The games are coming thick and fast now. It was only on Sunday when we were celebrating beating Chelsea and tonight we are already back on the field to take on Wigan. This will not be an easy game by any stretch of the imagination but I have a lot of confidence in the way Liverpool is playing right now and they should walk away with a victory.
Liverpool have not been playing well on the road this season and our last away win at Bolton was termed lucky by many people in the game. But which teams is ever successful without a little bit of luck? Hopefully tonight we will not need any ‘luck’ to beat Wigan and our sheer form and class will outdo them.
Looking at the personnel that should start for us tonight, I do not see Hodgson making too many changes to the eleven that started against Chelsea. The only change I see is Johnson coming in for Kelly at right back. Personally, I am not happy with that as I feel Kelly should be given another game following his impressive outing against Chelsea. Johnson has not had the best of seasons so far but on his day he is fantastic. Hopefully tonight he will be on song. Sotiorios Kyrgiakos is still ill. Joe Cole, Ryan Babel and Daniel Agger are also still injured. Aurelio is fit again but I am not sure if Roy would run the risk of starting him from the beginning. A fully fit and on form Aurelio is a great asset to have and he will give Konchesky some competition.
I am pretty sure if Rafa was still in charge and given this situation, he was going to make three or four changes to the team that beat Chelsea and say he is giving some players a break. But I like Hodgson simply because he tends to stick to a winning team. Why fix it if it is not broken? With that said, our starting eleven tonight is most likely going to be: Pepe Reina, Glen Johnson, Jamie Carragher, Martin Skrtel, Paul Konchesky, Lucas Leiva, Raul Meireles, Maxi Rodriguez, Steven Gerrard, Dirk Kuyt, Fernando Torres.
Torres does not have the best of records away from Anfield but I am sure with the confidence oozing through him from Sunday he is going to be a handful for the Wigan defence and he is going to get a goal or two again. My prediction: 2-1 to Liverpool.
I was not the biggest fan of Benitez in his latter years, but I don’t know why everybody has to keep sniping at him everytime that they want to compliment Hodgson.
That being said, are you having a laugh, about you like Hodgson because he sticks to a winning team?? The guy doesn’t have the balls to change anything when the team is playing like crap and losing, much less to actually drop a senior player. Barring Jovanovich, which other first team player has he CHOSEN to drop while the team has been playing like crap??
He’d much rather send Aquilani out on loan and stick players in random positions across the midfield than make an actual decision as to who should miss out