Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Ian Rush: Liverpool Must Get Back To Business At Wigan

Liverpool can’t afford to dwell on the frustration of Sunday’s draw with Everton as it’s a massive week in the title race.

With a trip to Wigan tomorrow night followed by the home clash with Chelsea on Sunday it’s vital the Reds return to winning ways.

It’s not going to be easy at the JJB Stadium because Wigan are a difficult side to beat.

Their home form is good and they had the benefit of a weekend off, but I’ve got a feeling this could be a good time to play them.

They’ve been weakened by the sale of two of their best players with Wilson Palacios heading to Spurs and Emile Heskey to Aston Villa.

Liverpool have got to be positive and take the game to Wigan. We certainly need a bit more urgency in our play than we’ve shown recently.

With Manchester United taking on West Brom tonight we could find ourselves three points adrift and there is no more room for slip-ups.

After Wigan, preparations will start for the clash with Chelsea and that could be a key date in the chase for the Premier League crown.

I’ve heard people at Chelsea saying they have to beat Liverpool to stay in the race and I certainly believe if we can beat them then you can write off their title hopes.

Its roles reversed this season as in recent years it’s been Liverpool having to win games like this just to stay in contention.

Six points would be the perfect boost heading into the FA Cup replay at Goodison a week tomorrow.

Everton will fancy their chances of progressing after getting a draw at Anfield. I know they will have a few players back but I think playing away will suit Liverpool.

There’s no doubt we could have done without an extra game but I don’t think we did enough to beat Everton on Sunday.

Rafa Benitez said only one team wanted to win it, and I agree with that, but we always knew that would be the case.

The only teams that come to Anfield looking to win are Manchester United, Chelsea or Arsenal. All the rest set their stall out to get a draw and Everton got what they came for.

We’ve drawn far too many home games against teams we should be beating this season and this was another one for the list.

We knew all about the threat Everton would pose from set-pieces but our defending for their goal was poor.

You have to give Tim Cahill credit. He was clever going off the pitch and then timing his run right to get on the end of the corner, but defenders have got to be alive to situations like that.

That was a brief venture forward for the Blues who got men behind the ball and were very well organised.

It’s okay to say Everton were negative but the onus was on Liverpool to break them down and we didn’t do that.

Yes, we dominated possession and territory but too often the ball went sideways, enabling Everton to get back in position.

The ball needed to be played a lot quicker and too often the tempo of our play was too slow.

Steven Gerrard made a great run from midfield to get past Fernando Torres for the equaliser but there wasn’t enough of that going on.

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