Joe Gomez’s chances of performing well at Liverpool are hampered because he is not playing in his best position. Jürgen Klopp is performing a delicate balancing act.
Liverpool has an extremely versatile squad. There are obviously some players whose positions are fixed, but others can fill in at a variety of positions throughout the team.
Mohamed Salah, for example, will always play in the right forward position, and it would be surprising to see Luis Daz anywhere other than on the left. Nonetheless, Diogo Jota and Darwin Nez have started alongside Salah in both central and left combinations. Cody Gakpo is even more adaptable, filling in as a midfielder when necessary.
Positions in defense are a little more fixed. Trent Alexander-Arnold can be found in midfield but is primarily a right-back on the teamsheet, while Andy Robertson and Kostas Tsimikas cover the opposite flank. If Virgil van Dijk plays in central defense, he will be on the left. However, there is more room for variation after him.
It’s fair to wonder if the reshuffling, chopping, and changing at the back is affecting Joe Gomez. If nothing else, it could have an impact on his supporters’ opinions of him.
When he covers for Alexander-Arnold, fans point out he does not offer the same level of creative threat. While not quite as strong an issue, the same applies when Gomez plays left-back, the position in which he made his Liverpool debut under Brendan Rodgers all those years ago. It also does him few favors to fill in for Van Dijk on the left of the central pairing, as — just like there would be for almost any defender covering — there is a drop-off when the Dutch colossus is not in the team.
James Milner was a midfielder who could cover at full-back and Gomez is a right-sided center-back who seems to play anywhere but there. In 2023/24, the 26-year-old has made five starts at right-back, one on the left flank and two on that side of Joël Matip in the heart of defense. In his actual position? None.
It was a similar story in 2021/22, another season in which Liverpool’s center-backs were generally available to play. In that campaign, Gomez’s one start in his recognized back four berth occurred in the Carabao Cup against Leicester City, alongside 19-year-old Billy Koumetio. With the Reds 3-1 down at the break, the youngster got the hook for Ibrahima Konaté, so it’s not like Gomez was alongside prime Van Dijk or anything (no disrespect, Billy).
And while he did get 14 starts at right center-back last season, he wasn’t always keeping positional rivals out of the team. Gomez started one of those matches — an FA Cup replay at Molineux — alongside Konaté, with the French international only fit for the bench for two of the other games. Matip was a substitute for six of the matches but that still leaves a lot where Gomez started at least in part because Klopp’s options were very limited.
Third in the pecking order for the right central spot may be Gomez’s natural standing these days. As talented as he is, multiple injuries over the years have inevitably taken a toll. The former Charlton man has also developed a strange relationship of sorts with Van Dijk.
They formed a formidable partnership across the first half of 2018/19 and much of the title-winning campaign that followed it. Yet they have also been at the scene of some of Liverpool’s biggest crimes since; a 7-2 loss at Villa Park, a debacle in Naples, the only league loss at Anfield in front of fans since 2017, and a 5-2 battering by Real Madrid.
Perhaps Klopp has spotted the pattern and decided enough is enough, even if the blame for those defeats clearly does not lie solely with Gomez and Van Dijk. Either way, the England international is not being allowed to play in his favored position and he may be wondering when his next chance there will come.
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