The Reds take a 1-0 lead into the home leg of their Carling Cup semi-final with Manchester City, but the dismal nature of Saturday's defeat at Bolton remains fresh in the manager's mind.
Dalglish was uncharacteristically harsh on his players at the Reebok Stadium, and ahead of the Sky Live City showdown he said: "It's a difficult thing to do but I think it was an honest thing to do as well.
"I don't think anybody can hide behind a performance like we had on Saturday and I don't think anyone would try to do that.
"We have a slight advantage against City, we just need to go into the game and compete. It's not going to be a game that's going to be anything other than really difficult for us.
"The punters will be turning up, but we need to do something that's going to get the supporters on our side. We can't always leave it for them to lift us, sometimes we need to lift them."
