To judge the resources available to the two favourites to win the Premier League, study the men who will play in central defence at the weekend.
During Manchester City’s smooth 3-0 win at Marseille, Pep Guardiola was able to call on three centre-halves, Aymeric Laporte, Ruben Dias and – for the final few minutes John Stones. Their transfer fees alone come to £158m. It is more than the total value of the Sheffield United side they will face at Bramall Lane on Saturday lunch time.
A few hours later, Liverpool will kick off against West Ham with their central defence in the hands of Rhys Williams, a 19-year-old who spent last season on loan at Kidderminster, and Joe Gomez, who joined for £3.5m in 2015.
Following Fabinho’s injury in the ragged 2-0 win over Midtjylland, Gomez is Liverpool’s last first-team centre-half standing. Jordan Henderson, who was substituted at half-time on Tuesday following a fierce tackle from Jens Cajuste, could have carried on in midfield and will be available to face West Ham.
There will be few concerns over Gomez. In January, the 23-year-old led a Liverpool defence composed of Nat Phillips, Yasser Larouci and Neco Williams to a 1-0 win over a full-strength Everton side in the FA Cup. Gomez said the quality Virgil van Dijk brought to the Liverpool back four was “he made everyone feel safe”. That is a feeling he will have to impart to the teenager alongside him.
It says something that Williams has taken part in two Champions League fixtures and is yet to play in the Premier League, a situation Jürgen Klopp expects to change on Saturday. The Liverpool manager, however, fears the greatest pressure on Williams will come from a media spotlight that shines more brightly on Merseyside than perhaps anywhere else in England.
Speaking after Tuesday night’s win that sent Liverpool to the top of Group D, Klopp said: “The only problem we have now is that, unfortunately, we have four days to the West Ham game and you will make a story every day about him and then he has to prove he can deal with that as well.
“But he is a talent. We still have Nat Phillips who is not in the Champions League squad because we thought he might make a transfer to another club. But he is a centre-half as well. So, we have very young and inexperienced alternatives but we have to choose one of them.”
The choice in front of Klopp will reinforce the argument that Liverpool should have replaced Dejan Lovren after his transfer to Zenit St Petersburg. There are those who would claim the Croat should not have gone at all, although that would be to ignore the fact that Lovren had agitated for a move since the summer of 2019 and that £11 million was a lot of money for a 31-year-old who was not a regular starter. Liverpool will have to pay far more than that for a replacement when the January transfer window opens.
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from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/35GqFdd
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