Benayoun saves Reds' blushes

In the controversy surrounding Liverpool's rotation policy, the role of Yossi Benayoun has been largely ignored. That should no longer be the case after the Israel midfielder, scorer of a memorable solo goal in midweek, did the same in equally stunning fashion here.

There seemed little imminent danger as the playmaker collected Jermaine Pennant's through ball, but a neat flick with the heel of his boot put his marker Titus Bramble out of the game. He then twisted in the other direction to score from 15 yards.

'If you can't find a solution then you need creativity and quality and that's what Yossi gave us,' said Benitez. 'We needed him here this afternoon. We had chances and you need to take those chances if you want an open game. Because we couldn't, we needed to bring on players with different skills and that was good. Yossi has the intelligence for this kind of game.
'Last season, we were saying we weren't good enough to be near the top of the table. Now, we're near the top with one game in hand. We're in a very good position, better than last year and, hopefully, we will be better at the end of the season.'

Along with Benayoun, Fernando Torres excelled in the Carling Cup victory over Reading and earned himself a start. Among a handful of spurned half-chances, he mistimed a volley on the edge of the area, was played clean through by Dirk Kuyt only to see his shot strike the leg of Chris Kirkland, narrowly missed the mark with an acrobatic scissors kick and came up with a couple of poor first touches to ruin potential openings.

It did not help Liverpool's cause that the home side were dogged in their defending, charging down shots , most importantly when Steven Gerrard chased a lost cause to keep the ball in play from a deflected Torres' strike, and pull back for Kuyt who was denied by Josip Skoko's block.

Wigan could feel aggrieved that a first-half effort from Marcus Bent was ruled out for offside against Julius Aghahowa, despite the player not being in an offside position or interfering with play.

If that was the result of poor officiating, their misses were down to poor finishing. Ryan Taylor shot into the side netting in the final minute and Aghahowa headed wide three yards out in time added on.

'I expected everything to end up in the back of the net when that cross went over and I wasn't too pleased it didn't,' said manager Chris Hutchings. 'But in the second half, I was pleased with our performance. They have a fantastic squad with quality players and with their rotation system, they are still getting results. I don't know why people are knocking them.'

Match Facts
74' Brown
74' Mascherano
75' 0-1 Benayoun
88' Melchiot
Wigan
Chris Kirkland, Emmerson Boyce, Titus Bramble, Mario Melchiot, Paul Scharner (Ryan Taylor), Michael Brown, Kevin Kilbane, Jason Koumas, Josip Skoko, Julius Aghahowa, Marcus Bent

Liverpool
Jose Manuel Reina, Alvaro Arbeloa, Fabio Aurelio (Yossi Benayoun), Jamie Carragher, Sami Hyypia, Steven Gerrard, Javier Mascherano, Jermaine Pennant (Andriy Voronin), John Arne Riise, Dirk Kuyt, Fernando Torres (Mohamed Sissoko)

Referee: Clattenburg, M

Venue: The JJB Stadium

Attendance: 24,311

Corners:
Wigan 5
Liverpool 6

Goal Attempts:
Wigan 9
Liverpool 14

On Target:
Wigan 3
Liverpool 10

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