Wigan Athletic 1-0 Liverpool: The Daily Mirror match report
Published 22:35 08/03/10 By David Maddock
Rafa Benitez did warn us his Liverpool side would see the fight for a Champions’ League place down to the final weekend of the season.
What he didn’t explain, though, was that the race for fourth place will be drawn out so agonisingly because of his own team’s bewildering inconsistencies.
Perhaps too, the Reds boss should now add the rider of a very real prospect the Anfield side won’t even be involved in that final day face-off with Spurs, Manchester City and Villa, if they produce many more performances as inadequate as this embarrassing defeat.
In a raw contest on an admittedly demanding surface at Wigan last night, the Reds again had the weaknesses that have so undermined their season exposed by opponents who simply should not have been allowed such a moment of history.
The home side entered the game with the burden of never beating their illustrious near neighbours from the other end of the M58, and with just one win in their last 13 Premier League matches, leaving their confidence so low the prospect of relegation was beginning to look a mercy, not merely a threat.
Yet Liverpool’s mistake-littered display and their singular lack of spirit allowed Wigan to not only bounce off the ropes for long enough to deliver a sucker punch of their own through a Hugo Rodallega first half goal, but to dominate in control of their ultimately match-winning lead.
Benitez appeared shell-shocked at the end as he flagellated his side for a poor attitude and absent character, and his anger wasn’t misplaced, because this was as bad as they have been even in a seriously poor campaign.
Not only did they lack the required passion and even the rudiment skills to pass to each other, the visitors were also missing any sense of where the goal was when they did create a semblance of a chance, and incredibly, it was Fernando Torres of all people who proved the biggest culprit.
He spurned at least three clear-cut opportunities that a striker of his supreme quality would normally consume with typically voracious hunger, the first when Wigan were still in apparent awe of opponents they had never beaten, to hand them a crucial lifeline.
Steven Gerrard too, lost his radar in front of goal and his range of passing in midfield, and all too predictably, the absence of inspiration from their star players seemed to instantly sap the spirits of a Liverpool side who had previously seemed on a charge towards the top four.
They had lost just one of their last 10 games before this, and yet it was Wigan who created the better chances as the game wore on as they lacked the nerve required for the second half fight back that record surely demanded.
It is never a charge you could ever level at Roberto Martinez’s team, no matter how far their confidence has slipped on a damaging run that has taken them so perilously close to the relegation zone.
They may lack quality at times, but they will always fight, and that battling spirit was evident as they overcame what was an inhibited start to show Liverpool exactly what attitude is required at this stage of the season.
And yet it could have been so different. In the early stages of this game, the home side appeared a touch overawed at the names on the team-sheet presented to them before kick off, with Torres, in particular, enjoying the freedom of over-heightened respect.
With Gerrard too, given the freedom of the park in the early minutes, it seemed a goal was certain, and had it come at that stage then you feared for the nerves of the home team.
Yet Gerrard twice miskicked when well positioned in front of the goal to betray an uncertainty in his own finishing when it is normally so assured, and Torres hit a post from barely six yards out when he should have buried the chance, and that hint of mortality from both Liverpool icons seemed to inspire the Latics.
As the first half unfolded, their possession became more confident, their intent more obvious and their belief more apparent, as they finally made inroads into an unfamiliar visiting backline where Javier Mascherano was employed as an emergency right back.
On 35 minutes, the balance of the game was turned on its head as Dirk Kuyt gifted possession on the right once more, this time to Emerson Boyce, and his clever cross with the outside of his right boot fell perfectly for Rodallega to gleefully convert from close range.
Liverpool’s offence was to be lenient in not ruthlessly exploiting their opponents’ hesitancy on the opening minutes, and too often this season that has been their failing, as they have dominated exchanges only to fall behind as momentum is handed over with some less than clinical finishing.
At least they normally show the desire to fight back, but not here, not this time. Torres fired one first time chance over the bar and another when he spurned Kuyt’s clever knock down, and that poor return was just about all they could muster.
If anything, it was Wigan who looked most likely to add to the scoreline, with Kyrgiakos clearing from under the bar, and Moreno, Rodallega and substitute Victor Moses all coming close, to expose the failings that threaten to destroy Liverpool’s season.
