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4-4-2 brings out the best in Everton, Jewell has his work cut out at Ipswich and Denílson is still learning

Everton look better playing 4-4-2

Tim Cahill has dug Everton out of so many holes it seems churlish to suggest that Everton are prospering in his absence. Some may say that Jermaine Beckford’s excellent performance against Scunthorpe United was just a case of him finding his true level but his workrate and running off the ball to find space on the left to cross made a lot of room for Louis Saha in the game against Tottenham Hotspur as well.

Saha, when fit, is an excellent centre-forward even if he looks uncomfortable in the lone striker role and struggles when his instinct takes him into the same positions that Cahill tends to occupy. It will be interesting to see if David Moyes sticks to this plan for Sunday’s derby or opts for a more conservative 4-5-1 with Mikel Arteta behind Saha. If Beckford does play and teams up on the left with the rampaging Leighton Baines, surely in the form of his life, Liverpool’s right-sided centre-back will have to be careful not to be dragged too far out of the middle to cover for Glen Johnson or Saha will find gaps in the penalty area to exploit.

Don’t let Watford cut in from the touchline

Generations of full-backs have been taught to shepherd players in wide positions infield but Hartlepool United must rue taking the orthodox approach with Piero Mingoia and Danny Graham.

Both were ushered away from the touchline, allowed to dribble and unleashed superb shots to score. Watford’s equaliser and their fourth goal ultimately came from genuinely classy finishes but Mingoia and Graham were given their opportunities by defenders playing the percentages and paying the price.

Malky Mackay has a very youthful Watford side playing neat, attractive and effective football but Graham Taylor must have been purring at Marvin Sordell’s second goal. Immaculately controlling Dale Bennett’s long ball and poking it past Jake Kean brought back memories of Maurice Johnston pouncing on Wilf Rostron’s clearances from Taylor’s first spell at the club.

Denílson has lessons to learn

Cesc Fábregas’s put-down of the Brazilian midfielder’s clumsy and witless foul on Max Gradel that earned Leeds United a penalty at the Emirates was magnificently withering. “At this stage when you’re a professional footballer you cannot do this type of penalty, so easy for them,” he said.

At times Denílson has been the very model of a “continuity” player with the courage to accept the ball in tight positions and establishes control with short, rhythmical passing that allows more advanced midfielders or overlapping full-backs to manoeuvre opposition defenders around. This aspect of his play screams subtlety and intelligence.

Yet he is prone to making daft mistakes and not just by sticking out a leg in the penalty area. Twelve minutes from time and with Arsenal losing 1-0, he fouled Bradley Johnson and retreated 10 yards for the free-kick even though the referee, Phil Dowd, was signalling for him to come back to receive his yellow card. He just stood there for almost a minute, wasting time that Arsenal needed to equalise. As his captain implied, Denílson has enough experience now not to indulge in such follies.

Paul Jewell has a tough job to revive Ipswich Town

Paul Jewell worked wonders at Bradford City and Wigan Athletic, mastering a knowing look when his chairmen Geoffrey Richmond and Dave Whelan made what seemed unhelpful public pronouncements about players. At the end of six years at Wigan, having secured two promotions, a League Cup final and kept them in the Premier League for two seasons, there was even talk about him as a potential England manager.

Thirteen months at Derby County, littered with humiliating defeats, tabloid stories about his personal life and a simmering rift with Robbie Savage, his professional future outside Sky’s Soccer Saturday studio looked bleak.

In four management spells he has worked wonders twice, taking Bradford and Wigan into the Premier League, and failed with Sheffield Wednesday and Derby where he went 10 months without a league win. He lost his knack of making astute signings that had served Wigan so well and ended up with Darren Powell, Laurent Robert, Danny Mills and Mile Sterjovski, though he did pull off a coup by persuading Kris Commons to join on a free transfer from Nottingham Forest.

At Portman Road he joins a club that seems to have been in a state of permanent revolution under Roy Keane with players in and out of favour and in and out of the door. What they need is a little stability and someone who can get Conor Wickham, so rich in promise, to score the goals his talent demands. A 2010 version of Arjan De Zeeuw to marshal the defence would not go amiss, either. He should have enough leverage with Marcus Evans to provide funds which have not been readily forthcoming to get the reinforcements a patchy squad needs.

