England vs Croatia: Joe Gomez irreplaceable, Dejan Lovren a failure?

Liverpool stars Joe Gomez and Dejan Lovren played as England beat Croatia 2-1 at Wembley on Sunday night.

Gomez has had a magnificent club season so far and that form has translated into the international area. Sadly, Lovren’s hit-and-miss performances have also effected his Nations League output.

And as the Three Lions came from behind to beat the World Cup finalists, one player was instrumental in leading the charge while the other was culpable for the defeat.

Lovren has endured an up-and-down time of it lately, but the Guardian didn’t think too highly of his efforts on Sunday night. The broadsheet thought the central defender was a key reason why Croatia failed to deal with England’s late onslaught, and gave him a 4/10 match rating.

However, things were a lot brighter for Gomez. The BBC absolutely loved his work, named the youngster as man of the match, gave him an 8/10 and reckoned he’s nearly irreplaceable at the heart of Gareth Southgate’s backline.

Similarly, the Guardian also thought the Liverpool starlet had a stormer and wrote that he was England’s best defender on the night. As an interesting side-note, Gomez sparked the equalizer through a long throw – could Liverpool’s throw-in specialist be seeing the fruits of his labor?

Playing alongside Virgil van Dijk seems to have helped the youngster develop into a serious player, but his natural ability was always going to render that highly likely. With his pace, strength and ability on the ball, Gomez could become a serious ball playing defender in the future.

And while Jurgen Klopp will be looking forward with him, perhaps Lovren will be consigned to the past. Klopp has been patient with the Croatian, but it always seems as if it’s one step forward, two steps up for the former Southampton man.

Liverpool play Watford next in the Premier League, and you can be sure that it’ll be van Dijk and Gomez in the starting XI while Lovren watches from the bench.