Liverpool’s summer recruitment focused heavily on midfield additions but a defensive addition would have made it an almost perfect window.
Whilst the midfield additions were great, they have four senior centre-backs who regularly miss games and then a talented, but ultimately inexperienced 20-year-old centre-back in Jarrell Quansah – who’s played just 16 times in League One to date.
Nat Phillips was allowed to leave on loan to Celtic, where previously he was kept as cover for the four senior players above him and his departure looked set to open up a spot for a defensive recruit, but nothing came to fruition.
Now, with the window closed, we’ve seen that problem with players missing games with Ibrahima Konate absent for both the Newcastle and Aston Villa victories and Virgil Van Dijk’s red card and suspension.
Fortunately, we saw Joe Gomez step in and produce a strong display in the Villa game giving hope he can rediscover his best form that saw him highly-rated during the 2019/20 Premier League title-winning campaign.
Villa pose a strong threat these days in attack with Ollie Watkins, Moussa Diaby and Leon Bailey but he dealt with the threat strongly, as the Reds marched to a strong three-goal victory.
In terms of Gomez’s match statistics – one tackle, two interceptions, one clearance, 100% aerials won, 95% of his 108 passes, one key pass and three out of four long balls illustrates a strong showing.
But he was part of bad away defeats at Brighton and Wolves and the home defeat to Leeds United and he looked like a player devoid of confidence.
Helping them to get over the line at Newcastle for 57 minutes after coming on as a substitute was a great boost for him and he built from there against Villa.
Surely, he will start the next game against Wolves – who are struggling for form but he will want Konate to be back alongside him in Van Dijk’s absence as the partnership of Joel Matip and Gomez conceded three there last season.
Gomez can cover both right-back and centre-back and his pace allows them to play a higher line and when he is confident he’s a really good ball-playing defender – let’s see if he can build on it after the international break.
