Rodallega punished again...
A steady start from Liverpool meant that the Reds could capitalize within the first ten minutes. Showing similarities to the start of the Chelsea game, it was Fernando Torres who again began Liverpool's goalscoring.
A lovely pass from Steven Gerrard meant the number 9 could collect the ball and make a run. Using his strength he battled with the Wigan defender and with another cool finish got himself his third goal in two games.
A top start and a goal already, it was looking fine and dandy for Liverpool who lost here last season and drew the season before. Martinez must have been weary of a Liverpool side who were on the back of three wins in the league but to be fair to Martinez, he and his side never let their guard down.
By about 20minutes in, attempts from the likes of Lucas and Maxi were replaced with increased pressure from N'Zogbia and Diame. Rodallega was also looking dangerous and in the run up to half time Liverpool were lucky to not have already conceded.
We were clearly inviting pressure which is fine if you can still handle it. At the moment and after our start to the season i don't think we're at the confidence level to be able to play bad and still win, i was hoping with Wigan being the opposition that in the second half we'd pick up the pace a bit and not keep playing on a knifes edge but this was not going to be the case.
A substitution straight after the second half saw Raul Meireles leave the field for Jonjo Shelvey. A tough game for the youngster to come on in, no question about it.
Wigan were certainly insistent on enforcing their same attitude from the latter of the first half into this one and less than five minutes in Rodallega got the equalizer for the Latics.
A powerful shot sent into the bottom right corner was well deserved as Liverpool continued to look poor and allow Wigan to put pressure on the defence.
Possession for me is usually a pointless statistic because for me it's not how much you have of the ball, it's what you do with it but this time out the Reds in terms of passing and keeping possession were abysmal and it wasn't doing them any favours.
The only real hope for Liverpool was a fantastic chance when Maxi set up Steven Gerrard who with a drilled shot saw his effort come back out off the cross bar. In all fairness we didn't really deserve to win but seeing that goal from the number 8 go in would have been fantastic.
At 1-1 you'd expect to see a Liverpool side go out and find a winner. You'd also expect any Liverpool manager to instruct the side to go out for the win, perhaps make some attacking substitutions?...
Or maybe just take off two threatening wingers in the likes of Kuyt and Maxi and then bring on the world renown midfielder Poulsen who is bound to help us get a winner and bring on Eccleston who no offence to the lad was not going to be effective in this unbalanced fixture.
Pepe Reina was called into action late on and thank god he was still on song. The Spaniard prevented this terrible display from being an embarrassment and Liverpool came away at 90minutes with the point.
Hodgson's tactics were all wrong and his substitutions were shocking. Some of the lads on the pitch were not showing the same game they did against Chelsea but i still feel enough of them were up to scratch to get the win. Torres again proves his worth and Gerrard had a decent game but we can't keep relying on them to get us out the dirt.
Hodgson's mentality away from home appears to be totally different compared to Anfield, which i suppose is fair enough if you're managing Fulham but this is Liverpool FC. For christ sake, ATTACK!