Change of approach for Liverpool

Full disclosure – this was initially published in the expectation that Liverpool would wear their default change kit but we’re delighted to have to revise it. Thanks to the friend who furnished us with the info

It’s a trip to the Vitality Stadium for Liverpool this evening as they take on Bournemouth.

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For more than a decade, white and off-white Liverpool change kits have been worn in their default format regardless of shorts-clashes, but this season sees a change of approach.

While clubs like Everton and Manchester United almost always choose to wear alternative shorts with their home shirts away to teams with white togs, the Premier League has never had a hard-and-fast rule on such matters (there have been one-off instances where clubs have been asked to mash up kits to solve a colours issue).

The Football League introduced sock-clashing rules in 1969 and mandated that opposing teams should wear different-coloured shorts in 1975, but the latter stipulation was not adopted by the Premier League when it came into being 1992 – the rationale, seeming quite quaint now, was that it would allow teams to wear their home shirts more often.

Uefa are quite strict around distinction between teams playing each other, but the EFL dropped its shorts-clash rule in recent years – and now prevent clubs having bespoke change shorts and socks, instead insisting that kits should be mixed if a problem arises.

The FA Cup also had a shorts-clash rule that has been relaxed – a 2014 trip to Bournemouth was, until this season, the last time that Liverpool had switched to an alternative set in a domestic game.

We said ‘until this season’ – the new green third kit has backup shorts and socks and has already appeared in three different configurations, with all-green used for its debut away to Burnley in the autumn.

As for the away kit, there are black socks that appeared at West Ham United – though the traditionalist in us would have enjoyed if they had just used the red home set, recreating a beloved mashup from the 1970s and 1980s.

Even so, we still weren’t sure that they’d deviate from the ecru-black-ecru format of the away kit – we’re happy to be wrong and look forward to reviving memories of John Barnes’ goal against Southampton at The Dell in 1996-97.