However, under the new offside ruling, the goal should have been disallowed as Philippe Coutinho was standing in an offside position and made movement towards the ball before Benteke converted.
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Liverpool legend Ian Rush believes new signing Christian Benteke could be the difference between the club qualifying for the Champions League or not.
The offside rule was amended this summer to emphasise players need not touch the ball to be ruled offside.
‘The Premier League does not generally comment on decisions made by match officials, ‘ it said in a statement Friday. In this case that criteria was fulfilled and the law therefore not correctly enforced.
“Expected outcome: Offside offence”.
“I spoke to the PFA and the match delegate but I haven’t spoken to anyone from the referee’s perspective”.
Asked whether he felt referees would be “on it” after what had happened at Anfield, Howe replied: “You would have hoped they would have been on it before our game!” It’s a yard and a bit offside and he (Coutinho) has clearly impacted on the goalkeeper. We created opportunities and I think we probably could have won the game by more. The Cherries themselves had a goal struck off early in the first half, with captain Tommy Elphick deemed to have fouled Dejan Lovren before finding the net following a set piece routine.
Howe was responding in the aftermath of Cherries’ controversial defeat at Liverpool where they had been on the receiving end of two debatable refereeing decisions.
Liverpool travel to the Emirates Stadium to face Arsenal on Monday night. Players can now be offside even if not directly involved in a move, deemed to be interfering with play via their positioning on the field, by distracting or diverting opponents.
“But I don’t think you change decisions, I haven’t seen too many changed in my time”.
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The former Southampton right-back and Aston Villa striker have come together at Anfield and already, the Belgian global has made a positive impression on the promising English talent.
