GRAEME SOUNESS: Every World Cup team would have loved a player like my old mate ‘Doc’

Last week I watched the best players in the world perform in a country that has spent a fortune to prove itself as a worthy host of the greatest sports show in the world. But my mind wanders back to my Liverpool days ever since I heard we had lost one of the great men of the team I played in.

David Johnson wouldn’t describe himself as one of the greats. He was not a regular in England, like many of our Liverpool team at the time, even though he scored twice in a 3-1 win over Argentina in 1980. Argentina never took any prisoners and were world champions at the time.

However, David was a special person and he leaves indelible memories for those of us who played with him and knew him well.

Like that day when I played at Anfield, when I got the ball, took a touch, felt there was an empty space where I should expect him, took another touch, looked again – and realized he wasn’t really on the field stood.

When I made the alternate pass, I actually counted our team’s number in case my eyes tricked me. They weren’t. Only 10 players. He had had a bad stomach and had run off the field to use the facilities. In the middle of a First Division game. And I hadn’t even seen him go yet!

He was actually the least likely of all of us to have such problems because he showed up every day with a bag full of medicines. If you had a hangover, bad stomach, or anything else, he would definitely have the pills for you. Don’t ask me why or how. He was just carrying around this leather bag of medicine. “I’ve got something for that,” he would say. That’s why we all called him “The Doc.”

I’ve never forgotten his reaction when I caught him a few times in training shortly after his arrival in Liverpool in 1978. ‘Wait a minute,’ said the doctor, pointing at me. “Does he have a license to kick people?” At least that was the polite version. We were in a dent. We didn’t let him forget that.

Which brings me to the point about the Doc, which is as relevant to football today and a World Cup in the middle of the desert as it was to Liverpool 45 years ago.

The need for team players. Life-and-soul individuals. Those in whose company others really want to be. We are tripping over data and analytics here in Doha. Managers get real-time metrics on performance aspects that we once didn’t even know were quantifiable. But that does not detract from the basic human qualities I am describing.

The Doc was great company on the evenings we used to have, starting at the Holiday Inn in Liverpool and ending at Ugly’s nightclub on Duke Street. He was not someone who would have put you at the top of the pecking order.

Kenny Dalglish was the store clerk at the time. ‘Jocky’ Hansen and I also had the floor.

But he didn’t need a moment’s motivation to give it his all in a match.

Make no mistake – he was a seriously good player too. Kenny enjoyed playing with him because he kept wanting to run into the canals and pull opponents back to their own goal. He was fast. His runs would drag a defender and defensive player out of position, so Kenny enjoyed that.

I will never forget his great contribution to one of the great goals we scored at the time, in the 7-0 win over Tottenham around the time of that training ground in 1978.

We defended a corner kick and the ball fell on the center line to the Doc, who hit it wide left to Steve Heighway.

He hit it first for Terry McDermott, who was defending our box seconds earlier, who headed it in at the end of Anfield Road. Tottenham’s new Argentine signings, Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa, got stuck in a revolving door at Anfield that day.

That kind of delivery wasn’t actually the Doc’s main strength. He was just a good, all-round striker, who realized that he had to do everything he could to stay in the team, as we all did back then.

He left for Everton in 1982, at a time when Ian Rush was starting to break through, although I often saw him at Liverpool events, most recently at a Christmas dinner for ex-players last year. It was then clear to me that he was not in good health.

He was fast, athletic, courageous and a very good goalscorer. But above all, he was a team player. A diamond. All major teams need them.

Imagine being able to bully Argentina

I’ve never managed to bully an Argentinian player in my life, so I was surprised to see Saudi Arabia – for a man – do that.

“Passive Argentina” is a phrase I would never hear myself say. But that’s what happened in their first World Cup match.

I played against some Argentinians during my time in Italy with Sampdoria and I definitely crossed swords with Daniel Passarella when we played against his Fiorentina team. I had collided with one of his teammates, who had to leave the field that day, and he was not happy.

He later tried one of the oldest tricks in the book: he seemed to hit the ball too far, expecting me to go for it, and then it was a matter of who could go for it the highest.

The point with the Argentines was that you could never make them sick. When I was a manager at Galatasaray, the club had a basketball team and two American guest players used our gym.

I remember they told me about the courtroom confrontation with Michael Jordan and that you would never try to physically mess with him. The coach would say to them, ‘You leave Michael alone. He gets 30 points or if you upset him he gets 50 points.’ So it has always been with the greats of Argentina.

They’ve got that mix of Italian and Spanish – a Latin flair tempered with a sample – which is why I’ve always thought they produce the best players. Argentine footballers have an attitude and determination like few others. They have never been defeated. After that opening defeat, they will have to prove that against Mexico on Saturday.

Kane was selfish when he played on unnecessarily

I believe Harry Kane was selfish against Iran on Monday by staying on the pitch for 27 minutes after an ankle injury, even though England were 3-0 up.

Gareth Southgate had to protect Kane from himself there, but failed to do so. Kane has historic issues with his ankles and the injury was serious enough to require a scan, but he continued to play needlessly.

I know from experience that the ankle can be complex. I had a lot of trouble with them when I was a young player at Middlesbrough, which I attributed to playing five-a-side every day on the concrete floor of the indoor gym at Tottenham where I started my career.

Gravity dictates that the swelling stays in and around the ankle. It’s not like your knee where you wash it off and go somewhere. You get microbleeds and the swelling stays there in the ankle.

You must act quickly. The trick is to prevent small injuries from becoming bigger injuries.

The medics talk about RICE — meaning “rest, ice, compression, elevation” — when it comes to ankles.

Harry had wanted to play on for 27 minutes because he saw goals in the game. He has that selfish streak that all great strikers possess.

Looks like he got away with one.

Hopefully there is no problem with his ankle in this tournament and it won’t come back to bite him when England face stronger opposition than a very sad Iran in that first game. If England want to go far, they need Kane.