WE’VE come a long way under Kenny Dalglish over the past few months but Sunday’s defeat to Spurs showed just how far we’ve got left to go.

It was a reality check for anyone getting carried away on the back of recent results.

Dalglish’s permanent appointment was fully deserved because he’s done brilliantly to turn things around.

But now he has to plan for the long term and if Liverpool are going to be successful we need more quality players.

The work he does with Damien Comolli is going to be crucial to our hopes for next season.

Back in 1987 Dalglish strengthened Liverpool with the likes of Peter Beardsley, John Barnes and Ray Houghton. He will be hoping this summer’s signings have a similar impact.

It was good to hear Dalglish speaking positively about his relationship with Comolli.

He seems happy to have Comolli’s help but the manager must have the final say on who is brought in.

Dalglish also needs to work out how to get the best out of Andy Carroll.

When Carroll was out injured, Luis Suarez and Dirk Kuyt forged a really good partnership up front.

With strikers sometimes it clicks straight away. It did with Suarez and Kuyt but it hasn’t with Suarez and Carroll yet.

There’s work to be done and new personnel are needed to give Carroll the service he needs. Everyone knows we need wingers and I’m sure that will be addressed.

On Sunday Carroll was coming too deep too often.

You don’t want to see him in midfield or drifting out to wide areas. At one point in the first half he was even back defending by our corner flag.

I want to see Carroll on the shoulder of the centre-halves, leading the line and making life difficult for opponents.

He’s a target man and Suarez has to be the one who drops off into space.

Carroll was trying to get involved but by coming back to help out it didn’t do the team any good.

You’ve got to give credit to Spurs because they deserved their victory.

They scored early on, defended really well, closed us down quickly and never allowed us to get our passing going.

In midfield I thought Luka Modric was phenomenal. The little Croatian ran the show.

There was little creativity to Liverpool’s play and we couldn’t make the telling passes to break them down.

It was a shame to sign off at Anfield like that but we need to remember where we were back in January.

Progress has been made but the hard work is only just beginning.