Former Premier League striker Noel Whelan has claimed that Brighton & Hove Albion centre back Ben White is ‘better’ than Liverpool star Joe Gomez.
The youngster has impressed so much on loan at Leeds United this season that Football Insider have reported that the Reds are interested in signing the 22-year-old.
BBC pundit Whelan feels White is ideally suited to the European champions: “Ben White is good enough for Liverpool, in my opinion he is better than Joe Gomez,” he told Football Insider. “He would give the centre-backs vying to partner Virgil van Dijk a run for their money.
“There is no doubt Ben White will be an England international sooner rather than later. It’s incredible to think he’d never played in the Premier League or Championship before this season but, deary me, he is brilliant. I’ve seen him every game this season and he’s the best centre-back I’ve seen at Leeds since Rio Ferdinand.”
OPINION
Wow, is White employing Whelan as his official cheerleader? Blimey, the former Leeds man is obsessed with this young defender. In all seriousness, though, White is a top young player and he has certainly established himself as one of the very best defenders in the Championship this season. But to say that, after just 19 games at Championship level, he’s already better than Gomez is just ridiculous. The England international is a classy operator who probably deserves more game time than he’s getting at Liverpool at the moment. He is an established top flight centre half, who looked the class of the division this time last year. White, on the other hand, hasn’t played a second of Premier League action. So, Whelan’s claim is ludicrous. The statistics show that the Leeds man has been good this season, true. As per WhoScored.com, the youngster is averaging 1.8 tackles, 2.6 interceptions and 3.4 clearances per game, while he is only being dribbled past 0.3 times an outing. He’s a great young player with fabulous potential, but to say he’s already better than Gomez is ridiculous.
