Stan Collymore rated Liverpool’s back five as a 9/10 when arguing that England’s defence is a 6/10 at best.
The former Reds player dedicated his latest column to analysing each part of Gareth Southgate’s England team following the 2-1 loss to the Czech Republic.
When doing so, Collymore argued that the Reds were the measuring stick for any defence, as they’re arguably the best in the world, and that their back-five when fit, including Alisson, are one mark short of perfection.
“If Liverpool, as champions of Europe and with arguably the best defence in world football, have a back five including Alisson, when fit, that is 9/10, England’s is a 5.5 or 6,” wrote Collymore in a column for the Daily Mirror.
OPINION
When you consider Trent Alexander-Arnold is Liverpool’s first-choice right-back and features for England, you have to wonder how much of England’s mark out of 10 is due to his presence. After all, Collymore clearly rates him as he believes he’s part of the best defence in world football. This just further highlights how much better Liverpool’s defence is than England but that shouldn’t be any surprise. After all Jurgen Klopp’s team, of course, have had the luxury of splashing the cash to make them defensively strong, see the £66.8m spent on Alisson and £75m spent on Virgil van Dijk, whereas Southgate has to make do with the options available to him. However, it’s hard not to believe that playing Joe Gomez wouldn’t increase England’s defensive rating in Collymore’s eyes, as clearly he is a talented centre-back. The 22-year-old may not be regularly featuring for the Reds this season, he’s only played 91 minutes of league action (Source: WhoScored), but just like Tony Cascarino argued on talkSPORT, it’s not like it’s Gomez’s fault as Joel Matip is keeping him out of the team due to playing at a much higher level than anyone expected. In his 2018/19 season, before getting injured, Gomez proved he was a reliable centre-back for the Reds as he averaged 1.1 tackles and 2.4 interceptions per match across his 16 league outings, as per WhoScored, to help the Reds rack up numerous clean sheets. So it’s easy to imagine him being able to help make England sturdier at the back.
