Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers stressed on the importance of turning draws into wins as Roberto Martinez and Wigan Athletic visit Anfield for Saturday's English Premier League game.
Martinez, if things had gone differently might have been sitting in the home team's dugout, but will instead find himself plotting another success over Liverpool after last season's victory in the corresponding fixture, which kick-started their great run and saw them climb out of the mire of relegation.
"This Liverpool team are much better than the table suggests," Martinez said. "It is just a matter of time that they will be competing to get into Europe and into the Champions League.
"That is why it is so difficult to go to Anfield and get points. We are under no illusions about how tough this game will be for us."
Martinez, who like Rodgers managed Swansea, is not surprised by the performances of Joe Allen, who has bedded himself in quite well at Liverpool after making his move from the Welsh club in the summer.
"I know him really well because I gave him his debut at 16, and I had a very intense period with Joe to make sure he developed in the right way," Martinez added. "After three seasons, he had an incredible development alongside Leon Britton and Ferrie Bodde, two men who were like professors for him.
"It will be great to see him again. When you give someone a league debut it has a special effect.
"Joe was at Swansea from when he was nine and because of his slight build he always reminded me of Pep Guardiola and those sort of players.
"They had to be masters at what they are doing on the ball because they could not go into 50-50s, could not compete for the ball so well physically, and so he developed that incredible technical ability.
"When Joe played against Blackpool I really tested his character that day. And at the age of 16 he came on and you could see he was special.
"He dictated the play, he wanted the ball, and then the season after he played a part in the campaign when we won League One, and then in the Championship he played 27 games at a young age."
Rodgers insisted there is no bad blood between Martinez and him after the former won the race for Liverpool's top job in the summer. "I know Roberto spoke to the owners here but there is nothing in it from my perspective," he said. "The club were looking for a manager and they had one or two candidates.
"The situation was clear, I believed in what I was told by the owners and the people connected with the club, and now I am very proud to sit here as manager.
"Roberto is a good guy, we have the same sort of ideas about the game and we speak quite regularly but my main interest when Wigan come here is picking up three points. We need to start turning draws into wins."
In team news, Liverpool will have Pepe Reina available, while Jonjo Shelvey and Martin Skrtel are also expected to be fit after missing last week's game against Chelsea.
Wigan will welcome back Arsenal's on-loan midfielder Ryo Miyaichi after the Japanese winger missed the last five games, while a decision on James McArthur will be made prior to the game.
To watch Liverpool vs Wigan Live Stream, click here.
Expected lineups: Liverpool: Reina, Enrique, Skrtel, Agger, Johnson, Allen, Sahin, Gerrard, Sterling, Suso, Suarez.
Wigan: Al Habsi; Ramis, Caldwell, Figueroa, Boyce, McCarthy, Watson, Beausejour, Di Santo, Maloney, Kone.
Prediction: 1-0 to Liverpool
(**Sports World Report does not endorse the live streaming of the games of the sites it has linked to. It has no control over the content of the website and thus does not warrant that it is error or virus free or free of other harmful components.)
