Former Liverpool defender believes there’s still time for underfire star to reach potential

Former Liverpool defender Glen Johnson believes that the club should persevere with Joe Gomez despite his inconsistent form this season.

The 26-year-old defender agreed a contract extension which is set to keep him at the club until 2027 last year, but he has experienced indifferent form over the course of this season which has seen some cast doubt over his future.

And Johnson believes that there’s still hope for Gomez at the club, despite his issues over time and believes the club can keep both Gomez and Joel Matip - despite links to the likes of Evan Ndicka of Eintracht Frankfurt or Josip Gvardiol of RB Leipzig.

“Well, maybe if you brought one in, one would have to go, but maybe you can keep them both.” Johnson revealed to AceOdds.

“I think Gomez, he’s promised an awful lot for a long time. He’s obviously struggled injury wise and his career has been a bit stop start and he probably hasn’t reached the potential that we all think he’s got.

“He should be looking to play more football, certainly get his career back up and running. And maybe for him to do that, he needs to do it somewhere else, possibly.

“So, yeah, I do think they need to strengthen that area at the moment. But like I say, if you can get Joe Gomez fit and get some form into him, then you’ve already got the good player there already in your squad.”

Gomez has featured regularly this season totalling over 2,000 of action whereas, in the past, the former England international has been plagued with injuries, which stunted his development after breaking into the Liverpool first-team.

But whilst he missed 39 games in the 2020/21 campaign and further 15 last season, this season he’s only missed five games though injury and has the second-most minutes of any other Liverpool’s centre-backs.

The jury is still very much out on Gomez as a regular starter for Liverpool, as he has shown in the past that he is capable of performing to the level that is required, such as in their title-winning seaosn alongside Virgil Van Dijk, but this season has seen him fall short far too often.