Dalglish needs help to stop him sinking The evidence that his player used the word "negro" seven times was circumstantial and there were valid legal grounds to appeal, had Liverpool chosen to take them. They did not, to prevent the case continuing to engulf them, but now they are awash anyway. The Dalglish regime actually felt like it was becoming destablised late on Saturday night when the footballers own union described Liverpool's conduct as "embarrassing" and "unresponsive" on a race issue. Better that they had challenged the Football Association's verdict in the first place than this seething kind of acceptance. Gordon Taylor, the Professional Footballers' Association chief executive, has now revealed that he attempted to arbitrate on the matter last autumn, when some simple contrition for any offence caused by Suarez might have prevented the entire conflagration. If, as Taylor said, it was "hard to get... that sense of culpability" from Anfield back then, there are certainly some forces of reason at the club, trying to draw a line now. The statement the club issued on Wednesday evening, stating that Suarez would shake Patrice Evra's hand, subsequently swamped by Fabio Capello's resignation, was issued with a sense of urgency. Telephone calls alerted journalists to its release. In contradicting it, Suarez has demonstrated that his manager had no control over him, though Dalglish is, of course, only reaping what he has sowed. His campaign of solidarity for Suarez - T-shirts, FA conspiracy theories and the denigration of Evra - has inculcated a sense a victimhood in the player that cannot be tamed. Dalglish's post-match interview with Sky's indefatigable Geoff Shreeves on Saturday revealed a man out of his depth. It has been argued on these pages before that Dalglish requires someone to help him from sinking. When he needs a sounding board it is to his old Liverpool friends, like Alan Hansen, that he turns. Yet when those two trod the Anfield turf together - in the days when Anfield carried the serene reputation of a club who cared to do things in a distinguished, respectable fashion which they care to call the Liverpool Way - he knew his place. The great Liverpool administrator Peter Robinson and chairman Sir John Smith guarded the Liverpool keys and he worked for the m. "I had enough on my plate looking after the football side," Dalglish once said. It would have been insulting to Peter Robinson, John Smith and the board of directors if I wanted to change how they ran a very successful club. I don't think I would have been respected if I had tried to muscle in on their action because they never muscled in on mine. I wasn't equipped to be involved in other parts of the club. He is certainly not equipped for the subtleties of a 21st Century race row, nor the type of media storm which has accompanied it. Yet in recalling the Messianic Dalglish - the fans' overwhelming choice - Liverpool's owners have created a personal fiefdom. No one appears capable of standing up to him and damage is being wrought. "What the owners of the club think [I don't know]," Taylor said. The silence has been deafening. There is a creeping sense that they are uncomfortable. The managing director, Ian Ayre, has led a purposeful attempt to acknowledge that Liverpool know they have been "damaged," as he has put it, these past four months. He guards the keys, not Dalglish. Dalglish's task is to begin tempering the love Suarez has been made to feel with some hard management. There is an instructive symmetry with Wayne Rooney, whose two goals on Saturday capped another golden display. When Sir Alex Ferguson fined him £200,000 for his Boxing Day night out in Southport, there was a difficult moment between the two and, from the outside looking in, it seemed harsh; risky. This was Ferguson being a manager and it doesn't appear to have done any harm. This task would always be harder with Suarez, who has had difficulty with remorse once before. When he bit into the shoulder of PSV Eindhoven's Otman Bakkal in November 2010, the video message he had shot from Spain apologised for his actions, not to his victim, and Dutch journalists felt it hollow. "It could have ended there and then [on Saturday] with a handshake," the United defender Jonny Evans reflected yesterday. We [had] been talking about it in the changing room [beforehand]. I said to [Evra] myself and a few other players said 'just shake his hand. Then you will come out with a lot of respect.' Liverpool find that quality in short supply and must prove they mean yesterday's extraordinary contrition if they are to avoid pariah status. Scorers: Manchester United Rooney 47, 50 Liverpool Suarez 80. Substitutes: Liverpool Bellamy 6 (Spearing, 61), Carroll 5 (Downing, 61), Adam (Kuyt, 75). Booked: Man United Carrick. Liverpool Downing. Man of the match Valencia. Possession: Man United 47% Liverpool 53%. Attempts on target: Man United 6 Liverpool 6. Attendance 74,844.