SOCCER: Liverpool 1 Wigan Athletic 2:ROBERTO MARTINEZ may well be the Premier League's most polite manager but he was unintentionally damning in his praise of his opponents after this match when he ventured: "Credit to Liverpool, they didn't just come to make up the numbers."
It says something when the manager of Wigan feels moved to congratulate Liverpool for their pluck – at Anfield.
What this says is Liverpool are far from the force they once were and far from the Premier League force the club’s owners thought they would become after Kenny Dalglish was given more than €120 million to spend since replacing Roy Hodgson as manager in January 2011.
Liverpool now have three points fewer than they had at this stage last season and are jostling to stay above Everton, Sunderland and Swansea City rather than keeping pace with Arsenal, beleaguered Chelsea or even Newcastle.
The doctrine of Dalglish infallibility has been renounced at Anfield, where there is increasing doubt about his judgment.
The chief criticism concerns his transfers. Dalglish complained a busy fixture list had left his team jaded going into the game against Wigan and he would have liked to have been able to rotate more during their three fixtures in the last week.
But Andy Carroll, for instance, has started only one of the last six league matches and Jordan Henderson has completed only two of the last 10. Grumbling about the squad being overstretched sounds hollow when the manager regularly chooses to park players for whom he paid over €60 million on the bench.
Nor is the quibble over fixture congestion convincing. While it is true Liverpool have fielded strong sides as they advanced in both domestic knockout tournaments – winning the League Cup and set to compete in the semi-finals of the FA Cup – their schedule has been eased by not competing in Europe for the first time since 1999.
Dalglish’s tactical acumen is also under fire. He has changed his formations and personnel frequently this season and often they have seemed incompatible. Against Wigan the players seldom seemed on the same wavelength.
Liverpool began with a 4-1-4-1 apparently designed to provide Luis Suarez with the regular support he often lacks but their best balls in the first half were the sort of sumptuous crosses from Steven Gerrard and Stewart Downing Carroll might have relished. Yet when Carroll came on at half-time with Liverpool a goal down to Shaun Maloney’s penalty, the crosses dried up. Liverpool did equalise through Suarez but soon fell behind again to a Gary Caldwell goal and never looked like recovering.
The inability of Liverpool’s midfield to discomfort Wigan when they had the ball lent credence to Dalglish’s claim his players were tired from their heavy recent schedule but raised questions as to why he had chosen to introduce Carroll for Henderson rather than Dirk Kuyt or Jay Spearing, as the well-rested Henderson was the one midfielder who seemed full of energy and his passing had been no more wasteful than most of his team-mates.
Guardian Service
UNITED LOOK TO TAKE ADVANTAGE
Manchester Utd v Fulham
Venue:Old Trafford
Kick-off: 8pm
On TV:Sky Sports 1
MANCHESTER CITY’S failure to win at Stoke on Saturday means a draw against Fulham at Old Trafford tonight will be enough for United to reclaim top spot.
Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Tom Cleverley, Paul Pogba and Fabio da Silva are all available for United.
Nani and Michael Owen, as well as the long-term absentee Nemanja Vidic, will again miss out but are expected to return to training this week.
Fulham manager Martin Jol has no major injury concerns.
MANCHESTER UNITED(probable): De Gea; Jones, Evans, Ferdinand, Evra; Valencia, Carrick, Giggs; Welbeck, Rooney, Hernandez.
FULHAM (probable): Schwarzer; Kelly, Hangeland, Senderos, J A Riise; Ruiz, Diarra, Dembele, Dempsey; Johnson, Pogrebnyak.
