Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish refuses to dwell on his side’s deficiencies up front and believes it remains more of an issue for those outside the club than within it.
A first home defeat of the season to Arsenal last weekend provided a good summary of the Reds’ campaign as plenty of good approach play failed to bring the expected number of goals.
As a result, the Gunners were able to snatch a 2-1 win, which put a huge dent in the Merseysiders’ hopes of a top-four finish as they are now 10 points adrift.
With just 30 goals from 26 Barclays Premier League matches, it is surprising they have managed to stay in the hunt for so long.
Only five other clubs have a worse goalscoring record and three of those are in the bottom five.
After the Arsenal defeat, Dalglish suggested his side may have to learn to win ugly but stressed that did not mean changing the way they played.
“Winning ugly is probably when you are not at your best or when you are down to nine or 10 men and you are back defending and you have to boot it clear to give yourself a bit of respite,” he said.
“But I would much rather we play the way we play and if we have to dig deep I am sure we can.
“The media seem to be obsessed (with Liverpool’s goalscoring record).
“We’ve been through everything we can say. We’ll continue to do what we do best: that is to play the way we train and if we play the way we train we will eventually get our reward.
“For us we had the disappointment immediately after the defeat (against Arsenal) but when you sit down and analyse it, they can’t do much more than what they did.
“There is nothing we said after the game that we feel we need to redress.
“If they keep playing like that and keep bringing performances like that against a quality side, then we are going to win more than we lose.”
Luis Suarez is the club’s top scorer this season with 10 goals in 26 appearances, although he is matched in league goals by Craig Bellamy, who has a slightly better strike rate.
Suarez is currently Liverpool’s premier striker but he has yet to translate his success at previous clubs into a glut of goals at Anfield.
The Uruguay international has scored just 14 times in 39 appearances since joining in January last year, although he has missed two penalties this season and come close on numerous occasions.
Prior to that his record was 133 strikes in 212 matches for Dutch sides Ajax and FC Groningen and Uruguay’s Nacional.
Some critics have suggested the 25-year-old is trying to do too much by being a creator as well as a goalscorer, while others have said he will not be a prolific striker in England.
Dalglish, however, has no doubts about Suarez, who was his first signing on returning to the club for a second spell 14 months ago.
“There is plenty of evidence to show what he can do,” said Dalglish.
“We know what Luis can do, I think everyone knows what he can do, and I don’t think there is a lack of evidence to prove that he is a fantastic footballer.”
Dalglish at least had some welcoming injury news with captain Steven Gerrard and Glen Johnson returning to training on Thursday, having missed the Arsenal defeat after sustaining injuries on international duty.
“Steven and Glen are back in training so we’ll see how they are,” said the Scot.
Asked whether the return of Gerrard will provide Liverpool with a boost, the 61-year-old said: “I wouldn’t restrict it to just Stevie – it’s a good boost for us to have anybody back, Steven included.
“Having Glen back as well, who was doing fantastic, will be good for us.
“We’ll see how they do in training and judge it from there.”
