Liverpool are famed for having a bold and successful high defensive line, to catch the opposition offside.
This season, there has been a new offside rule trialed in the Italian Under 18’s leagues and it involves one key difference which may affect our style of play going forward.
As per the in-depth report from Reddit user u/Spotify5, the new rule was: “It is onside if the attacking player is ahead of the defender, but still with one part of the body that can score inline with the defender.”
To make a fair study, the season used the current offside rules for the first round of fixtures and the new proposed rule for the second – the results were:
‘Round 1 – 632 goals / 177 matches = 3.57 goal per match.
Round 2 – 247 goals / 63 matches = 3.92 goal per match’.
This means: ‘an increase of 0.35 goal per match. Almost 10% increase from 3.57. Translating into the Premier League, it could mean an extra 100 goals each season. An extra goal every 3 or 4 matches’.
Should this new rule enter the Premier League, it would give the attackers more room for error on breaking an offside trap or high line and so would mean we could be one of the hardest affected teams.
It will make for more exciting football and there’s no doubt Jurgen Klopp and his team would find a new strategy around this.
Nevertheless, it’s an interesting assessment of how the game can be improved, especially with the use of VAR to aid these changes.
#Ep53 of The Empire of the Kop Podcast: The Paris debacle, reviewing Liverpool’s season… & more!