Earlier this week, pictures were released by liverpoolfc.com showing both Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez doing some ball work on their road to return from injury.
Immediately, fans on social media showed their excitement. The duo have been missed an awful lot this season, as we all know.
However, the majority of this excitement was for van Dijk.
The release of the images, plus talk of Ruben Dias’s performance for Manchester City against PSG in the Champions League semi-final, saw the Dutchman trending on Twitter.
Of course, he is the best defender in the world. As good as Dias has been, he is nowhere near as well-rounded as van Dijk is just yet.
It is obvious to see why Kopites are excited to see him nearing a return to action.
But, as has been the case for the last number of months, the attention on van Dijk has seen Gomez’s struggles slip under the radar.
He was only just stepping into van Dijk’s boots when he suffered a traumatic injury of his own. An injury that he will have a constant reminder of due to the huge scar on his knee that is seen in the photos.
Because of a few bad matches in 2020, many have forgotten just how good Gomez really is.
In short, it is time the Englishman got the respect he deserves at Liverpool.
Gomez will be one of the game’s best defenders for the next decade
In fact, even when he was fit and playing regularly, Gomez never got the praise he deserved. That was all given to van Dijk.
The reality is that he is one of the very few world-class centre-backs in the game aged 23 and under. Dias is among these, while arguments could be made for Dayot Upamecano and Matthijs De Ligt.
Centre-backs don’t peak until their late twenties. If Gomez is this good before his peak, there is no telling how good he will be when he reaches it.
One only needs to look at where van Dijk was at when he was Gomez’s age. Gomez of 21-, 22-, 23-years-old is levels ahead of van Dijk when he was that young.
His post-lockdown form was poor. But that happens with young defenders. He was consistently excellent for months prior to that.
On top of this, his form in the six games he played after van Dijk’s injury was near-perfect.
Liverpool won five of these games, drawing one against Manchester City. They conceded just three goals during that time.
He was well on his way to helping Liverpool to another title charge and filling van Dijk’s boots.
Had he not picked up that injury, it is possible that he would be spoken about the same way that Dias is now. People could be talking about a Gomez and John Stones partnership leading England to victory at Euro 2020.
If he returns as the same player he was before his injury, Joe Gomez will be Liverpool’s world-class defensive rock for the next 10 years.
It is time people recognized that.
Receive a digest of our best Liverpool content each week direct to your mailbox
