Liverpool principal owner John Henry says Kenny Dalglish would have been sacked as manager regardless of whether the club had won the FA Cup.

Dalglish guided The Reds to two domestic cup finals last season, winning the League Cup before losing to Chelsea in a second showcase final at Wembley.

But while Liverpool enjoyed a decent season in the cups, their league form was compromised with the club missing out on Champions League qualification for a third successive year, leading to Dalglish's sacking, a decision that wouldn't have altered had the Scot delivered the FA Cup says Henry.

Kenny Dalglish
Dalglish won the League Cup but was sacked after failing to reach the Champions League,

"The FA Cup would not have made any difference had he won it, no, no," said Henry.

"For us we were 17th over the second half of the season and Liverpool should not be in that position. I don't place the blame on Kenny and Steve Clarke - but I think it was obvious to every Liverpool fan that something was wrong and something needed to be done.

"We had a very poor second half to the season last year. But we didn't attribute that to Kenny as such, the things he and Steve were doing. I think that you could say the response to Kenny and Steve was lacking.

"The play was lacking, so that entered into our considerations. When I first discussed with Kenny making a change before he took the job, he did say that if it was the manager's job, he would only do it until we had the right young man to come in for the long term. We spoke about that two or three times before he actually took the job.

"He was always saying no one man is bigger than the club. Everyone knows what it meant when he came back, how he did right the ship and brought all the disparate elements back together. There were a lot of different directions and he unified the club internally and externally. He did an incredible job of getting us all on the same page."

Dalglish was heavily criticised for the way he and the club dealt with the racial abuse case involving Luis Suarez, which saw the Football Association hand-out an eight-game ban to the Uruguayan after an incident at Anfield in October.

Such was his strong backing of Suarez, despite his ban from the FA, Dalglish was forced to apologise for his behaviour following the match between the two at Old Trafford later in the season.

His actions drew criticism from opposite manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who had suggested the reasons behind Dalglish's sacking were due to his handling of the Suarez case, a claim Henry refutes.

"That did not play a part. It did not come into play. Basically that did not come into it, and we have been into the factors why," Henry added.

"No one man is bigger than the club and no one issue is going to determine the long-term viability of the club."