Liverpool v Wigan: Preview

Prior to the current campaign, Liverpool have played 15 seasons in the Premiership since it reduced to its 20-team format. Of those campaigns, 3 of the top 4 were overseen by Rafa Benitez, the other by Houllier (although he missed half of that campaign through illness leaving Phil Thompson in charge). 4 of Rafa’s 6 seasons were in club’s the top 7 best League performances whereas 4 of Houllier’s 6 were in the bottom 7. It’s quite clear who performed the better of the two despite some of the nonsense still spouted in the media.

Curiously, the bottom 4 features both Houllier’s and Benitez’s first and last seasons, the order being: Benitez’s last (63 points), Houllier’s last (60), Benitez’s first (58) and Houllier’s first (54).

Why bring this up? Because when FSG finally brought the brief yet far too long reign of Roy Hodgson to an end following our 3-1 defeat at Blackburn, Liverpool ranked 16 of 16 in terms of League performance. With just 25 points from 20 games, we were 6 points behind the 1998-99 season at the same point and had the worst goal difference of any season by 12 clear goals. Basically, we were on course for our worst performance of any 38-game Premiership season.

What is truly remarkable is that if Liverpool beat Wigan at Anfield today, we would have 41 points from 27 games outperforming the 1998-99 and 2003-04 seasons (Houllier’s first and last) by 2 points. A 3-0 win would even see us equal the goal difference of that 2003-04 season.

Despite the excuses made for Hodgson by his patriotic and xenophobic friends in the media and the LMA, I never believed that Liverpool’s performance this season was as good as any manager could achieve with the same set of players. King Kenny has proven indisputably that Hodgson was the problem and that a better manager (and backroom team) could achieve far more with those players.

At times under Hodgson, I genuinely feared relegation. To be on the verge of the 40-point mark, generally considered the safety mark as far as relegation is concerned, with 11 matches still to play is testament to Kenny’s remarkable performance so far.

While no game is a foregone conclusion, I expect Liverpool to win today. Whether that win has to be ground out or is a walk in the park will depend on what Wigan bring to the party. They are a really unpredictable team that is capable of good football and battling performances on their day whereas on others opponents can rack up a cricket score against them.

I’ll be hoping for an early Liverpool goal and a comfortable win from there.

Dirk Kuyt has an excellent record versus Wigan with 5 previous goals against them for Liverpool. The only other current player to have scored against them is David Ngog who scored the opener in this fixture last season. I doubt Ngog will start.

I’d like to Suarez given his full debut but the team were so good against Chelsea, it would be harsh to leave anyone out. I’m intrigued to see if Kenny retains the 3 central defenders that worked so well against Stoke and Chelsea. In theory, dropping Skrtel allows Suarez to come in to play off Kuyt but that could restrict the attacking threat from Johnson and Kelly on the wings so isn’t necessarily more attacking. I trust Kenny and Steve Clarke to get it right.