Dalglish’s first blueprint

This is not the place for in-depth musings on Liverpool but one observation. For all the talk of Kenny Dalglish buying the title at Blackburn Rovers and references to how he remodelled the Reds in 1987 by using Ian Rush’s transfer fee to buy John Aldridge, John Barnes and Peter Beardsley, his achievements in the 1985-86 season may be more relevant to Liverpool’s current predicament. He got the best out of former fringe players Paul Walsh, Craig Johnston and Gary Gillespie, turned Steve Nicol into a fine attacking right-back and got Ronnie Whelan and Jan Molby playing the best football of their careers.

He starts from a much lower base, doesn’t have Ronnie Moran’s seen-it-all-before-sunshine intensity and acumen to call on as his taskmaster and, of course, can’t reluctantly reclaim a first-team role himself in the spring to give the side fresh impetus. But he has succeeded in management before without investing heavily in players. Yes, it was 25 years ago but his appointment of Steve Clarke, a fine coach, was a very canny first step.

FA CupEvertonWatfordArsenalIpswich TownLiverpoolKenny DalglishRob Bagchiguardian.co.uk

It was not a test of Fernando Torres’ inner resolve that Liverpool faced in Lisbon tonight but an assault on their collective will. Controversially reduced to 10 men after only 30 minutes against Benfica, Rafael Benítez’s side also had the comfort of a precious away goal undermined by two costly penalty decisions at Estádio da Luz. Throw in a painful night for their Spanish talisman in Iberia, and Liverpool’s infuriation was complete.

For so long this had the trappings of a memorable away scalp for Liverpool. They could still have departed with a draw had Torres not squandered a one-on-one late on, before being replaced due to what seemed an injury, but two Oscar Cardozo penalties has left them a troubled task at Anfield next week.

Liverpool’s two Champions League ties ties against Benfica four years ago failed to yield a single goal for but they remedied that statistic in style to gain a foothold on this quarter-final after nine minutes. It was an exquisite finish from Daniel Agger.

The Swedish referee, Jonas Eriksson, opened his hectic night by awarding Liverpool a foul on the left of the Benfica penalty area when Maxi Pereira, their right back, sent Steven Gerrard sprawling. With the Portuguese league leaders crowding their six-yard box in anticipation of an in-swinging free-kick, Gerrard simply squared his delivery low to the unmarked Agger, who flicked a nonchalant back-heel into the bottom corner.

The omens had not augured well for Benfica from the moment Vitoria, the club’s emblematic eagle that swoops around the stadium before kick off, had refused to land on its designated plinth and its sheepish handler coaxed it up at the third attempt. But their reaction to conceding an early away goal in Europe was that of a team convinced in its own outstanding ability. The volume inside the stadium rose while Liverpool were still celebrating, as did the threat from Benfica once the contest resumed.

Fábio Coentrao, leading the line alone in the absence of the injured Javier Saviola, squandered a glorious chance to level within minutes when he met Carlos Martins’ cross at the back post, only to slice his connection over the bar. When not attempting to release the incisive Angel Di Maria at every opportunity, Martins unsettled the visiting defence from deep too and one lofted chip over Agger put Pablo Aimar through, but an uncharacteristically poor first touch enabled Jose Reina to collect. The Liverpool goalkeeper saved from Di Maria’s header and saw the Argentine send a rising drive inches over his top corner from 20 yards as the pressure remained on his goal.

On the half hour Liverpool’s task became more problematic when Eriksson brought chaos to proceedings and Babel foolishly, if also harshly, received a straight red card for pushing Luisão in the face. The Benfica captain was the instigator of the controversy with a dreadful foul from behind on Torres that perhaps deserved more than the yellow card shown. In the melee that followed, Babel placed his hand across the Brazilian’s mouth and stupidly raised his hand to the defender’s face a second time to attract red. Luisão was also guilty of lifting his hands, and in the arguments that followed it initially seemed that Benfica were down to 10 men. Eventually, however, it was Babel who commenced the lonely walk, to the catcalls of the Portuguese and disbelief of Benítez in the visiting dug-out.

There was further incident when Torres put the ball in the net from another Gerrard free-kick but Dirk Kuyt was given offside in the build-up. Emiliano Insúa then collected the booking that will rule him out of next week’s return when he pulled back Aimar.

Benfica’s defenders were taking turns to leave their mark on Torres in an attempt to entice a reaction from the Spaniard, and their supporters also crossed the line when a fire-cracker was thrown at one of the additional assistant referees behind the goal. The firework missed its target .

The Portuguese had some nerve having a pop at the match officials. What grievances were felt on the night were entirely Liverpool’s. Cordoza, having missed another inviting header early in the second half, was awarded a generous free-kick just outside the visitors’ penalty area following a tussle with Agger. When the Paraguayan’s thunderous free-kick cannoned off the base of a post and rebounded to Aimar, who was heading to ground before Insua made contact, Benfica got the benefit of the doubt once again. Penalty; and Cordoza finally made his mark by beating Reina’s dive towards the bottom left hand corner.

