Dalglish prepared for mind games

The rivalry is tempered by the absence of Rafa Benitez, who had a long running feud with Ferguson, but Dalglish, whose team are 21 points behind United, is happy for the war of words between the clubs to be renewed.

He said: “He has used psychology before in the pre-amble to matches, but he will only get sparring practice if he tries to use it on ourselves.”