Blackburn 0, Everton 0 - post match analysis

Feb 4 2008 by Chris Beesley, Liverpool Daily Post

WELL none of us know the rule anymore.” That was the frank and honest assessment of former Everton manager Joe Royle as he discussed the ins and outs of Andrew Johnson’s disallowed ‘winner’ at Ewood Park on Saturday with some old friends he’d spotted in the lobby on his way out of the ground. And he was right.

There was a time in the not-too-distant past when everyone with half a brain who understood football understood the offside law.

It may have become increasingly difficult using real time judgement to tell if a player is offside or not when the ball is played because of the increasing speed of the game but when it came to actually understanding what constituted offside and what was onside, we all knew.

Nothing much had changed in that department since the roaring twenties when the rule was relaxed from three opponents to just two between the forward and the goal and Everton’s very own Dixie Dean ran riot in the ensuing transitional period, bagging himself an all-time record 60 goals in 1927-28.

Then those meddlers at FIFA, men like Sepp Blatter, a man of whom it was once said has 50 ideas on how to improve football each day of which 51 are bad, started tinkering with the laws of the game to such an extent that none of us now fully understand one of the most crucial elements of the sport that dominates our lives.

First being level with the defender was offside then onside, then there had to be ‘daylight’ and there’s also the issue of the attacker being ‘involved’ with play to contend with.

And to think, the game’s governing body have termed their latest tinkering a ‘clarification’ of the law.

Well, there didn’t seem to be much clarity at Ewood Park on Saturday.

When Everton’s attack first started, Johnson looked to be offside but he was running back and could supposedly be deemed to be that dreaded phrase ‘not interfering.’

He did not become involved directly in play for several seconds as the game continued with Everton substitute James Vaughan charging down a loose ball with an onrushing Rovers keeper Brad Friedel.

The teenager ended up on the deck with the veteran American but managed to hook the ball across for Johnson – now seemingly in an onside position – from a prostrate position but it was only then that the linesman raised his flag.

Royle, a man who has been involved in professional football all his life and who remains Everton’s last trophy-winning manager was bemused as to whether the decision was right or wrong and as to just when the offside offence supposedly occurred.

So was Barry Horne, a Liverpool University graduate and former PFA chairman, known to be one of the most astute minds in the game.

We all were – and the fact that that is now the case cannot be good for either Everton in particular or the game in general.

Thank goodness the Premier League has got such competent, errorless officials who can guide us through these tricky moments.

Everton manager David Moyes made two changes to the side that started Wednesday’s goalless draw against Tottenham at Goodison Park as Tim Cahill and Leon Osman stepped in for Nuno Valente and Victor Anichebe.

The switch saw Leighton Baines revert from left-wing to left-back and Everton employ a 4-5-1 formation instead of 4-4-2.

Rovers had not played for a week since their 1-1 draw at Aston Villa but Mark Hughes made just a single alteration with Zurab Khizanishvili coming in for Christopher Samba in central defence.

Everton had the better of possession and territory in a tight opening on a pitch cleared of the snow which had fallen on the surrounding Lancashire countryside but the game did not warm up until half an hour in when Mikel Arteta let fly with a left-footed effort following a Cahill lay-off but Friedel saved and Blackburn scrambled the ball away for a corner-kick.

Soon after, David Dunn, who had been booked earlier for a nasty lunge on Arteta, seemed to produce a blatant handball right under the nose of the referee but Alan Wiley let him off and the midfielder went on to play a crucial part in denying Everton a goal.

Just before the interval, a right-wing corner-kick from Arteta found Phil Jagielka who was able to get direction if not power to a header that was creeping just inside Friedel’s near post. The fortunate Dunn however was on hand to clear the effort off the goal-line.

A dull first half must have urged Messrs Hughes and Moyes into life with their respective team talks during the break as both sides created better chances than they fashioned in the entire opening 45 minutes within barely 60 seconds of the restart.

England international David Bentley, who had been virtually anonymous up to that point, found space down the right to escape and whip in a low shot that Tim Howards has to turn away for a corner-kick.

At the other end, Everton countered from the resultant set-piece and Arteta played a low ball across the area to an unmarked Manuel Fernandes at the back post but with the goal gaping and time on his hands to compose himself, the on-loan Valencia man spurned a golden opportunity by firing the ball straight at Friedel’s feet.

The Portuguese midfielder almost reprieved himself with a well-struck free-kick but Fernandes’s curled 25-yard effort around the Rovers wall struck Friedel’s left-hand post with the former Liverpool man rooted to the spot.

Hughes introduced Benni McCarthy and Tugay into the contest and the two experienced continental campaigners started to cause Everton a few more headaches. The 37-year-old Turk’s legs might have ‘gone’ but he can still pick out a crossfield pass with his eyes shut and he found the South African with a typically well-struck ball.

McCarthy played a neat one-two with Roque Santa Cruz but with Howard in front of him and the goal gaping, he was bundled off the ball by Phil Jagielka.

Howard then had to claw away a Bentley free-kick that was curling in wickedly for a corner and the disallowed goal by Johnson – who had also been denied a seemingly strong penalty claim following a kick by Khizanishvili – followed.

With both sides rightly or wrongly frustrated by a series of decisions by the match officials, an unsavoury melee broke out late on by the touchline which saw both Arteta and Morten Gamst Pedersden booked while in stoppage time Santa Cruz almost snatched what would have been an undeserved winner for the hosts when he curled a lazy swipe at the ball over the bar after Bentley had countered with pace.

While far from being a bad result, Everton will count this as two points dropped in the short-term but long-term it remains to be seen whether it hampers their European hopes or whether any of us will truly understand the offside law ever again.