Now into his ninth year as a Liverpool player, there are few roles Joe Gomez hasn’t performed during his time at Anfield.
From teenage rookie and a reluctant left-back right the way through to a title-winning centre-back, long-term absentee and more recently a hybrid defender pulling strings in midfield, Gomez has done a lot at Anfield since he signed as an 18-year-old from Charlton Athletic way back in 2015.
The Londoner is the only player in the current Liverpool squad that preceded Jurgen Klopp’s October 2015 arrival and his longevity is testament to both his quality and mentality at the cutting edge of the game. It might surprise many to learn the long-serving Gomez doesn’t turn 27 until the end of the current Premier League season but it is surely even more unexpected to see him currently flourishing in what is yet another role within the Reds’ ranks.
After nearly 200 appearances without so much as a sniff at a Liverpool goal, Gomez’s recent weeks have been characterised by him playing as a rampaging full-back who is coming closer and closer to that elusive first strike for the Reds.
The defender came closest during his lengthy stay was during the recent draw with Arsenal when, after replacing Kostas Tsimikas in the first half, he cut inside the penalty area before curling a right-footed effort just wide of David Raya’s left-hand post.
It was a shot that had Klopp beaming and one that would have rocked a new-look Anfield to its foundations had the long wait finally been ended in such style during a crucial game in the Premier League’s title race.
But easing the burden on the forwards is not why Gomez is in the Liverpool side and ‘the goalscoring defender’ is not the latest in a long line of niches he has carved out. A private admission to journalists after the Burnley game that he has not even thought about how might celebrate if and when that long wait is over was genuine.
At a time when Joel Matip is out for the season as he recovers from surgery on what will be a long-term knee injury, Andy Robertson and Tsimikas are both sidelined with respective shoulder and collarbone issues and Trent Alexander-Arnold is being tried more frequently at the base of the midfield, there’s a school of thought that Gomez is now imperative to Liverpool’s ambitious plans for the season heading into 2024. It’s a theory Klopp clearly subscribes to.
“He can play all the positions at the back and that is very important,” says Klopp. “He didn’t have a good year last year but he is absolutely back to his best. Or maybe he is at his best at the moment, because he is still a young man. It is crazy to think that – he is just for us a super important player.”
Gomez has already played at right, left and centre-back this term, including his adaptation of what has become informally known as the ‘Trent role’ around Liverpool, where the right-sided full-back is required to get into central areas as an additional midfielder in possession. It speaks to his class and versatility that he has been able to perform each position adeptly for a team who head into the New Year’s Day visit from Newcastle United with the best defensive record in the Premier League.
Ask Gomez where he would most like to play, however, and he will candidly tell you it is at centre-back. That, despite his willingness to deputise elsewhere has always been his preferred choice and given the competition for places at Anfield over the years, it would be no shock if the former Charlton teenager, who has been linked with Tottenham Hotspur in the gossip columns as of late, had agitated to leave or at least quietly explored an exit strategy in search of more minutes.
If he has, though, it was a plan that was never carried as far as the door to Klopp’s office at either the AXA Training Centre or Melwood.
“I think Joe is absolutely at home here so that is the No.1 reason (he is still here),” Klopp says. “Joe had the problem of too many injuries in his time here – I’m not sure exactly the number but he’s been here for nine plus years if I am right – and the number of games he has had with the quality he has has nothing to do with me or Brendan (Rodgers) – he was playing quite frequently when I arrived.
“Then he was injured and he came back from international duty with the under-19s or under-21s injured. But in our most successful seasons he played centre-half next to Virgil van Dijk, very often, not all the time, but mixed probably with Joel and Dejan (Lovren) but he played a lot of games.”
Klopp adds: “He never came to my office and asked: ‘Can I go?’ No, never. It was always sorted before it could get to that point. We sorted a new contract, he wanted to sign and he wanted to stay. I think he and his wife really feel he is Liverpool through and through and so that is the reason more than anything else.
“He knows that in his time with his injuries that if you go somewhere and get injured you are just a different player but here he is still our boy and we will deal with it and you have all time to get back and that is a positive as well.”
With Tsimikas out for the foreseeable future after suffering a broken collarbone against Arsenal and Robertson still a few weeks away from his comeback from surgery, Gomez is set to go back to where it all started for him at Liverpool – shoehorned into the side at left-back.
At least it is one role he is familiar with at a time when he is about to become integral to the plan at the club.
