Alan Shearer selected one Liverpool player in his latest Premier League Team of the Week who he felt had a near-faultless performance at the weekend.
The Reds eased to a 3-0 win over Aston Villa at Anfield, with Dominik Szoboszlai and Mo Salah finding the net either side of a Matty Cash own goal, but it was another member of Jurgen Klopp’s starting XI who was singled out for recognition by the division’s record goalscorer.
The 53-year-old named Joe Gomez in his top-flight Team of the Week (via premierleague.com), stating of the defender: “Difficult to find fault with anything he did. Another impressive display.”
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The 26-year-old mightn’t have featured at all on Sunday if Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate had been available, but he certainly made the most of the opportunity handed to him by Klopp.
As per Sofascore, Gomez took more touches (121) and completed more passes (103) than any other Liverpool player against Villa, while only Salah could equal his tally of five duels won during a very impressive showing by the defender.
It wasn’t just Shearer who was raving about that performance either, with a number of journalists and pundits also highlighting the English centre-back’s contribution towards the Reds’ latest victory.
Szoboszlai can feel hard done by at being omitted from the 53-year-old’s Team of the Week, having scored his first goal for his new club in an eye-catching display.
However, the recognition for Gomez is very welcome and richly deserved, and the Londoner is making the strongest case possible to Klopp to keep him in the Liverpool starting XI even when Van Dijk and Konate return.
#Ep89 of The Empire of the Kop Podcast: EOTK Insider with Neil Jones🎙️