Liverpool supporters have been pretty quiet in the last few hours after seeing their side suffer a third Champions League defeat of the season on Wednesday night.
Jurgen Klopp’s men went into their encounter with French giants Paris Saint-Germain sat second in Group C but just a point ahead of Thomas Tuchel’s side, who were seeking to avenge their 3-2 loss to the Reds earlier in the competition. And the Ligue 1 champions did just that as goals from Juan Bernat and Neymar inspired the hosts to a 2-1 win at the Parc des Princes, with James Milner’s penalty not enough to prompt a Liverpool comeback.
Thus, there have been many disappointed Liverpudlians up and down the country in recent times, several of whom are likely to be intrigued by recent comments from Sky Sports pundit Alex Scott, who has questioned Klopp’s key decision to opt for Dejan Lovren over Joe Gomez in the heart of his backline, hinting that it very much cost the Reds on Wednesday night.
In fact, the former Arsenal and England star suggested that she was ‘not seeing a partnership’ and was instead ‘seeing individuals’ on Wednesday night, and given the success Gomez has had alongside Virgil van Dijk this term, she is certainly right to query a Klopp call – a call that ultimately played a part in their defeat.
Ultimately, England international Gomez was given the chance to shine alongside Dutchman van Dijk in the centre back position at the start of the season following Lovren’s exertions at the World Cup with Croatia, and the 21-year-old has since proven to be an absolute revelation in helping the Reds make a fine start to the campaign.
In fact, the former Charlton Athletic youngster played a key part in helping the Merseyside giants keep three straight clean sheets to start the Premier League season, while their overall tally of just five goals against in their first 13 league games is testament to the performances Gomez, and indeed van Dijk, have put on together.
And while there is little doubting that Lovren is a fine defender, self-proclaimed one of the best in the world, the 29-year-old has only played alongside van Dijk four times so far this season – and against the attacking talent PSG have in their ranks, a settled centre back partnership was surely the order of the day.
And that was evident in the first goal conceded by the Reds, which was very much uncharacteristic of their strong defensive showings this season with van Dijk unable to clear his lines, and then both Lovren and Gomez found ball-watching while Bernat struck past the helpless Alisson – in fact, the goalkeeper had more to do on Wednesday than in any match so far this season.
Moving Gomez out to right back in place of Trent Alexander-Arnold was another decision that somewhat backfired for Klopp, given the former struggled for much of the evening, but it was the call to partner Lovren with van Dijk that left Scott bemused, and rightly so given how strong the partnership of Lovren and van Dijk has been for the Reds this season.
Liverpool fans… what do you think? Let us know!
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