For a combined £11.5million, Robertson, Gomez and Alexander-Arnold complete Liverpool’s defence. At £3.5million, Joe Gomez, in particular, has had an excellent start to the season. Given that the young centre-back has looked increasingly assured alongside van Dijk, it’s easy to forget that he only recently turned 21.
Of course, Liverpool have one of the best defenders in the world in Dejan Lovren set to return which will increase competition for places, but, if Gomez doesn’t hit any bad run of form, we don’t expect that the Reds centre-half pairing will change.
Since arriving from Charlton, Gomez has always looked like a natural defender. While excelling in the defensive role of a fullback when he first joined, when going forward, he was unable to produce as much as we are used to seeing today from the likes of Robertson and TAA.
As a centre-half alongside Virgil van Dijk, he is the ideal partner. Gomez has the sort of pace that you would see from defenders like Raphael Varane. Not just that, he always looks to take more care in decisions, sought to make smart, efficient defensive plays avoiding mistakes that Lovren can sometimes make after a few games.
Statistically, there isn’t too much to separate Liverpool’s other defenders. Matip averaged 4.16 duels won, 3.84 clearances, 1.40 interceptions and 1.40 tackles won per game last season, while Lovren averaged 4.68 duels won, 4.89 clearances, 1.31 interceptions and 0.89 tackles won.
When comparing those figures to Gomez start to the 2018/19 campaign, the young defender has averaged 6.0 duels won, 4.33 clearances, 1.0 interception, as well as 2.0 tackles per game.
Of course, there can be some debate over the small sample size in comparison to Lovren and Matip, but there’s no denying that it’s a highly impressive start especially for a 21-year-old centre-back. It’s becoming increasingly clear that Gomez has the potential to be one of the best defenders in the Premier League especially when playing alongside Virgil van Dijk.
While the stats are of course promising, there is only so much of the story they can reveal. For some players, they have the ability to just make fans feel much more “at ease” in an otherwise troubling situation. Take the eccentrics of Alisson at the weekend for example able to look completely in control whilst scooping the ball over Glenn Murray.
So far, Gomez has played like a Premier League veteran, and, most promisingly, he is only going to get better under the tuition of Jurgen Klopp.
The rest of the league may be yet to realise it, but Liverpool could actually have the best centreback pairing in the league. The sky is the limit for Joe Gomez, and with performances in the same standard of the likes of Thiago Silva and Raphael Varane, Liverpool’s defence can finally begin a new chapter, which consequently, should see the return of trophies back to Anfield.
Article by Adam Brown – @ScouseAdamMV
