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Gomez is the man for the long-term at Liverpool, but Matip remains vital
Gareth Roberts |

August 7, 2019

THE sexy part of football is scoring goals. Always has been, always will be. Forwards command bigger transfer fees, they are talked about more, and they are more readily labelled as club legends. It’s the pop-star position that all the kids dream of playing.

At Liverpool, there is a rich history of players supremely skilled at making nets bulge up and down the land. 

From Billy Liddell and Roger Hunt to Ian Rush and Kenny Dalglish, from Kevin Keegan and Robbie Fowler to Fernando Torres and Mo Salah. Whatever your age, whatever your era, you’re sure to have had a goalscoring icon in red to celebrate.

Less sexy, less discussed, but increasingly now more expensive, defenders haven’t always set pulses racing in the same way. Yet, as with the forwards, Liverpool – for a long time – had their fair share of top-class stoppers. Go deep into the mists of time, and you will find Alex Raisbeck discussed fondly.

Ron Yeats, Tommy Smith, Phil Thompson, Emlyn Hughes, Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson will also turn on the lights inside for many a seasoned Red. In more recent times, it was Sami Hyypia and Stephane Henchoz, followed by Hyypia and Jamie Carragher, that provided a sturdy foundation on which Liverpool victories were built.

From that historical point in the Reds’ rearguard roster, question marks started to emerge though. The best at the back breed trust. Confidence is clear and courses through all around, including the coaches, the manager and the supporters in the ground.

That confidence is borne from consistency. Trust builds as marks out of ten average seven or more week in, week out. For the names mentioned above, that was so often the case. For others that wore the red in the pre-Van Dijk modern era, it was not always so. Daniel Agger had many an admirer at Anfield, and at his best, he was among the best. But the harsh reality was that in eight years at Liverpool the Danish defender only once managed 30-plus league games in a season – in 2012/13.

That he retired at age 31, finishing up playing back in his home country before he did, only underlined that while he had the talent, his body couldn’t back it up often enough at the very  top level. The c-word, consistency, was also something that could be questioned around others to appear at the heart of the Liverpool defence in the modern age.

Martin Skrtel, Mamadou Sakho and Dejan Lovren all found a following of sorts among Liverpool’s support but that the credit wasn’t universal says it all. None of the three could ever truly do for the doubters and they will remain if Lovren stays past the current transfer deadline. 

Which brings us to the Liverpool FC tugging at the season 2019-20 curtain, ready to raise it at Anfield on Friday night against newly-promoted Norwich.

Jurgen Klopp not only has the luxury of selecting the PFA Players’ Player of the Year at centre half in the form of Virgil van Dijk, a player rightly backing himself for the Ballon d'Or award later this year, but also has the delicious dilemma of choosing who should partner him. 

For all the hand-wringing around Liverpool’s so far modest transfer business this summer, the fact The Reds had the best defence in the league last season seems to have got lost a little. For those who like a shut-out, there were 21 clean sheets to celebrate in the campaign just gone.

Both Joel Matip and Joe Gomez played their part, with the Cameroon centre half edging his England team-mate on appearances, playing in 22 Premier League games to Gomez’s 16.

The younger man started on Sunday in the Community Shield showdown with Manchester City but was later shifted across to the right as the man five years his senior entered the fray on 67 minutes, scoring the equaliser 10 minutes later. So who starts come Friday evening? 

Everything suggests there is little between the two players right now – both even outshined Van Dijk at times last season – while Matip has transformed himself from the meek to magnificent, from a free transfer exit in the making to a new contract waiting to happen. Whatever happens he will leave with a Champions League winners’ medal and an assist in the final to his name. Few would have predicted that just a short time ago.

Gomez, at his best, is brilliant at just 22 – and is rightly tipped to become one of his country’s finest should he finally find some luck with staying fit and out of trouble. His recovery pace is a huge asset, his reading of the game top-notch and the once naive mistakes that used to blister his performances have been smoothed out.

The shyer and quieter Matip’s personal relationship with Van Dijk is hard to fathom, but it’s clear Gomez is a friend of the Dutchman too. A factor? Maybe, maybe not. One for those behind the scenes to know and for us to only guess at.

What we do know is neither Matip or Gomez fears bringing the ball out, vital when teams sit in, and both have demonstrated the key to the collective trust mentioned above – that c-word again: consistency.

The truth is Klopp could start either man on Friday and the decision wouldn’t be questioned. He could even start both if it was deemed that Trent Alexander-Arnold’s fitness and form wasn’t everything it should be just yet, with Gomez an able deputy at full-back. Long term, Gomez clearly has age on his side, and will likely have a higher ceiling too given the progress he has made already and the experience and coaching to come that will likely mould him to more.

Matip, though, is going nowhere, nor would we want him to, and given the schedule, both he and Gomez will likely find favour next to Van Dijk at different times. Friday’s starter will be given no opportunity to dip. Just how Klopp likes it.

The forwards will still get all the headlines, it will always be that way. But Liverpool’s defence will be worth a word or two as well this season. And if that word is consistency once again, The Reds will be tough to topple.

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