Joe Gomez

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Joseph Dave Gomez





Current Club: Liverpool.

Previous Clubs: Charlton Athletic.

Loan Clubs: N/A.





International: England 7 caps.

Trophies Won: European Champions League 2018/19.





A versatile defender able to cover both full-back positions as well as play his main role of central defence. Strong and quick, with a good reading of the game for one so young, which is why he is so comfortable in a number of positions. He struck up an excellent partnership with Virgil van Dijk before an unfortunate broken ankle ruled him out for a lengthy period.



His ability to defend is helped by his recovery pace, which is excellent, very few players can hope to beat him for pace and Gomez is fast on the turn as well. He does lack a little in the height department, but he has a good leap on him to enable him to challenge for headers against even the biggest of opponents.



On the ball he is decent, though not special, he is comfortable with the ball at his feet and can play out from the back, but Gomez does not have the range of passing that the best ball-playing centre-halves possess. That is a weakness when played at full-back, as well as his crossing, which is not the best. Though he makes up for it with an excellent long throw.



Gomez has good timing in the tackle, he is a willing worker and will get up and down the pitch well while at full-back, but he does suffer the odd lapse in concentration. Nothing unusual for a young player, but he needs to learn not to rely on his recovery pace so much and concentrate for the full 90 minutes.



Overall he is a solid defender with good technique and the power and pace to cope with almost any attacker. When played in central defence he is an excellent young player with lots of potential to improve. At full-back Gomez is a bit out of his depth when he gets forward. He looks uncomfortable, though he is not the worst full-back I have seen, he is so much better in the centre it always seems a waste to use him anywhere else.



One of the roles he is extremely well suited to is right-sided centre back in a back three, where his comfort in wide areas defensively helps. Gomez has also been impressive as an old-fashioned defensive full-back, allowing the full-back on the other side to operate as a wing-back without exposing the team too badly defensively.



All of that makes Gomez an extremely useful utility player, on top of being an excellent centre-back. Someone that can fill in anywhere across the back to cover for injuries and suspensions and that can allow tactical flexibility to the team during matches by simply altering the way he plays to suit the system required. He just needs to avoid any injuries now to settle down as a long term regular fixture for club and country.





Requested by - Zeddicus