Liverpool 1 Wigan 1: Doh!

Disappointing. In football, there’s no such a thing as a foregone conclusion but Liverpool should be beating Wigan at Anfield.

That we failed to do so was a consequence of having a tired and depleted squad lacking strength in depth. Steven Gerrard and Daniel Agger would have played in this game but for injury. You could also say the same of Andy Carroll. True, if you sign an injured player you can’t complain about him being unavailable but he is Torres’ replacement and Torres would have played so there is some validity to the argument.

Gerrard and Agger were badly missed, not simply because they are amongst the team’s best players but because they are amongst the few genuine football players at the club and both offer real goal threats. Lucas and Aurelio have their strengths but as a midfield pairing, they lacked creativity and offered no threat to Wigan’s goal. Meanwhile, neither Carra nor Skrtel are capable of bringing the ball forward into midfield in the way Agger does.

Then there was the further absences of Jonjo Shelvey and Joke Cole. Kenny seems to like Shelvey while we have yet to see anything like the best of Cole but it’s reasonable to assume that either would have been introduced from the bench before Jovanovic. Even Aurelio could have added something if introduced from the bench had he not been starting in the absence of Gerrard.

Jovanovic was really poor. He looks like a poor man's Erik Meijer. Ngog was similarly ineffective but in his defence, he has shown in the past that he has potential whereas to date, we've seen no evidence that Jovanovic can add any value to this squad.

This summer is crucial for our football club. We need 3 or 4 first team players of real quality but also need squad players who won’t weaken the team when required as much as some of the current fringe players.

Despite our deficiencies, we were still unlucky not to win with Suarez hitting the woodwork twice and Wigan’s equaliser being clearly offside yet still allowed to stand because the officials were utterly incompetent. I just wish we'd had a bit more quality to be able to push for a winner after the set-back. In truth, Wigan were never on the ropes and were good value for their point.

It is frustrating when, having beaten Chelsea away, you can’t beat a poor Wigan team at home but this shouldn’t undermine confidence. We are still on an excellent run and are playing infinitely better than we were when we drew at Wigan earlier in the season.

Next up is a double-header against Sparta Prague. I expect to see the likes of Kyrgiakos, Aurelio, Poulsen, Jovanovic and Ngog feature over the two legs but I would really like to see Pacheco and Wilson given chances. Pacheco needs a chance to show what he can do. If he can prove he has what it takes to play in the first team, he can give Kenny a much-needed alternative attacking option when Gerrard is out.

Let's get through that tie and then we can focus on picking up 3 points at West Ham.