‘He’s a natural’: Murphy predicts Liverpool will stick with struggling player despite Napoli nightmare

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Danny Murphy believes Joe Gomez will start for Liverpool vs Ajax this week. The defender struggled badly against Napoli.

Liverpool will have had just under a week to think on their defeat at Napoli when Ajax come to town. Exactly how they go about changing things, though, isn’t exactly straightforward.

Injuries and a squad that ranges from new and inexperienced to older and burnt out limit Jurgen Klopp’s actual options. What’s clear, however, is that the system isn’t working right now. Klopp, surely, will try something new against Ajax.

Fortunately, they’ve had time to work on what that is. Danny Murphy believes one change is fairly obvious, though – Joe Gomez switching to right-back.

“Jurgen Klopp has talked about reinventing the team, which usually means a tactical switch or changing personnel,” he told the Daily Mail.

“Maybe he’ll think about switching Joe Gomez to right-back for a couple of games as he’s a natural one-on-one defender.”

Joe Gomez could start vs Ajax

It’s not a change we’d make. Liverpool shouldn’t be moving away from the things that have made them great and Trent Alexander-Arnold at right-back is unquestionably one of those.

Tactical tweaks? Certainly. Liverpool need those quickly and we can’t imagine it’ll be the same old 4-3-3 against Ajax. Cutting out creativity to play with a defence-first right-back, though? That’s not exactly a forward-thinking change that moves Liverpool forward. That’s retreating to a playing style from 15 years ago.

And it would be one thing if Gomez was in fine form but he put in a disasterclass against Napoli last time out. We’re not sure throwing him in as a solid, defensive choice is the right option, even if Gomez shone against Everton.

We expect Klopp’s changes will come with the shape in midfield and, potentially, attack. Adding more cover for counter-attacks or pushing an extra man into attack sounds more in-line with what Liverpool need.

Ultimately, they should be finding a way to utilise Alexander-Arnold’s talents right now. Putting them on the bench simply feels like a cowardly decision.