Joe Cole: the rebirth?
Remember when Joe Cole was at the peak of his powers playing for Chelsea? The Englishman was a pacy, skilful winger who had the ability to contribute goals and could also be deployed just behind the two (or one) frontmen and played a big part in Chelsea winning three Premier League titles.
N.B: In fact, he was his back heeled goal against Man United at Old Trafford at the end of 2010 season that effectively won Chelsea the league that year.
Unfortunately, in the latter part of his career, injuries have hindered Cole’s playing time and following his move to Liverpool from Chelsea in 2010 he has only been able to make 22 appearances. He experienced something of a renaissance during his loan spell at Lille last season, however, and many Liverpool fans were hoping that he would be able to continue that coming into the new season.
Again, injuries have stopped Cole from featuring prominently in Brendan Rodgers’ set up but last night in Liverpool’s Europa League match against Young Boys he made his first start under Rodgers. The game ended in a 2-2 draw but Cole looked sharp and punctuated his performance with an assist and the goal that put Liverpool 2-1 ahead only for Young Boys to equalise at the very end.
With Liverpool becoming ever so reliant on Luis Suarez and his goals, a return to form for Joe Cole would be extremely welcome as not only can he bring a creative flair to Rodgers’ team but also take some of the scoring workload from Suarez.
Cole is reaching the twilight of his career and is not exactly the fountain of youth at 31 years old but he can still make a significant impact for this Liverpool team and may yet still have a big part to play in their season. For all neutral fans, it is promising to see one of England’s best footballers of the past decade playing again after a period of his career had been blighted by injuries.
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