On the stroll to the ground past the Stanley Park cemetery, the first sighting of this season's new Liverpool replica shirts came via a quartet of fans whose allegiances seemed to form a snapshot of their club's position, with all its doubts and hopes. One had No 7 and DALGLISH on his back, representing the glorious past; another wore No 20 and MASCHERANO, indicating a residual loyalty to the troubled present; and two bore No 10 and COLE, expressing faith in the future.
Joe Cole would have relished that sight, just as he had so evidently enjoyed his introduction to Liverpool's football culture since the announcement of his arrival from Chelsea. That is until the first seconds of time added on at the end of the first half of his Premier League debut for the club, when Martin Atkinson had no option but to send him off for a rash tackle on Laurent Koscielny as Arsenal's new French centre-back attempted to clear the ball down the touchline.
Throughout his career, Cole's trouble has always been an overemphatic desire to justify his existence. Seeking to give substance to his early reputation as England's most talented teenager, he has consistently tried too hard, often in areas that do not flatter his natural gifts.
This was a challenge more significant in its effect than its intention. As Koscielny lay in a crumpled heap near the corner flag, the visiting fans howled with fury. While he was being carried to the tunnel on a stretcher, Arsène Wenger was told that the defender's leg might be broken. Fifteen minutes later, however, he emerged with the rest of his team-mates, ready to resume his quietly efficient performance (at least until his own dismissal). This time it was the Liverpool supporters' turn to vent their outrage.
"The shin guard protected him," Wenger said. "Joe Cole is usually a fair player. He's not one I would view as a guy who tries to hurt people. That's not his style. But he certainly kicked him."
In the dressing room during the interval Cole was "devastated", according to the man who engineered his move to Anfield. "It was his league debut for Liverpool, he was desperate to do well and he was very saddened by what happened," Roy Hodgson said, "not least because it put us in a difficult position."
The possibility of an appeal, in an attempt to reduce the standard three-match suspension, is open to Liverpool. "From where we sit in the dugout I didn't have a good view of it," Hodgson said. "But now I've seen the video I think he was a bit unlucky. He dived in front of the ball to try and block it, and their legs got mixed up. I was pleased to see that the player came out for the second half."
At least the enforced reduction in manpower gave the remaining Liverpool players a chance to give Hodgson a demonstration of the sort of iron character associated with the best Anfield teams. Steven Gerrard, after lying too deep to make much of an impression in the first 45 minutes, advanced to fill the gap left by Cole's removal, while Javier Mascherano produced 78 minutes of unstinting effort, culminating with the incisive pass that gave David Ngog the chance to open the scoring.
At the moment any game Mascherano plays for Liverpool may be his last but there was no sign of a lessening of the Argentina captain's commitment to a club he seems virtually certain to be leaving before the closure of the transfer window. Christian Poulsen, just arrived from Juventus, has some act to follow.
When Cole returns, however, Hodgson's commitment to playing him in the position he has always believed to be his best, as a No10 behind the main striker, could raise once more the hoary old subject of Gerrard's role. Having proved in an England shirt last Wednesday that he too is most effective playing off the striker, it is hard to imagine that the captain will be content to revert permanently to the position once held by Xabi Alonso, as the long-passing visionary alongside a hard‑tackling interceptor.
On the whole, though, Liverpool's new manager could take encouragement from his first league match as the priest in charge of what he described as "one of the temples of football". A lively 15 minutes from the high-stepping Fernando Torres, given an ecstatic welcome by the Kop, would have been one reason for optimism. Another may have been the way Jamie Carragher was still fighting to get his breath back as he accepted his man of the match award, having given everything to the cause. For all his vast accumulation of experience and worldly wisdom, Hodgson is in new territory here.
Source: Richard Williams, The Guardian on 15 Aug 10
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