Cordozo benefited again when Carragher was adjuged to have handled Di Maria’s cross 12 minutes from time, this time sending Reina the wrong way with a delicate chip from 12 yards.

Uefa Europa LeagueBenficaLiverpoolAndy Hunterguardian.co.uk

Turn automatic updates on or hit F5 to refresh. Email evanfanning@gmail.com with your thoughts, musings and reasons why tonight’s game will prove the Premier League is the best league in the world

40 min: Wigan launch another dangerous counter-attack as McCarthy breaks and NZogbia picks it up. Carragher comes across to hack it into touch, which is about what Liverpool have been resorted to

39 min: Now we have the first Wigan yellow card for a really bad tacjkle by Bramble on Torres. He completely missed the ball and took Torres’ ankle. That’s what Titus is good at

37 min: It’s all Wigan now. Liverpool look totally chaotic. No one seems to be able to put their foot on the ball and take the sting out of it.

36 min: Gary Naylor has nailed it. “Never mind which Liverpool players are chocolate bars, aren’t the club as a whole Cadbury’s? Long tradition rooted in their local community, suddenly bought by Americans seemingly hellbent on throwing away the legacy much to the chagrin of customers and employees? And there seems nothing anyone can do to stop them. Cadburyworld is a lot more welcoming than Anfield though, at least to the likes of me. And Rafa is not so much a Wonka as a W(snip).”

Goal! Wigan 1-0 Liverpool (Rodallega 34) Dirk Kut gives the ball away 18 yards from his own goal. Boyle picks it up and crosses with the ouside of his right-foot to Rodallega who scuffs his left-footed shot and it trickles past Reina and over the line

32 min: Kyrgiakos has now got his customary yellow card for a quite impressive foul on Scharner on the halfway line.

30 min: Gerrard knocks a simple ball straight out of play which leads to one of the most over-used phrases in football: ‘Steven Gerrard is having an unusually off night’

8.31pm: “Good point in the preamble about Liverpool playing in the equivalent of the graveyard shift although it did get me thinking about your predicament,” writes Paul Simpson. ” Are you the Liverpool of the MBM’ers, currently seventh and having to work a dull Monday night game from Wigan all the while hoping that a good performance will move you up to fourth, even if only temporarily until Bandini or Glendenning MBM their game in hand?” The short answer to that is Yes.

27 min: Another yellow card this time for Lucas for a trip on wing wizard Titus Bramble

25 min: Great chance for Liverpool and it comes from lovely play from Benayoun. He jinked down the right-hand side and crossed towards Gerrard who couldn’t connect. The Liverpool skipper then tried to shoot as he got up off the ground but it was so poor it didn’t even reach the goalline from eight yards

23 min: Meanwhile back at the ranch Wigan are doing pretty well. The game is pretty frenetic and the pitch is holding up quite well. Mascherano fires in a great ball from the right but Benayoun can’t connect

22 min: “If Rafa Benitez was a chocolate bar, he’d be some sort of chocolate covered pork scratching,” says Colin Greer. “I don’t know if the Scots have invented that yet – but that’s what he’d be.” The Scots really are at the forefront of artery-clogging food development. God bless ‘em.

21 min: Insua gets a yellow card for a foul on England’s Charles NZogbia in the centre circle

19 min: … which Rodallega curls over the bar. Bryun is still awake and seems to have more than sleep on his mind. “MMmmmmmm I dont know about the rest of Asia getting behind the Premier League……but I could knock a few old ladies up, so to speak and ask them to cheer.” Should Bryun go and round up a few ladies to follow the game? I think the answer is yes

18 min: Charles NZogbia – who can now play for England it would seem – destroys Insua down the left but Carragher scrambles his cross clear. Lucas then blocks Rodallega and Wigan have a free right on the edge of the area

15 min: I can’t even begin to describe how ridiculous a corner Wigan have just given away but fortunately for them the world’s worst corner taker is over it and as usual fails to clear the first man

14 min: “Trying to both write my dissertation and read your MBM is definitely not going to get me my degree but come on the Mighty Reds (even if we are more plucky than mighty this season),” writes Cormac Hayes whose brain cells must be diminishing by the second. I know mine are. See aformentioned coffee machine battle for full details

