August football, eh? Bloody hell. You are reading the columnist who tipped Chelsea for the title and said Leicester City might go down. It would also have been possible to glean the impression from these pages that José Mourinho is a smart operator, that Dick Advocaat might be good for Sunderland and that Leicester seemed to have turned to Claudio Ranieri too late in the much-travelled coach’s career, all opinions apparently in need of drastic revision after just a few days of the new season.
Still, what would football be like without surprises? Tottenham Hotspur, most probably, though it is good to have a little unpredictability in the Premier League campaign, even if we are still right at the start. Just about the only wholly predictable occurrence in the first couple of weeks of the season was that someone was bound to fall foul of the new interpretation of offside, and it happened to Bournemouth on Monday night at Anfield, cruelly falling behind to what should have been an illegitimate goal shortly after having a valid one of their own ruled out for little more than jostling in the penalty area when a corner came across.
Premier League life can be hard for complete newcomers, but let’s spare the Cherries the patronising remarks about how they will pick up points sooner or later if they continue playing in that manner and concentrate on the offside goal instead. For the past few seasons, players have been allowed to take up offside positions as long as they do not touch the ball. While this was an improvement on the previous situation, the Tony Adams step-up routine satirised in The Full Monty, there was still a grey area. What if a player attempted to reach the ball but narrowly failed? How could defenders and goalkeepers hope to know whether a player in an offside position was going to play the ball or not?
What Philippe Coutinho did against Bournemouth, turn round in the act of walking back from an offside position to try to meet a cross, would have been fine last season because he did not succeed in reaching the ball. Even though he was right in front of goal and inevitably a distraction to Artur Boruc. Over the summer, however, it was decided that this state of affairs was unfair, probably correctly, and the rule was subtly altered so that players attempting to reach the ball or become involved in any other way with an attack – jumping over the ball, for instance – would be considered offside.
That is what the officials at Liverpool got wrong, and that is why Eddie Howe and his players were so upset. Coutinho’s best option would have been to continue walking back towards the halfway line, possibly with his hands on his head to indicate that he had no intention of interfering with play.
Interfering with play, of course, is a concept that goes back decades. It used to be argued back in Bill Shankly’s time that players should not be pulled up for offside unless they were interfering with play. To which the great man, naturally, had a pithy rejoinder. “If a player is not interfering with play,” the Liverpool manager would growl, “what on earth is he doing on the pitch?.”
So considering different referees might have awarded Bournemouth a 1-0 win – a daft assumption admittedly, because had Tommy Elphick’s “goal” stood the home side would undoubtedly have redoubled their efforts over the next hour – Liverpool can consider themselves slightly fortunate to be up there with the 100 per centers. They have not been imperious like Manchester City or amazed their own supporters like Leicester, although two clean sheets is not to be sniffed at.
Liverpool’s defence, in fact, currently looks the best part of the whole operation. As Brendan Rodgers himself expressed reservations about Simon Mignolet last season it is perhaps a surprise the goalkeeping position has not been strengthened, but Nathaniel Clyne and Joe Gomez both look terrific captures at right- and left-back, and Alberto Moreno is still in reserve. Christian Benteke looks as if he might turn out to be a great buy too, even at the price.
Perhaps we should all wait until Liverpool have played a few more games – Arsenal on Monday should be a better test – but Benteke’s appetite for work, strength, touch and mobility were all of a high order. If he gets the service he deserves he could soon be making Manchester United supporters wonder whether £32m was really too high a price for a 24-year-old goalscoring line-leader with plenty left in the tank.
Whether Benteke does get the service he deserves, and exactly what sort of service that might be, is currently what Liverpool supporters are wondering. Having strengthened his defence and sharpened his attack, midfield looks less settled. When Emre Can came on after almost an hour against Bournemouth it was immediately obvious he should have been on from the start. His performances last season warranted that anyway.
Liverpool do not have anyone more capable for the base of midfield, unless they are going to turn to the forgotten Lucas Leiva, and Can is considerably better at getting forward. Yet if Can plays, and he should, and Liverpool are back to using a back four, does he take up a position between Jordan Henderson and James Milner, or replace one of them? Do Liverpool really need so many players in the engine room? Similarly, further forward, Adam Lallana seems to want to do what Coutinho is already trying to do, and that’s before Rodgers finds a role for Roberto Firmino. Not to mention Lazar Markovic, who cost £20m only a year ago.
John W Henry, Liverpool’s main owner, was in attendance against Bournemouth, ostensibly to check on the progress of the rebuilding of the main stand at Anfield. It is possibly progress on the pitch he is more puzzled about. The new stand looks impressive already, and will doubtless be stunning when it is finished. The team might be too, though the completion date is not as clear, the upward direction not as thrusting and the expense still ongoing.
Plus there is a nagging worry that at the end of the process, whenever that might be, there will be all sorts of costly items lying around Anfield unused. But it is still only August, there is plenty of time to sort things out. And before someone makes the same observation below the line, what would I know anyway?
