Source: Liverpool_Echo
Wigan 1, Liverpool FC 0: Reds sink to new depths with another abysmal away showing
REMEMBER Portsmouth. Those two words were uttered by Rafa Benitez during his pre-match press conference to warn Liverpool's squad ahead of their trip to Wigan.[LNB]You could see the logic. Having travelled to Fratton Park before Christmas to tackle a side haunted by the spectre of relegation, Liverpool lost a match they were expected to win comfortably due to a quite wretched performance.[LNB]Maybe Benitez will think twice about what he says before games in future. Rather than the rhetoric jolting his players into life, they followed it to the letter of the law and, inexplicably, produced a display just as bad - if not worse - than on the south coast.[LNB]Anger, mixed with frustration and bitter disappointment, were the overriding emotions heading back home from Portsmouth before Christmas but last night perhaps the biggest sentiment was apathy. We have, lamentably, seen it all before.[LNB]We could say Liverpool were dreadful at the DW Stadium but that would be being kind to them; no shots on target and no ingenuity, they might have been playing on a new pitch here but the same old problems remain.[LNB]Until they are solved - and with no transfer window or no money in the coffers - that is going to prove impossible and it might just be wise for everyone to start getting used to the idea that the Champions League will not be on the club's agenda next year.[LNB]How on earth does Benitez lift his troops now? Can you honestly envisage Liverpool winning eight of their nine games to win the race for fourth place? In short the answer to the last question has to be an emphatic 'no'.[LNB]Manchester City and Tottenham have had a momentum behind them all season that Liverpool have found impossible to match and this latest reverse might be the defeat which puts them out of the race once and for all.
