Sol Bamba claimed Liverpool defender Joe Gomez has a tough decision to make if he wants to make Gareth Southgate’s England squad for the Euros in the summer.
The Sky Sports pundit pointed out that Southgate has made it very clear that he will only pick players who regularly feature for their sides and Bamba acknowledged that the centre-back may have to play at a smaller club than Liverpool to get games every week.
Bamba also added that he did feel sorry for Gomez as he was a very good player, but unfortunately, he happens to find himself behind Dejan Lovren in the pecking order.
“I feel sorry for Joe Gomez because he is young, he is a very good player but at the minute I think Lovren is ahead of him,” said Bamba on Football Centre (11:02am, Wednesday, November 27th).
“I mean when you play for a top club like Liverpool, you expect competition for places, you’re not going to play every game and I think he knew that when he signed for the club and he’s still very young.
“But at the same time if you wanna be picked for England you have to play, Southgate has made that very clear, so it’s a tough one, you have to make a decision here, do you play week-in-week-out and play for a team not as big as Liverpool or stick with Liverpool and try to fight for your place and try to play.”
OPINION
Bamba is spot-on with a lot of the things he says about Gomez. The enforcer does need to be playing regularly if he wants that England call-up in the summer and it is hard not to sympathise with his cause’s when it comes to not getting playing time. After all, no one really expected Lovren to seize his chance to nail down a first-team spot like he has as he has been known to be error-prone in the past. Also, it’s not like Gomez hasn’t impressed when given a chance, the 22-year-old has averaged an impressive match rating of 7.17 across his three Champions League outings and has proven himself to be defensively solid in those displays by averaging 2.7 tackles per game (Source: WhoScored). However, Bamba isn’t right to suggest Gomez has a decision to make when it comes to effecting his chances of heading to Euro 2020. After all, it seems very unlikely that Jurgen Klopp would weaken his playing squad by letting Gomez leave in January regardless of if it was on loan or on a deal that saw him leave permanently.
