Dalglish: Reds must be clinical

Last weekend's 1-1 draw at home to Manchester City could easily have ended with the Premier League leaders' first defeat of the season. It turned out to be a fourth successive draw at Anfield, where they have taken just 11 points from seven matches. Away from home the story is slightly different as they have won four and lost two in the league, with three successive victories on the road, and overall it is even better as they have six in a row in all competitions. They head to Fulham knowing another win would equal a club record of seven set between December 1981 and February 1982 and again in January and March 1988. And while many felt Liverpool deserved credit for their point against City a week ago Dalglish does not see it like that. "We are never going to be happy with a draw against anyone, we are happy with wins," said the Scot. "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 (the players') credit their performances have been top notch." Last May the trip to Craven Cottage resulted in a 5-2 victory with Maxi Rodriguez scoring a hat-trick. And while he is not anticipating a similar result, Dalglish is confident his side can maintain an unbeaten run which now stands at 11 matches. "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," he added. "We'll only get what we deserve from the game and the effort we put in on Monday night. "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. "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. "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." Fulham find themselves just two points off the bottom three and have not won in the league for over a month but Dalglish will not take their threat lightly. He feels they may still be adapting to the changes made by Martin Jol, who replaced Mark Hughes in the summer. "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," he said. "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 (losing 3-1) in a game I saw there. "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." Dalglish's main decision on Monday night is who to bring in to replace injured midfielder Lucas Leiva, who has been ruled out for the rest of the season with cruciate knee ligament damage.