Dalglish confident of Lucas cover

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish says he has other midfield options in his squad to cover the loss of influential Brazilian Lucas.

The impressive midfielder severely damaged ligaments in his knee during the Reds’ midweek 2-0 win over Chelsea in the Carling Cup, ruling him out for the rest of the season.

Liverpool have recalled Jonjo Shelvey from his loan spell at Blackpool, while Jay Spearing may also get a few more appearances, and Dalglish said he was confident his side had the depth to cover the loss.

“We’ve got plenty of people in and around the place, and it’s up to us, we’re not the only club with an injury that we’re going to have to fulfil our obligations to use the squad, we’ve got a strong squad as well,” Dalglish said.

“It’s things like this unfortunately where you get tested. So we’ve been happy with the squad and the results so far as we’ve liked it.”

“Stevie (Gerrard) is still progressing well without putting a date on when he’s going to be back, so we’ve just got to manage it, but at the same time we have sympathy for Lucas.”

Dalglish said his team should have won the five home games they’ve only managed to draw this season in the league.

“We’re never going to be happy with a draw against anybody, we’re happy with wins,” he said.

“We were delighted with the way we played, but I think we’ve set our standards a little bit higher than drawing against people, I think we’re better than that.”

“It’s up to us to stand up and be counted and start winning games. And with most of the games at home, I think all of them, we should have come away with three points.”

Liverpool travel to struggling Fulham on Monday, with the memory of their 5-2 victory at Craven Cottage last season still fresh in their minds.

“Fulham are decent, they’re very good at home, very unlucky against Spurs in the game I saw there, so we know it’s going to be a difficult game,” Dalglsih said.

“We also know we went there and won 5-2 last year, but as I keep saying we got our reward for that, we got the three points, and we’ll only get what we deserve from the game and the effort we put in on Monday night.”

“But it’s going to be difficult for us and we know that, and I think it’s the same every time you go and play a game.”