Dalglish: You fear Suarez so you knock him

Luis Suarez has brought goals and controversy to the Premier League (Reuters)

Kenny Dalglish has claimed that Premier League clubs' inability to prevent Luis Suarez causing them damage is leading to systematic character assassination of him.

The Liverpool manager was withering last week in his comments about the way the investigation of Patrice Evra's racism allegations against the Uruguayan is dragging on – the player has now been spoken to by the Football Association – and ahead of the home match with Swansea City today Dalglish has robustly rejected accusations that he dives.

West Bromwich Albion's Paul Scharner reopened the issue after Liverpool were awarded a penalty last weekend when Jerome Thomas was adjudged to have fouled him. "It was a nice dive for the penalty and that got Liverpool well started for the game," the Austrian said. "[Suarez] is very good at winning penalties. He's one of the best on the planet."

Dalglish said: "I think people try and find it easy to criticise him because he is such a good player. Rather than wax lyrical about him, they try and find a fault that they see in him but isn't really there. They can keep talking and the wee man will keep playing, running amok, going past people, creating chances, scoring a few goals.He has nothing to prove to anybody about his credibility and nothing to prove to anybody as a player who plays football."

Suarez is seeking his eighth goal for Liverpool this season against Swansea, whose visit is the first league meeting of the sides since John Toshack's Swans were in the old First Division in the 1982-83 season. Dalglish wants a fourth win in six league games ahead of a tough run of fixtures – with a visit to Chelsea on 20 November followed by Manchester City coming to Anfield seven days later.