Finally someone has stopped Erling Haaland. It has taken the best part of three months to do so but, at last, Liverpool dug deep, put their limp start to the season behind them and nullified the Norwegian goalscoring phenomenon, becoming the first team to prevent him from scoring or assisting a goal in a Premier League match since his Viking ship ran ashore.
Virgil van Dijk’s return to form certainly helped matters, but the chief Haaland disruptor at Anfield on Sunday was in fact Joe Gomez, who gave a firm reminder of his supreme abilities as a centre-back after three injury-ravaged campaigns, at the opportune moment to solve England’s central defensive conundrum.
After tearing his knee patellar tendon on international duty in November 2020, many lesser mortals would not have come back at all, especially given the long road to recovery Gomez had to embark upon.
He did return to first-team action, but only sporadically, meaning Gomez fell well down the pecking order for club and country. His performance in Liverpool’s worst showing in recent memory in Naples in the Champions League earlier this season perhaps signified that the injuries had taken a permanent toll and fulfilling his promise from when he burst onto the scene in 2018 to form a formidable, and seemingly long-standing, partnership with Van Dijk was a forlorn hope.
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“It is just great for Joey [Gomez] that he can show what a player he is,” said Jurgen Klopp, who has been banging the Gomez drum for many years.
“Outstanding, outstanding talent. Great player, can play different positions, and today he was sensational. It was near perfect doing it today.”
There wasn’t much nuance to his or an injury-hit Liverpool backline’s display, as the occasion, against the unrelenting, unbeaten champions did not warrant any.
Wherever Haaland went, so did Gomez, with an interception here, a clearance there. In fact, over the course of the past three seasons, on only one occasion has Gomez made more clearances in a league match than on Sunday.
He set his stall out from the off, as is often the best way in crunch clashes, going in hard and fair on Phil Foden, and never looked back from that moment on.
Klopp is right to point to the timing. Liverpool had looked vulnerable ahead of the City tussle, conceding first in six of their eight league games thus far, and with Ibrahima Konate and Joel Matip out injured, they needed Gomez to step up, against the best striker in the world.
Not only did Gomez do his chances of climbing the Liverpool ladder the world of good, he propelled himself back into Gareth Southgate’s thinking, and not just for an England squad spot either.
There is a good chance Harry Maguire will only play a bit-part role, at best, for Manchester United between now and the World Cup, Kyle Walker and John Stones are still on the treatment table, while other options are struggling for fitness and form in the run up to the tournament.
That leaves two or three spots, depending on the system, up for grabs in the starting XI for England’s opener against Iran in Doha on Monday 21 November. Nobody is guaranteed of their starting spot, even given Southgate is more loyal than most to certain players. If Maguire, one of Southgate’s go-to centre-backs, does not play again before the World Cup, he surely cannot be thrust into the England side from the off.
Steve Holland, one of Southgate’s assistants, was in attendance at Anfield to witness Gomez make Haaland look human after all – a task nine other Premier League sides this season haven’t even come close to doing.
He can be of no doubt that, on his day, fully fit, there are not two English central defenders better than Joe Gomez. Now it is a matter of staying out of the treatment room and settling back alongside Van Dijk. Do that and an unexpected leading role in Qatar should follow.
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