Liverpool FC: How Do You Beat a Team Like Wigan, Stoke, Fulham or Swansea?

Well, it's pretty obvious now that Liverpool have issues scoring goals.  This season has seen them draw blanks against Wigan, Fulham, Swansea and Stoke, and only manage single-goal victories against Sunderland, Norwich and QPR. 

That's a pretty poor cast list of teams in the grand scheme of things—regardless of the standard compliments you pay to these hard-working and disciplined sides.

What is the problem? 

Last night showed that Liverpool were camped in the Wigan side of the field for great periods of the first half, particularly.  They seldom really troubled the goal, seldom got to the by-line, did not look threatening from set pieces and did not look threatening from long range. 

Of course, every team is allowed an off day, but this has happened far too often now to be ignored.

There were major issues for Liverpool as the game went on.  One notable one was that the Liverpool defence were too far detached from the central midfield, who had pushed up in an effort to help the team score a goal.  Once Wigan broke past the pedestrian Adam and Henderson, they were presented with 30 yards of open pitch to run into.  They exploited that with the pace of Moses and the support of Diame and McCarthy, and later Rodallega. 

Of course, the pace of Moses likely meant that Agger and Skrtel could not push to the halfway line for fear of being exploited by a long ball over the top.  The excellent Pepe Reina reads the game so well that he would have been integral had they done that and could have likely dealt with the danger.

Meanwhile, at the other end, Liverpool danced around in front of the Wigan defence but never breached into the area or got beyond a full back.  At times, Wigan had 11 men back behind the ball, often in their own third.  It was painful to watch your own side do this, but I suppose that every point now matters to them.  And this is the issue with Liverpool's attack at present, they cannot penetrate deep defences.

Why? 

Well, the issue isn't straightforward, but the ability to beat a player is a problem normally.  However, in the case of last night, it's more than likely that if you did beat one Wigan player in their own third, and perhaps even another, that eventually you'll overrun the ball and be met with one of their 11 defenders. 

Liverpool also have a deficiency up front in terms of winning aerial balls and shielding the ball, which is why the game was crying out for Carroll last night.  He had an impressive cameo as he got among the the Wigan players and used his strength and height to unsettle the worker drone-esque defenders like Caldwell. 

The part played by Kuyt was unclear, and it's unclear why Dalglish selected him ahead of Carroll or even Shelvey.  Kuyt offers no pace, no trickery and is not one of the strongest players in the team. It just seemed like a completely non-sensical selection and was likely to backfire. 

Maxi was effective.  He's a clever player with the ball at his feet and has the ability to trouble goalkeepers, but so often last night he came inside and that forced Suarez out wide—away from the Wigan danger area. 

Downing was only noticeable by the colour of his boots.  I think he might be well advised to change them back to standard black if he wants to get away with posting these mundane performances.  After a terrific start to the season, he's now really struggling to make an impact against any team. 

Henderson was invisible.  It was noted by many Liverpool fans on the forums that he seems to have a "deficiency of intensity," which hits the nail on the head perfectly.

What happens in January?  Nobody really knows.

Dalglish is not operating a ship, so to speak, but more like a top-secret Russian submarine in the Cold War.  He's completely under the radar and switches the engines off when the media get near to a story about a player. 

Carroll looked utterly despondent when he walked off at the end.  Not all Liverpool supporters have lost faith in him; his head is still in Newcastle and he needs to be nurtured, and not bullied, into re-finding his form. 

It's debatable whether Kenny is going about it the right way now.  After a cuddly start when they attended a pop concert together, he's now undermining the lad by giving him six minutes at the end of a game away to Wigan.  When you see it was Kuyt in the side ahead of you, it must knock your confidence somewhat.

Yes, Liverpool need more pace in attack.  Yes, they need a proper goalscorer or two.  Yes, they need a hard man or disciplined defensive midfielder, but I'm not sure any of them would have helped last night.  I think the answer to their problem was set on the bench until the 84th minute. How much longer he'll accept that is up for debate.