A penny for Gareth Southgate’s thoughts: 33 days before England’s World Cup crusade starts, the head coach was on Merseyside for an important scouting trip.
Joe Gomez, on the back of his outstanding performance against Manchester City, was high on Southgate’s list to watch with so many concerns over the state of his defence; Trent Alexander-Arnold had to be seen, too, given the injury that has wrecked Reece James’s dreams.
Jordan Henderson was another Southgate would have been happy to see popping the ball about with class and conviction. This was encouraging, as it was the 32-year-old’s best performance so far of the season, full of tempo-setting control.
It wasn’t just about Liverpool, though. West Ham will be represented on the plane to Qatar and quite significantly. Declan Rice is one of the first names on a Southgate teamsheet and if England are going to go deep into the tournament, his role will be huge.
Rice was fantastic during Euro 2020. There are always moments when the top players enhance their reputations and the nerveless way he patrolled the midfield alongside Kalvin Phillips saw him come of age, the kind of displays that vindicated why colossal figures are mentioned about his value.
The 23-year-old’s quality is not in question, not in the slightest. If West Ham wanted to cause uproar in East London by saying they would accept bids for him, every club in the Premier League would come knocking and plenty in Europe would be interested as well.
But the reason Rice would have been of such interest to Southgate was down to the way he has started the season – scratchy, if we are being kind, would be the best description – and comments he made two weeks ago.
‘I worked out from June 2021 to June 2022, I played 68 games – that is an obscene amount,’ said Rice. ‘Every game I walk off, I am knackered.’
There has been no respite this time around, either. He’s featured in 14 of West Ham’s 17 fixtures and played every minute of the frantic 3-3 draw with Germany at Wembley – and, at times at Anfield, it showed these were legs with many miles in them.
During a difficult opening 45 minutes when Liverpool dominated possession, with the elegant Thiago Alcantara fizzing out passes as if he had the ball on a string, Rice couldn’t get close enough to the action to have any kind of meaningful influence.
The first half would end in frustration for West Ham when another Qatar hopeful Jarrod Bowen saw his penalty, awarded after a clumsy challenge by Gomez, saved by Alisson Becker and you could see how much it hurt Rice.
He picked up a bit in the second period – there was more range to his distribution, such as a 58th switch of play to Gianluca Scamacca and flighted ball with back spin to Michail Antonio – and he is certainly not the kind of character who will go into hiding.
That much was evident deep into injury time when he flung himself in front Mo Salah, as the Egyptian shaped to shoot. It ended with Rice rubbing his shin and wincing, as he gingerly rose to his feet.
Clearly the effects of a lot of football in a short space of time are lingering. Southgate, who stayed to watch a tense contest reach its conclusion, will wonder how the freshness can return before England try to conquer the world.