Arne Slot looked to have found an answer to Liverpool’s season of right-back woes having shoehorned Curtis Jones into the position with some success.
Having played the past three matches on the right side of the defence, Jones went again during Saturday’s underwhelming 1-1 draw with Chelsea.
But while the Scouser has looked like a good fit in his previous outings, it was a different story against the Blues. With Jones and Ibrahima Konate constantly pulled out of position by Marc Cucurella in particular, Liverpool had a real problem all afternoon.
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If Slot wants to have a better time of it in Liverpool’s final two matches of the Premier League season, he can experiment with Jones no longer, and must bring Joe Gomez back into the starting XI.
Gomez must come back to play at right-back
Part of the issue for Liverpool on Saturday was that Jones had seemingly been given license to drift infield and play almost wherever he wanted to at Anfield.
While this makes sense in one respect – the 25-year-old is one of the most comfortable in possession in the Liverpool squad – it also left the Reds with a huge gap on one side of their defence, one Konate was being pulled everywhere trying to fill.
Slot may argue that the benefits of getting Jones on the ball in central areas outweighed the risk, but the truth is that it simply left the Reds far too exposed.
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Jeremie Frimpong is always an option as an alternative, but the Dutchman is still needed in forward areas in the absence of Mohamed Salah, and has been poor recently regardless.
As a result, the answer for Slot is clear: bring back Gomez, and allow for his more steady play to keep Liverpool as tight as possible at the back.
Liverpool cannot go into next season without a new right-back
Although Gomez would fix some problems for Liverpool, he is not going to be a permanent solution.
There has been some debate over whether the Reds need to enter the market for a new right-back this summer, but Saturday’s performance should have ended it.
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Jones is likely to leave anyway, even if Slot did see him as a regular starter at right-back, but with the latest on Conor Bradley not exactly sounding positive and Frimpong having his own issues, this problem is not going away.
For now, the play must be to reset, keep Liverpool solid and bring Gomez back in. Beyond that, if the Reds do not look for a solution they will be leaving themselves in trouble once again next year.
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