Martin Keown has claimed that Liverpool’s centre-back pairing of Joe Gomez and Virgil Van Dijk could be one of football’s best ever partnerships.
Speaking on TalkSPORT today, Keown addressed whether Gomez should be in England’s World Cup squad. Advocating for the 25-year-old’s inclusion, the pundit said that injuries may have robbed Gomez from an even better collaboration with Van Dijk.
“A lot of people seem to be against Gomez, I’m a big admirer,” said Keown. “He had a dreadful injury on the back of doing an ACL, getting badly injured when he first came to Liverpool. I think he’s an outstanding talent.
“I think we may have been denied one of the best ever partnerships with him and Van Dijk in the middle. There’s a quality about his pace, there’s a swagger about him, he passes the ball really well. I’m not sure we can turn our back on a player like that.”
Gomez’s good form has come at exactly the right time for an international reprieve. Together, he and Van Dijk have kept successive clean sheets for Liverpool.
Gomez puts himself back in the frame for Qatar
Keown may be right here. On their way to winning the Premier League title in 2019/20, Gomez and Van Dijk were utterly brilliant together.
Both players possess all the tools to be absolutely top centre-backs. Pace, power, smarts, technique, everything.
But then, injury struck. Unfortunately, injury actually struck both players at near enough the same time. Although Van Dijk has been able to reach top gear since then, Gomez hasn’t.
There’s a danger that after his body has been through so much, the former Charlton youngster won’t ever return to his old self.
Well, Gomez is certainly testing that theory now. It may only have been two games, but his display against Manchester City was perhaps his best ever in a Liverpool shirt.
He and Van Dijk worked brilliantly together to shackle the unstoppable force that is Erling Haaland. When they’re both on their game like that, they can stop absolutely anyone.
There is an argument that Gomez is actually England’s best defender, whatever form he’s in. If Harry Maguire can continually get in the team whilst calamity after calamity befalls him at Manchester United, then Gomez should be involved, too.
It won’t be long until we know for sure what Gomez will be doing this winter. At one stage, his inclusion had looked an impossibility. But thanks to his tremendous partnership with Van Dijk, he just might be back in business.
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