Liverpool crashed to a disappointing 4-0 defeat at the Etihad Stadium on Thursday night and TV presenter Steve Dawson has been discussing Joe Gomez’s performance on the Blood Red podcast.
The 23-year-old was substituted at half time having been booked after conceding a penalty following his challenge on Raheem Sterling. The pair were previously involved in an altercation whilst on international duty with England, adding to the rivalry and in this instance, Dawson believes it was the former Liverpool man who came out on top.
Gomez’s performance saw him earn a disappointing rating of 5.01/10 according to WhoScored.com and the Echo contributor wonders how the way things panned out for the young defender during this one will impact him moving forward.
Speaking to the Blood Red podcast, he said: “Mentally, what that does to Joe Gomez at half time, I’m intrigued to see. He didn’t have a good first half and the player-to-player battle that you looked ahead to in the build-up to this game was Gomez against Sterling because of the history that they had earlier in the season.
“And clearly Sterling won it, so Gomez would have been despondent at half time and I’d be very, very interested to know exactly what happened in the dressing room because taking him off may have done him the world of good, or it may have made him even more despondent. Joe Gomez will find it a little bit of a trial to come back from that, unless he’s injured.”
Do you think Joe Gomez will come straight back into the side?
Yes
No
TIF Thoughts…
In our view, Raheem Sterling certainly got the better of Gomez on the night, a view shared by Dawson. However, taking into account that the highest performance rating given to any Liverpool player by WhoScored.com was 6.44/10, it is fair to say that as a team, Jurgen Klopp’s men had an off night.
The German coach told the media post-match that Gomez was withdrawn due to the fact he had been booked and that he could not afford to risk losing another central defender. The Reds are due to take on Aston Villa on Sunday and it will be interesting to see if the former Charlton Athletic man keeps his place in the side.