SOCCER ANGLES:If the cockney midfielder can feel at home at Old Trafford tomorrow amid the helter-skelter then Liverpool can relax. He can make one anywhere, writes MICHAEL WALKER

THE QUESTION posed yesterday morning was: Has Joe Cole finally found a home at Anfield? Let’s hope Cole did not see it because he would surely have shaken his head in bewilderment. Did those seven years at Chelsea not count?

Just to recollect, Cole won three Premier League titles at Chelsea, plus the FA Cup three times and the League Cup twice. He also played in some memorable European nights, not least the 2008 Champions League final against Manchester United in Moscow. That was the season Cole was named Chelsea’s Player of the Year. Joe Cole did a bit at Chelsea.

But yesterday, on the evidence of a Europa League game in September against Steaua Bucharest, in front of 25,000 at Anfield, in which Cole scored his first Liverpool goal, courtesy of a defensive error, the question was asked about home-finding as if Cole had been some forlorn substitute at Chelsea. He played 273 times for Chelsea.

True, Chelsea allowed him to run down his contract and offered Cole, we were told, less money to sign a one-year extension. Translating this as a sign, among others, that he was not key to Carlo Ancelotti’s plans, and doubtless being instructed by his agent that as a free agent he was about to put the multi in millionaire wherever he went, Cole departed Stamford Bridge.

Throughout the World Cup in which he made only two substitute appearances, Cole was linked heavily with first Arsenal, then Tottenham.

Harry Redknapp knew the young man from West Ham, of course.

There was also a paper connection to United. It was not the first time. When Cole was making his name as a boy rated as highly, if not higher, than Jack Wilshere today, Alex Ferguson’s name was the one that would come round again and again when it was said Cole would be leaving Upton Park. Aged 12, Cole went on trial at Old Trafford for a couple of days as Ferguson turned on the recruitment charm.

But Cole chose to stay with West Ham and the move to Manchester never happened. And the claim is that this summer Cole was demanding a salary of such Abramovich extravagance Arsenal and Tottenham simply said ‘sorry, no can do’. United may have baulked at it, too.

Yet Liverpool, cash-strapped, indebted and still under uncertain ownership, somehow found the money. Maybe it was that which prompted the question about Cole being at home, although it conveniently ignores the fact Cole was dismissed on his Liverpool league debut against Arsenal. At Anfield.

For the neutral’s sake, though, let’s hope Cole has found a home, another one. Judging by their watery efforts at Birmingham City last Sunday, Roy Hodgson’s team need an injection of something as theoretical as personality as well as something as definite as skill, movement and experience when they go to Old Trafford tomorrow.

United’s best players, rested for the Rangers game on Tuesday, will return determined to make amends for the two late goals conceded at Everton last Saturday. But Liverpool could turn up with an attacking triangle of Cole, Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard. That should occupy the home back four.

Cole scored only two Premier League goals last season. He was never prolific in a team containing Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka. In the league his highest tally is just eight.

But one of his two goals last season was at Old Trafford. It was in April, the backheel gem from Florent Malouda’s cross that befuddled a defender as good as Patrice Evra. Ancelotti referred to “the old Joe Cole” after a game that Chelsea won 2-1, a victory that all but clinched the title for the London club.

Cole may well have been disconcerted by that reference. But there is clearly a view that the eight months he missed in 2009 through injury changed him and his game. A different take on it, one to which Hodgson and optimistic Liverpool fans may adhere is that Cole needs to be back at the centre of things rather than peripheral.

Liverpool could be a warm home in that respect. They are not stuffed with Torres-style, through-the-middle strikers and Cole and Gerrard could operate centrally. Against Steaua, with Gerrard and Torres in the stands, Cole did this.

He was effective, though we should not go overboard. And tomorrow will be different in just about every way from Thursday.

United will be primed. Ferguson reiterated yesterday that this is the fixture despite his noisy neighbours across town and the fact that Chelsea are champions. Liverpool need more than Cole to perform, Paul Konchesky and Daniel Agger could do with forming a better relationship than on show against Steaua.

Cole has experienced huge London derbies and all the Blue drama from Ranieiri through to Mourinho, Grant, Scolari, Hiddink and Ancelotti. But tomorrow is new, and northern. If he can feel at home at Old Trafford amid the helter-skelter then Liverpool can relax. He can make one anywhere.

Never rains but it pours

OWEN COYLE was understandably unhappy with Gary Cahill's dismissal at Arsenal last Saturday – yet more woeful refereeing. Coyle was then annoyed by Arsene Wenger's comments about his team.

It had been a good start to the season for Coyle's Bolton but that is a sour point. Today Bolton go to Aston Villa, which is hard to call. Then Coyle returns to Burnley on Tuesday in the League Cup. That's a sore point.

Coyle will sigh with relief when it's over. Just not for long: it's Manchester United next.

Europa the league that's really a cup

WHAT MADE the biggest impression upon you this week in Europe? Arsenal’s attacking? Rangers’ defending? The 90,000 at Barcelona to see them play Panathinaikos? Or the sheer avalanche of group-game European football?

Joe Cole received praise for his efforts against Steaua Bucharest but if he had not, there would still have been time to rectify that: before Christmas Liverpool meet Steaua again, in Bucharest, and Napoli and Utrecht home and away.

How many will watch Liverpool at home to Utrecht 10 days before Christmas? More than the 16,000 who saw Fulham play Basle last October? Fulham’s Europa League campaign under Hodgson turned out to be memorable but that was when the knock-out phase began in February. Fulham played 10 matches to get to that stage.

Liverpool v Steaua Bucharest could have been a major occasion if the old Uefa Cup knock-out format was still in place. But it isn’t because Uefa, in bankrolling the Champions League clubs, recognise that they have to shift some money elsewhere by guaranteeing a number of games. Hence the Europa League; hence two cup competitions called leagues.