Joe Gomez’s minutes problem highlights Liverpool’s shortcomings

Joe Gomez’s Liverpool dilemma: between loyalty and frustration

Joe Gomez looked dejected as he warmed up on the bench in Liverpool this weekend. As he looked towards the Kop, where a rearguard of two midfielders fought in vain to prevent Arne Slot’s side conceding three goals in a row for the second time in a row in the league, there was an air of resignation about the 28-year-old England defender.

Gomez is the club’s longest-serving player, a model professional who won all the club’s honors during a decade at Anfield. In his 248 appearances, the versatile centre-back’s commitment to Liverpool is beyond doubt.

“I know how lucky I am to be here,” Gomez said last December. “In my eyes it is the best club in the world.”

Joe Gomez’s struggles to get playing time with Arne Slot

Yet the time will inevitably come when even a loyal player like Gomez will get tired of waiting for a call that never comes. Despite making an impressive start in the 1-0 win against Arsenal at the end of August, he has barely played this season. Gomez has amassed just 43 minutes of league play, with his only starts coming against Southampton and Crystal Palace in the League Cup. Since his arrival last summer to take charge of the team as a replacement for Jürgen Klopp, Slot has gradually been relegated to the role of wildcard.

The propensity for injuries, a perennial bane of his Liverpool career, didn’t help. A prime example occurred last December, when fellow defender Ibrahima Konaté was sidelined with a knee injury. In the Frenchman’s absence, Gomez started six consecutive games, producing a series of commanding performances, only to suffer a hamstring injury and miss the next 17 games. He only returned to the team in May, when the title was already secured, without playing a single minute.

Why Joe Gomez didn’t play for Liverpool against Nottingham Forest

For all his physical problems, the argument for integrating Gomez into a defense that has conceded 20 goals in twelve games is becoming increasingly convincing, particularly with Konate in the most miserable form of his Anfield career. Despite the injury absences of Conor Bradley and Jeremie Frimpong, Gomez did not start Liverpool’s 3-0 defeat at Forest on Saturday because, as Slot later explained, he was injured and had not participated in training all week.

Perhaps that explains why Gomez had a somber expression – mirroring the somber faces in the stands – as he warmed up on the sidelines. Maybe that’s why he approached the warm-up with an unusual half-conviction. But perhaps Gomez also seemed dejected because Slot has shown such a marked reluctance to play him, even when he is fit.

How Arne Slot’s Total Football style influenced Joe Gomez

The problem for the Dutchman is that placing players in roles that don’t suit them tends to hurt his team this season. When Slot reinvented Gravenberch as a defensive midfielder last season, it was rightly hailed as a stroke of genius. Gravenberch’s physical robustness, tactical awareness and ability to find decisive passes made him the natural choice for the number 6 role. But not all players can be reinvented in this way.

A natural punter, Slot has tended to bring on multiple attacking players on the frequent occasions his team has found itself chasing points this season. The most striking example came at home to Manchester United last month, when Liverpool finished the match with Florian Wirtz, Cody Gakpo, Mohamed Salah, Hugo Ekitike and Federico Chiesa on the pitch. The unbalanced mix ensured the equaliser, only to concede a second late goal as United exploited the absence of defenders in their ranks at Anfield.

Virgil van Dijk finished this match as reserve striker, just as he did in the following weekend’s defeat at Brentford. Of course, when such decisions pay off, the manager looks like a genius. Too often this season that hasn’t been the case. As former Liverpool midfielder Dietmar Hamann recently highlighted in an exclusive interview on this site, “the balance needs to be reworked”.

Sometimes the simplest solutions are the most effective – and aligning players in their natural positions is that simple.

In any case, the logic of omitting Gomez seems increasingly flawed. In the final season of Klopp’s reign, Gomez remembered his ability to adapt, playing alternately at center defense, right back, left back and defensive midfielder in 51 appearances. Under Slot, who emphasizes positional versatility, he seems incapable of gaining a place in the starting XI, even with the champions conceding goals like a broken tap. Like so much of Liverpool’s season, it makes no sense.