Whilst we could spend all day picking holes in the rationale of the F.A. it certainly has brought unity within the Liverpool ranks as was shown by support of players, fans and management since the news broke. Prior to this Liverpool had travelled to Villa Park for a tricky away game against Alex McLeish’s inconsistent Villa side. Within 15 minutes the reds had near enough put the game to bed with early goals from Craig Bellamy and Martin Skrtel. The Villa boo boys stunned into silence from their constant harassment of old favourite Stewart Downing and wondering without the injured Bent and Agbonlahor, whether there was any way back into the game for their team.
The answer to this question was no, with Liverpool dominating possession in this game like they were the home team, the score remaining 0-2 after the final whistle despite Liverpool creating many more chances the woodwork denying them further goals. This game was then followed by the breaking news a few days later of the F.A.’s ridiculous decision on what punishment they had deemed fitting for the ‘alleged’ racism towards Patrice Evra (a player who has form for throwing accusations towards follow professionals) being a huge 8 game ban and £40,000 fine. The next hurdle for Kenny’s men was away trip to Roberto Martinez’s Wigan team who have found themselves a bit of form of late with a series of draws with the occasional win thrown in. Due to the two week window of appeal offered to Liverpool regarding Suarez’s ban, this allowing his availability for up and coming matches during this period, the Anfield outfit showed real solidarity by all sporting t-shirts emblazoned with Suarez 7 whilst warming up for the game with even the King himself sporting the t-shirt for his pre-match interview with the media.
As for the game itself, Liverpool started the game in positive mood taking the game by the scruff of the neck and putting the home side on the backfoot from the word go. The redmen created chance after chance only to be thwarted by poor finishing and an in form Ali Al-Habsi. It seems to be the way this season that a game against Liverpool is enough incentive for opposition keepers to put in a man of the match performance. Going into the break surprising at 0-0, many Liverpool fans expected their side to turn the screw and win this game still based on the first 45 minutes. Wigan seemed motivated by Martinez’s half time team talk and were far more competitive from the moment the whistle for the second half sounded, competing with the Liverpool midfield far more and stifling Liverpool quick passing and interplay, reducing the amount of chances they were able to create. Not long into the second half however, an audacious overhead kick by Luis Suarez was blocked by Wigan’s Gary Caldwell in a manner that can only be described as Peter Schmeichel-esque resulting in a penalty for the travelling side. How the guilty Caldwell evaded any sort of punishment in terms of cards at all considering his consistent fouling coupled with a blatant handball, Charlie Adam stepped up to the spot looking to turn Liverpool’s dominance into an early second half lead. Unfortunately, Al-Habsi had not read the script and turned Adam’s penalty around the post for a corner.
This seemed to give Wigan confidence after the resulting corner led to nothing and they were the ones who then started to find gaps in the Liverpool midfield and more time on the ball. Some players were off the pace of the game and despite having a fairly rare starting berth, failed to impress their manager and fans alike and can really have no arguement if they find themselves on the bench again for the home game against Blackburn. After the missed penalty from a Liverpool perspective, the game seemed to fizzle out and opportunities were few and far between. Wigan too didn’t really create many clean cut chances and Reina was rarely called into action. Towards the end of the game, Victor Moses could have won the game for the home side but failed to react to the chance adequately as if he was surprised to see the chance fall to him. Whilst Roberto Martinez will have been pleased with this point and Kenny seemed pleased with the performance in the post match interview, I personally feel that these draws are as bad as defeats to at team looking to re-establish themselves as contenders for Champions League qualification places.
Some results favoured Liverpool during the midweek schedule, but whilst others will be thankful that their immediate challengers failed to pick up three points this was a definite opportunity missed when facing a side in the bottom three of the Premiership table. The big question for Liverpool fans is what the club does to address the impending suspension of Suarez. The immediate options are to play an out of form Andy Carroll who has found goals difficult to come by in his Liverpool tenure. The other option is to rely on the return of their truly magical number 8............Steven Gerrard. Losing one world class player to suspension whilst another returns from injury may be a position most sides in the league would quite happily take I prefer to look at the bigger picture. Irrelevant to Suarez’s suspension, Liverpool are drastically short of goals this season and only an extremely tight defence has masked their inability to turn chances into goals. The side is crying out for a goalscorer and we do not have time for players to settle or find their feet, we need to go out and buy a ‘finished article’ and will no doubt have to pay a princely sum for such services. The big question, are FSG willing to shell out millions on yet another striker? They should be as with the ever improving standard of the Premier League, a side looking to finish in top 4 needs at least 4 recognised strikers. For me Bellamy and Kuyt do not fit this bracket, leaving us with two recognised front men. If we truly want to reintroduce ourselves to the Premiership elite, the purchase of another striker is a must. Potentially a replacement for long term injury absentee, Lucas Leiva is needed also. From the first game he was missing it was evident to see that opponents find space in between the Liverpool midfield and defence, a whole previously plugged by the in form Lucas.
With the next fixture being a Boxing Day home fixture with the team rooted to the foot of the table, nothing will do bar victory, taking us into the January transfer window where we can strengthen and address our options and push on with the rest of our season. Only time will tell as to our January activity but the main focus for all Liverpool fans whilst nursing their post Christmas hangovers, is a more than convincing 3 points against Blackburn as opposed to the scratchy victories we have been seeing of late. One thing is for sure we would all appreciate the belated Christmas present of seeing Captain Fantastic lead the team out against Steve Kean’s struggling side and witness what has been a rare spectacle of seeing Gerrard 8 on the back of the shirt of the person leading Kenny’s men into battle.
YNWA