that are practiced throughout Western Europe.

There have already been reports that Wigan Athletic doesn’t want Roberto Martinez to jump ship to join Liverpool.

Though Martinez is one of the most skilled managers in the Premier League, he is not the right person for the Liverpool job. Someone outside of British football must be hired to take the Liverpool job. If not, it will take them years to fully recover from being a shell of their former selves.

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