12 min: James McCarthy, who turned down Liverpool to sign for Wigan in the summer, goes on a good run but Carragher brings it to a halt. N’Zogbia then twists and turns in the area but Moreno can’t get on the end of his cross with the goal gaping. That was a good chance for Wigan

9 min: Wigan attempt a swift counter-attack after Maxi’s volley is charged down but Insua gets back to take it off Rodallega’s toe. NZogbia then puts Boyce in down the right and his cross is headed behind by Krygiakos. They make a total hash of the corner

7 min: Gerrard’s corner is cleared as far as Maxi who heads to Torres unmarked in the area. He volleys from a tight angle and it comes off the outside of the post and goes behind. Good chance for Liverpool

5 min: Something about the presence of Fernando Torres suddenly makes Liverpool look like a team who can do things like pass the ball and run fast. It’s totally different to the side who laboured to wins a few weeks ago without him. Benayoun cuts in from the left but his shot, which was going miles wide, comes off Caldwell and goes behind for a corner

3 min: Early pressure from Liverpool as Mascherano crosses from the right. Wigan manage to clear it as far as Gerrard who shanks his shot high into the stand as is his wont. “If Aquilani was a chocolate bar he would be a Marathon. Much missed but no where to be found,” reminisces Ian Copestake. It’s still there Ian. They just call it Snickers now

2 min: Kuyt has started just behind Torres with Maxi on the right and Benayoun on the left. “First Barney with his half-time Toffee Crisp, now you with your Bounty and your chocolate bar analogies,” bellows Justin Kavanagh. “This is a London-based, minute-by-minute conspiracy to remind me that I can’t eat chocolate any more, isn’t it? I think Senor Benitez will find, though, that it’s his team that resembles the Bounty Bar—looks like a solid enough chunk of choccy on the outside, but is actually full of flakey stuff on the inside. And it comes in disjointed pieces.” Justin, I think you might need help.

1 min: Andre Marriner blows his whistle and we’re underway. Liverpool, all in red, playing from left to right. Wigan going the other way, but you knew that

Breaking pitch news It’s been relaid since the last match here and so looks like one of those pitches you would have drawn as a kid (or as a grown adult if that’s your thing) when you went through all the green markers you could find so it looked like a patchwork quilt.

“Forgot to mention that I am in Thailand, not that that should make answering my dilemma any easier for you, its all highly irrelevant in the long run but I thought I would keep you well informed,” says Bryun again. “Now if I had a Bounty bar to look forward to at 5am (when the game finishes) I might be tempted to stay the course. Alas, coconuts everywhere but not a Cadburys in sight.” Now you definitely have to stay with us. If people in Asia don’t get behind this league, it might never take off

No time for more chocolate bar analogies, but I did just lose a battle of wits with the coffee machine which should be considered a new low if there were not so many, many others. “Its 3.00am here and I dont know whether to sit up and watch the football or merely read your report tomorrow morning,” ponders Bryun. “What do you suggest ? Will you be okay if I pretend to read for awhile and then dose off into the balmy night or should I be polite and announce my departure early doors ? What a malady.” Stay up Bryun. You owe us that.

Preamble Nothing emphasises Liverpool’s current predicament more than the fact that they now play the majority of their games in football’s equivalent of the graveyard shift – Thursday night – Sunday afternoon – Thursday early evening – Monday night.

And like the man on the night shift who refuses to eat his Bounty bar until 5am as it gives him something to look forward to, Rafael Benitez believes the large parts of the season the likes of Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard, Yossi Benayoun and Glen Johnson have missed will give his side the edge in the home straight.

Tonight they travel to the mud bath that is the DW Stadium where they face a Wigan side without a win in the league since November. Benitez has told Alberto Aquilani that he has not been forgotten about and to prove his point he’s left the £20m man on the bench – alongside the returning Johnson – even though Javier Mascherano is once again starting at right back.

Team news in full:

Wigan: Kirkland; Boyce, Caldwell, Bramble, Figueroa; Diame, McCarthy; N’Zogbia, Scharner, Rodallega; Moreno.
Subs: Stojkovic, Amaya, Thomas, Scotland, Moses, Gomez, Sinclair.
Liverpool: Reina; Mascherano, Carragher, Kyrgiakos, Insua; Lucas, Gerrard; Maxi, Kuyt, Benayoun; Torres.
Subs: Cavalieri, Johnson, Aquilani, Agger, Riera, Babel, Ngog.

Referee: Andre Marriner (W Midlands)

More match build-up and chocolate bar analogies before the 8pm kick off

Premier LeagueLiverpoolWigan AthleticEvan Fanningguardian.co.uk