OPINION
Liverpool fans were no doubt in awe of the centre-half partnership formed between Virgil Van Dijk and Joe Gomez at the beginning of the season.
They were establishing themselves as one of the best partnerships in the Premier League, but that all came to an abrupt end when Gomez got injured at the end of last year.
Jurgen Klopp is lucky that he has had a wide range of talent in this role, and has relied on the likes of Dejan Lovren and Joel Matip to feel the void left by one of the Reds’ brightest young talents.
However, his recent comments – as relayed on Liverpool Echo reporter James Pearce’s Twitter account – on Gomez surely suggests that he has a major selection headache on his hands in the final five games of the season.
Klopp on Gomez: "We will need Joe in the final part of the season. Dejan did brilliantly the other night. Now we have a choice to make so everyone needs to show in training and games what makes most sense for me."
— James Pearce (@JamesPearceLFC) April 12, 2019
Klopp is right here, Lovren did give an assured performance on Tuesday night. He replaced Matip in the line up, and he played with confidence alongside Van Dijk.
However, he has now said that the players now need to blow him away in training in order to convince him that they deserve to start, and this will no doubt be a kick in the teeth to the likes of Matip, who has been starting on a regular basis in the central defence recently.
The 6ft 5in [Transfermarkt] giant’s place in the team is now under threat after these comments, and Lovren’s display on Tuesday does not really help things either. If he wants to cement his place in the starting XI, then he is going to have to play his socks off.
Klopp mentioning that Gomez will be needed during the final stages of the season suggests that he is going to make his return very soon, and that no doubt places Matip’s spot under even more threat.
