OPINION
Joe Gomez’s rise after the last year or so has been meteoric, to the point that he must now be considered undroppable for both club and country.
The 21-year-old delivered the latest reminder of his quality on Sunday as he produced an impeccable performance at the heart of the England defence in the Three Lions’ 2-1 victory over Croatia at Wembley.
Gareth Southgate’s switch from a five man backline to a more standard back four has revealed who his preferred centre back partnership is – Gomez and John Stones.
Gomez’s performances for Liverpool this season have been of such a high order that he is now an automatic starter for England as well as his club side. He backed up his selection on Sunday with a dominant display against the Croats, rarely putting a foot wrong throughout the game.
He has taken on some of the qualities of his club team mate Virgil van Dijk, and he is now looking almost as graceful on the ball as the Dutch captain.
That was evident on Sunday as he looked smart in possession from start to finish and even helped score the equaliser with a brilliant long throw in that caused havoc in the Croatia box.
On occasion this season Jurgen Klopp has shifted Gomez out to right back to accommodate Dejan Lovren, but the contrasting fortunes of the two Liverpool centre backs at Wembley demonstrated why that should no longer occur.
Lovren was poor on Sunday and lost Jesse Lingard for England’s first goal. Harry Kane found too much space in the second half and some of the blame for that has to go to the Croatian centre half.
Gomez, on the other hand, looked cool, calm and collected throughout and underlined his status as undroppable for both club and country.
