Klopp can give Liverpool their self-belief back, just like King Kenny

The second Kenny Dalglish era at Anfield is usually framed by most folk these days as a bit of a shocker. But most folk weren't paying close enough attention.

Forget the Luis Suarez t-shirts. Forget the shaky league form towards the end. Forget even the League Cup win, Liverpool's only trophy in the last nine years, and the FA Cup final appearance (again, nine years, these are strangely underplayed achievements).

No, what was really important about Dalglish's second stint in charge at Anfield was the manner in which he quickly set about rebuilding the club's self-image and self-belief. It was an emergency rescue, for Liverpool as an institution had become a meandering shambles. Rafa Benitez had lost his way, a good man ground down by internal politics and infernal owners. His replacement Roy Hodgson was a dreadful pick, the wrong man at the wrong time. Blackpool and Northampton Town came to Anfield and made hay.

When Hodgson was unceremoniously bundled out of the door in January 2011, the caretaker appointment of Dalglish was loudly mocked by fans of just about every other club in the country, and a large chunk of the commentariat too. On a base level - and you know what folk are like - it was an easy enough position to take: Dalglish's previous two appointments, at Newcastle United and Celtic, had been underwhelming to say the least, and he'd not experienced the heat of the kitchen for over a decade. His four league titles, won at Liverpool and Blackburn, came from another era. He was unlikely to be the man to restore the club to the very pinnacle of the domestic and European game.

Those closer to the club knew that wasn't really the point. The legendary Dalglish, purely by force of personality, immediately gave Liverpool their identity back, no small matter given the previous manager's obsequious habit of genuflecting to Sir Alex, remaining clubbable at the LMA his priority over playing the game and making pantomime enemies to satisfy the people actually paying his wages. It wasn't much to have asked.

But the strident Dalglish also injected a little poke back into Liverpool's play. Steven Gerrard's sending off in Dalglish's first match, an FA Cup defeat at Manchester United, was reckless bordering on bloody daft. Yet it still sent a better signal than Hodgson's craven apology to his master for Fernando Torres being fouled.

Next stop, a little light entertainment. Within five months, the team having settled, Liverpool were putting on a show at Craven Cottage, Suarez and Maxi Rodriguez running riot in a thrilling 5-2 victory that stands as the signature performance of Dalglish's second reign. A return to the freewheeling style of the late 1980s suddenly seemed possible. It didn't quite turn out like that for Liverpool, or Dalglish, but after Hodgson's morbid know-your-place defeatism, their king had at least re-established the simple concepts of hope and excitement. What's the point of any of this if you're not allowed to dream?

It was a successful reign by any definition.

Liverpool stand at a similar staging post now. Which is not to paint Brendan Rodgers as a latter-day Hodgson. Dalglish's stint had given Rodgers a platform on which to build, showing that it really was OK to give it a go. Rodgers, for all his faults, didn't lack ambition, and took advantage of the opportunity he was offered. Unlike Hodgson, he had no interest whatsoever in acknowledging Liverpool's assumed place in the pecking order, or giving in before he even began. The near miss of 2014 is testament to that. His personal tragedy was that, frozen in the headlights, he suddenly stopped believing in that dream, and himself, to the point that he'd spend training toning himself up in the gym while his squad went about their everyday business outside. Someone will write a modernist existential novel about all this one day.

But here were are again, and once more Liverpool need to regain some serious swagger, after a season in which they ran up the white flag at the Bernabeu, then were firmly put back in their box by Crystal Palace, Stoke City and, in their biggest match of the season, relegation-haunted Aston Villa. Jurgen Klopp, then, has timed his arrival right on cue. And like Dalglish before him, he recognises the need for Liverpool to assert themselves first and foremost. "We will conquer the ball, yeah, each fucking time! ... If there is a tackle that is legal, a good tackle that gets the ball, it’s like a goal."

An upturn in results might not be immediate, though one suspects Klopp's infectious dynamism will replenish spirit at Anfield soon enough. Like Dalglish before him, Klopp has already restored confidence in the fanbase simply by imposing his personality. Like Dalglish, he'll send his teams out on the front foot, swinging at all comers. And if Liverpool, as a result, subsequently slip into their old easy-on-the-eye groove, it'll be clear that Klopp is once again onto something - and that wise old King Kenny, much derided by the banter merchants, knew what he was talking about all along.