Virgil van Dijk was spotted shouting at Liverpool teammate Joe Gomez as the pair geared up to face Real Madrid tonight.
The Reds invited the cameras to the AXA Training Centre yesterday ahead of this evening’s huge clash. And as per TalkSPORT, there was some interesting footage captured.
Generally, Liverpool appeared to be in mighty good spirits. As well they might be too, a couple of wins on the bounce and things are looking a whole lot healthier.
At the forefront of this added skip to Liverpool’s step were Gomez and Van Dijk. Engaging in some kind of agility exercise, the centre-back pair played ‘rock paper scissor’ before racing off in opposite directions.
Quite what the rules of this particular game are never become clear. But whatever they are, Virgil clearly felt Gomez was infringing on them. As the two continuously race away from each other, the Dutchman can be heard roaring at his defensive partner.
“You wanted to do that!” the 31-year-old could be heard exclaiming at one point. This received a rather animated “What do you mean?!” screamed back at him from Gomez. All good natured of course. Great to see this pair back having fun.
Gomez looking to nail down centre-back spot
With Ibrahima Konate still out injured, the right-sided centre-back spot has been up for grabs at Liverpool. After Saturday’s win over Newcastle United, it would appear that Gomez currently has the shirt.
In truth, it wouldn’t have been harsh on either Gomez or Joel Matip to be dropped for the trip to St James’ Park. Neither have covered themselves in glory during Konate and Van Dijk’s enforced absences.
On the balance of things though, Jurgen Klopp probably got the decision right. It underlines what has been a strange but also positive season for Gomez on the whole.
Although he seems to have regressed markedly over the course of the campaign, he’s also been playing a lot more than usual. After featuring in just 15 Premier League games over the last two seasons, the 25-year-old has now notched up 19 appearances this year. No wonder it’s taken him a while to get back up to speed.
With Virgil alongside him Gomez usually plays his best football. Now able to have felt his way into the season properly, maybe the England international can make the spot his own for the remainder of the campaign.
Once Konate returns that will become markedly more difficult. But impress tonight against Real Madrid and carry that form into future games, and we could be about to see a Joe Gomez revival. Key to this will be his relationship with Virgil. Despite their animated words here, the Dutchman always has Joe’s back.