5. New rules, same old problems
A big story in the off-season was the fact that the offside rule had been tweaked to ultimately improve decisions from the officials.
The thing is, the rule makes complete sense and is rather easy to understand, but the officials have to apply it in the correct manner.
Last night they didn’t.
Liverpool defeated Bournemouth 1-0 at Anfield live on Sky Sports, but it was somewhat fortuitously.
The Cherries‘ captain Tommy Elphick thought he had given his team the lead, but had a perfectly good headed goal disallowed for a dubious foul on Dejan Lovren.
Then more controversy came, as Liverpool took the lead through Christian Benteke. The Belgian was onside when scored but his teammate Philippe Coutinho wasn’t under the laws.
It was a real chance for the officials to make a statement and apply the new rule to show everyone that it can work; now we are left with nothing but doubt and criticism.
It’s as simple as this: When the ball is delivered is Coutinho in an offside position? Yes. Does he make an attempt to play the ball? Yes. Does his attempt to play the ball affect the goalkeepers positioning, therefore giving him a disadvantage? Yes.
This means he is offside, but the decision leaves us thinking ‘do the officials even know the new rule?’
It really was that blatantly obvious.
