There can be no doubting that every Liverpool player put their heart and soul into the performance against Wigan on Saturday afternoon. Every player covered every blade of grass and was fully committed to getting the win, a sure sign of confidence and belief that has been re-instilled into the team since the arrival of Kenny Dalglish as manager.

Despite this clear inspiration coming from King Kenny, it wasn’t enough to beat a Wigan team struggling against relegation at home. One of the crucial reasons, other than perhaps the mid week international fixtures that Dalglish mentioned, is that there was a real lack of cutting edge in forward areas, with the exception of the excellent Luis Suarez. Liverpool’s front six ended the match with Lucas Leiva and Fabio Aurelio in central midfield, with Maxi on the left, Jovanovic on the right while Suarez was partnered by David Ngog up front. Individually I have nothing against the quality of most of these players per se. Aurelio is a good left back, Lucas and Ngog are improving with every match, while Maxi does have his moments, but it is not a side that will fill any opposition with fear or dread.

Of course, the Reds team was depleted by injuries. Steven Gerrard didn’t recover from a thigh injury in time, Raul Meireles had to be subbed because of a stomach bug while Joe Cole still is not fully fit after a knee injury, but if Liverpool are to compete for a Premier League title again, Dalglish, Steve Clarke and Damien Comolli will be all too aware for a greater need of depth and variety in the squad. Looking at the subs bench against Wigan, it is certainly not a team looking to compete for a top four position:  Gulacsi, Kyrgiakos, Wilson, Poulsen, Pacheco, Jovanovic, Ngog.

In the second half, with the departures of both Raul Meireles and Dirk Kuyt for Milan Jovanovic and David Ngog, it meant that Fabio Aurelio of all people had to play as the creative central midfielder and Suarez had to feed off scraps with Rodriguez and Jovanovic cutting in onto their favoured feet, and not giving the team any width. With the absence of Meireles, Cole and Gerrard in the centre, you can hardly blame the Reds for lacking creativity but one of the crucial areas to break down stubborn defences is to ensure you stretch them out wide. In this regard, the presence of two pacey wingers is crucial and Rodriguez and Jovanovic don’t look particularly threatening prospects for the opposition.

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This week it is even more of former Liverpool WAG Amii Grove!

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