Gomez joined Liverpool as a teenager from Charlton Athletic. He looked to have a bright future ahead of him but his career has been hampered by injury, a lack of playing time and form.
But with Liverpool experiencing something of an injury crisis this season, Gomez has been afforded a lot of time to prove himself.
The 25-year-old has featured 19 times in the Premier League and five times in the Champions League.
However, it is fair to say that Liverpool’s defence has not been at its best this term. And whilst Joe Gomez can’t be solely blamed for this, he has made a number of mistakes in 2022/23.
Several of these came in Liverpool’s recent 5-2 hammering at the hands of Real Madrid on Tuesday.
Gomez’s poor positioning and lack of defensive awareness played a key role in in Madrid coming from 2-0 down to net five goals, which is the most Liverpool have ever conceded at Anfield in a European game.
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Josko Gvardiol (RB Leipzig – £75m market value)
A fairly obvious choice and perhaps out of Liverpool’s price range, but Gvardiol is certainly someone Liverpool need to be looking at.
The 21-year-old introduced himself to the world stage in Qatar last year, putting in superb displays at Croatia reached the semi-final of the World Cup.
Gvardiol is fast, powerful and one of the most progressive centre-backs in European football.
Gvardiol averages 1.10 shot-creating actions per 90, which ranks him in the top 14 per cent of all other centre-backs. He also averages 5.28 progressive passes per 90, which is among the top eight per cent of centre-backs in the world.
His ability to carry the ball forward is also very impressive, Gvardiol manages 1.34 progressive carries per 90 and 0.72 successful take-ons per 90, which again sees him ranked in the top seven/eight per cent of centre-halves.
Aymeric Laporte (Manchester City – £38m market value)
Aymeric Laporte has been crucial to Manchester City’s domestic success in recent seasons.
Ruben Dias has garnered a lot of the plaudits since he moved from Benfica, but the Frenchman has been equally as important to the Sky Blues’ dominance.
Laporte is excellent with the ball at his feet and is crucially left-footed, which would mean if Liverpool signed him, they could finally move Virgil van Dijk to the right-centre-back spot to provide some much-needed help for the clearly weak, Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Moreover, the Spaniard’s future has been called into question a fair bit over the last year, making a summer move more viable.
Kim Min-jae (Napoli – £35m market value)
Kim Min-jae has only been with Napoli since the summer of 2022 but he is already one of the best centre-backs in the Serie A.
The 6ft 2 stopper has featured in all but one of Napoli’s 23 Serie A games so far this season.
In that time the current league leaders have shipped just 15 goals, which is the best record in the division by some distance.
Kim also excels at progressing play, averaging 6.62 passes into the final third per 90, 29.39 forward passes per game and 4.39 progressive passes per 90.
Jurrien Timber (Ajax – £45m market value)
Standing at around 5ft 9, some Liverpool fans may be put off by Timber’s stature.
However, his former centre-back partner at Ajax, Lisandro Martinez, has proven at Manchester United that you can still be an excellent defender in the Premier League even if you are fairly small.
And much like Martinez, Timber is brilliant at progressing play and providing that link between defence and midfield, something most of Liverpool’s current centre-backs struggle with.
Timber averages 9.24 passes into the final third per 90 and has an average passing accuracy of 92.1 per cent per 90. He is also a fairly competent dribbler and will step out of defence to break up any attacks, much like Cristian Romero of Tottenham, which is something Liverpool should be looking for in their centre-backs given the high line Klopp likes to play.
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