Kenny Dalglish is reluctant to take charge of Liverpool in the event Roy Hodgson is shown the door.
Defeat to Blackburn Rovers last night has Hodgson closer to the sack.
The Guardian says Liverpool's principal owners, the chairman Tom Werner and John W Henry, are understood to be assessing potential candidates to succeed Hodgson but their search is complicated by availability at this stage of the season and their reluctance to appoint Kenny Dalglish, the fans' favourite and now club ambassador, even on a temporary basis.
A demanding sequence of fixtures - starting with United, a trip to Blackpool next Wednesday and then the Merseyside derby at home to Everton - may protect Hodgson against an immediate change but, equally, he may not survive more damaging results over that period.
