Former Liverpool player Terry McDermott believes Kenny Dalglish was not give enough time in his second stint at the club.
McDermott, who played with Dalglish at Anfield and was on his coaching staff at Newcastle, was dismayed by his friend's sacking today by the club's American owners Fenway Sports Group.
He accepts Liverpool's position of eighth in the Premier League was not good enough but felt Dalglish's much-criticised transfers would have started to pay dividends next term.
"It's a big call. I think they've pulled the trigger at least six months too early," he told Sky Sports News.
"A Liverpool person, or a person who knows about football, would have kept Kenny at least until Christmas but people who don't know as much about football maybe came to this decision.
"To do it now, I think, is the wrong thing.
"The league position, like everybody said, was not good enough. That would have been rectified next year.
"I'm sure the players he brought in would have blossomed next year.
"It does take a bit of time at a big, massive club, to bed in. It took me two years myself, it took Ray Kennedy two years...the same with the players he brought in too.
"They are good players and they obviously haven't performed at the level they're expected to but I'm convinced next season would have been a better season."
The likes of Wigan boss Roberto Martinez and Swansea's Brendan Rodgers are among the early favourites to replace Dalglish, but McDermott was quick to warn FSG away from elevating a younger manager.
"They've got to have someone in mind who is going to take over the mantle," he said.
"They have to be to be top notch. It's no good bringing a rookie in because then it's another two or three years while he beds in and brings his own players.
"It's got to be a real top quality Mourinho-like (manager). Maybe not Mourinho but someone like that who has seen it and done it."
