Top 5 takeaways from the season so far
By Minh Nguyen
The center-back hierarchy alongside Virgil Van Dijk has been established
The dilemma of finding the ideal pairing with Virgil Van Dijk has been recurring since his arrival at the club. Due to various drops in form or injuries, no one player has managed to fully establish himself as the best option next to Virgil. This can be seen with the number of matches the other center-backs have played alongside the Dutchman in all competitions: Joel Matip has 40, Dejan Lovren has 38 and Joe Gomez sits on 32.
In the 2019 calendar year, it seemed like Matip had solidified himself in the defense as he started 30 out of the 36 games he was fit to play. Unfortunately, a knee injury in October would keep him out for almost three months. At first, Lovren took over the job, but he developed a muscle injury soon after. In the games he did play, he wasn’t brilliant as Liverpool only kept a clean sheet in 2 out of the 12 games that he started.
However, the story was different for Joe Gomez. The Reds kept a clean sheet in each of the first eight games (and 11 out of the first 12) he played alongside Van Dijk after he regained the starting job against Watford in December. Liverpool arguably played their best defense of the season during that stretch of games.
Gomez’s unique combination of speed and strength, as well as his superb reading of the game and technical ability, makes him the perfect partner for Van Dijk.
Even with the recent returns of Lovren and Matip, the Englishman has kept his job. It is clear that Gomez is the correct choice at center-back going forward, followed by Matip and then Lovren.