73 touches, 3 tackles: Andy Robertson says his Liverpool teammate was ‘different class’ yesterday

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Andy Robertson described one Liverpool teammate as ‘different class’ for their display against Newcastle United on Saturday. The Reds won 1-0 at St James’ Park.

Liverpool went to Newcastle yesterday with a well-rotated team. This was the result of an intense week – one that saw the Reds beat Villarreal within 72 hours of the Saturday lunchtime kickoff.

Thus Jurgen Klopp left out regular starters in Mohamed Salah, Thiago, Fabinho and Trent Alexander-Arnold. In came Diogo Jota, Naby Keita, James Milner and Joe Gomez, respectively.

Now, Milner had a fantastic game, earning rave reviews afterwards. He wasn’t the only one of the incoming quartet to shine, though – Gomez also caught the eye at right-back.

Gomez actually came up against Newcastle’s big tactic of the day. Eddie Howe pushed Joelinton out left and tried to have the target-man win headers up against Liverpool’s right back. We imagine that was a plan envisaged for Alexander-Arnold but, unfortunately for the Magpies, it was Gomez there.

And the defender had a fine game. He won three tackles (joint-most for Liverpool), made two interceptions (led the team), created a chance and had 73 touches. Only Milner had more in the latter stat.

Joe Gomez shines for Liverpool

Gomez stepped into the right-back role very well, keeping Liverpool solid there but also finding opportunities to get forward. There were a couple of occasions where he could have found an assist, in fact – Sadio Mané’s poor finish robbed the Englishman of one.

All in all, it was a great performance and one Andy Robertson applauded after the game.

“Yeah, today I thought we were solid,” he said, per Liverpoolfc.com. “Like I said, they didn’t have many chances from what I remember.

“They obviously had the ball in the back of the net from an offside but I thought the two centre-backs… I thought Joe Gomez was different class at right-back as well.”

We’d go along with that. Gomez came in and showed the versatility Liverpool have at right-back these days – something they needed against Newcastle.