Reds sink to Wigan defeat

REMEMBER Portsmouth. Those two words were uttered by Rafa Benitez during his pre-match press conference to warn Liverpool's squad ahead of their trip to Wigan.

You could see the logic. Having travelled to Fratton Park before Christmas to tackle a side haunted by the spectre of relegation, Liverpool lost a match they were expected to win comfortably due to a quite wretched performance.

Maybe Benitez will think twice about what he says before games in future. Rather than the rhetoric jolting his players into life, they followed it to the letter of the law and, inexplicably, produced a display just as bad - if not worse - than on the south coast.

Anger, mixed with frustration and bitter disappointment, were the overriding emotions heading back home from Portsmouth before Christmas but last night perhaps the biggest sentiment was apathy. We have, lamentably, seen it all before.

We could say Liverpool were dreadful at the DW Stadium but that would be being kind to them; no shots on target and no ingenuity, they might have been playing on a new pitch here but the same old problems remain.

Until they are solved - and with no transfer window or no money in the coffers - that is going to prove impossible and it might just be wise for everyone to start getting used to the idea that the Champions League will not be on the club's agenda next year.

How on earth does Benitez lift his troops now? Can you honestly envisage Liverpool winning eight of their nine games to win the race for fourth place? In short the answer to the last question has to be an emphatic 'no'.

Manchester City and Tottenham have had a momentum behind them all season that Liverpool have found impossible to match and this latest reverse might be the defeat which puts them out of the race once and for all.

Sure, it is mathematically possible and doubtless their rivals will fritter points away at crucial moments in the next eight weeks but would you trust Liverpool to have the gumption to take advantage, if and when their rivals slip?

One step forward has been followed by two steps back this season and it is not hard to envisage another point between now and May 9 when Liverpool find themselves being swarmed over as Wigan did in patches here.

Make no mistake, Liverpool were woeful, their display enraging Benitez. Though they might have found themselves in front after eight minutes when Fernando Torres cracked a volley against the outside of a post.

What made it doubly frustrating was the fact that warning signs were there; shortly after that Torres chance, Charles N'Zogbia was allowed too much room on Liverpool's right flank and his cross just eluded the outstretched leg of Marcelo Moreno.

As Liverpool's passing was desperate and did not enable them to build up any kind of momentum, Wigan grew in confidence, the decibels of the home supporters rose and the more you started to worry for Benitez and company.

We have witnessed many of these performances on the road this season and the fear is that when Liverpool get into the kind of rut when attacks break down and through balls go askew, they find it very hard to get out of the rut.

With that in mind, it made what happened on 35 minutes all the more predictable. Dirk Kuyt failed to make another pass, finding Emmerson Boyce rather than Sotirios Kyrgiakos.

Taking time to survey the scene unfolding around him, he lifted a perfectly weighted cross into the six yard box and the finish his ball demanded was supplied by Hugo Rodallega, who had escaped Javier Mascherano's attentions, to power in.

Immediately the mind wandered back to Craven Cottage and Fratton Park and, more recently, to the City of Manchester Stadium and Molineux; all trips away from Anfield that need expunging from the memory banks.

That Liverpool have only won twice on their travels in the Premier League since September 19 is a source of enormous concern and offers a clear pointer as to why the club has laboured so desperately through winter.

Nobody complained at the interval that they trailed; there were no huge refereeing mistakes or opportunities to blame bad luck; Liverpool, simply, were way below par and never possessed the wit or wisdom to pressurise the home side.

Full marks to Roberto Martinez's men, who battled and scrapped as though their lives depended on it, but it would be unfair to describe them as being one-dimensional cloggers - nothing could be further from the truth.

But are they really a Premier League club? Let's just put it this way - teams that have intentions of rubbing shoulders with Europe's finest come to Wigan and win.

Things improved marginally after the break (could they have been any worse?) but despite huffing, puffing and Glen Johnson adding pace to the right flank after replacing Lucas, there was no way through nor was Chris Kirkland called into action.

If anything, the opposite was true. Kyrgiakos needed to head off the line after Carragher’s attempted clearance ricocheted off Moreno, while Johnson needed to show his wellbeing to prevent Paul Scharner pilfering what would have been a killer second.

Despite Liverpool pressing the more the suspicion grew that one would be enough for Wigan.

This is not being wise after the event; Liverpool have been, in the main, toothless for too long on their travels and this performance was indicative of the way the campaign has gone – started off badly and regressed at a rate of knots. Very soon it could be sunk without trace.

WIGAN ATHLETIC (4-1-4-1): Kirkland; Boyce, Caldwell, Bramble, Figueroa; Diame (Thomas 83); N’Zogbia, McCarthy, Scharner, Rodallega (Scotland 87); Moreno (Moses 67).

LIVERPOOL (4-2-3-1): Reina; Mascherano, Carragher, Kyrgiakos, Insua; Lucas (Johnson 55), Gerrard; Rodriguez, Kuyt (Babel 83), Benayoun (Aquilani 69); Torres.

Goals: Rodallega (35)

Bookings: Insua (22), Lucas (29), Kyrgiakos (34), Bramble (40), Torres (79), Gerrard (82)

Attendance: 17,427

Referee: Andre Marriner

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