Careless Reds Spurn Opportunities To Stay In Touch

After what had been a traumatic 24 hours the Liverpool team took the contentious decision to show that unity is strength when they all, including manager Kenny Dalglish, wore t-shirts in the pre-match warm-up adorning the picture of their comrade in arms Luis Suarez.

Dalglish chose, surprisingly, to leave out the impressive Jonjo Shlevey and with Bellamy also on the bench , Maxi and Dirk Kuyt returned to the starting camp.

We need a striker preferably of the poaching variety is the cry from all and sundry. Missed opportunities are threatening to cut us a drift in sixth place if we are not careful on an evening where Arsenal and both Manchester clubs won, we failed to close the gap with Chelsea. After too many games we've heard from players, fans and even commentators alike that someone is going is going to be on the end of a serious shellacking from Liverpool, but as tight as our defence has become at one end, we have become as extravagantly wasteful at the other.

Once again we made a fine start and could have had the game sown up in the first twenty minutes had we been able to fashion out some clear chances given the amount of pressure we were putting Wigan under. The two best chances of the half fell to first Glen Johnson running through as he did so memorably against Chelsea, hitting his shot straight to the keeper and Dirk Kuyt who swivelled on Downing's excellent cut-back, but could only hit his shot straight to the keeper.

This was the match where Lucas's lost was felt for the first time. Adam and Henderson after Liverpool's initially dominance found it increasingly difficult to handle a Wigan midfield led by the impressive James McCarthy and the silky and elusive Moses who was a thorn in our side throughout. But in saying that, Liverpool should have won comfortably, but in scoring only three goals in our last four games and one penalty in the five offered to us shows again the lack of cutting edge. With chances not being taken we have a striker on the bench who was ignored until the 87 minute which sends out the signal that the manager has no confidence in him, but at the moment we need him to get back on track with the team struggling in the scoring stakes. While the need is great for another striker, in a notoriously difficult transfer window will Liverpool be able to sign a top-class striker at the beginning of January let alone in the month itself?

Without Bellamy, Liverpool's set pieces lack inventiveness apart from one delightful chip over the defence which Dirk Kuyt in a crisis of confidence from his barren spell of 17 games without a goal, failed to supply the technique required to dispatch a hooked volley. Downing also seems to be down on confidence with his crossing, inability to beat the defender on the outside and just as importantly for a winger lacking goal attempts. Adam missed his second penalty of the season going for power rather placement and with the miss went Liverpool's chance of winning as Wigan, as with many of our opponents this season gained confidence by recognising that are still within a shout of winning a game which should have been dead and buried.

I could quite easily have rehashed a blog on a previous match this season as the same deficiencies persist and are hindering our drive to break back into the top four. Maybe, now is the time to give Carroll his head and back him for a run of games because he can't to any worse than some of his goal-shy colleagues who are racking up minutes on the pitch.

Kop Post Man of The Match: Dirk Kuyt – never gave up trying to break his duck for the season by getting into crucial positions and on another day may just have succeeded.