“It’s important that he’ll get playing time,” Stam claimed.
“If you look at the squads: Barcelona, after losing to Liverpool (in the Champions League semi-final), probably wants to strengthen their squad, especially in defence, if you ask me. The question is how they are going to solve that problem.
“I think that Matthijs de Ligt would be a good fit though. It will be great to see how he performs against better players in a better league, not just every few weeks, but every weekend.
“The same goes for Liverpool. We all know who is their biggest defensive star – his Dutch colleague (Van Dijk) – the other players, Lovren and Matip, rotate quite a lot.”
Isn’t he forgetting Joe Gomez?!
I believe @J_Gomez97 has some say in this no?
— Lucas Rogers (@CoolHandLuke081) May 17, 2019
There’s no doubting a double Dutch centre-back partnership of De Ligt and Van Dijk would rival any in world football, but we already have GOMEZ, Joël Matip, and Dejan Lovren as options at the back.
At the start of the season, Gomez was our first-choice centre-back when Lovren was ruled out with a pelvic injury from the World Cup; eventually Matip stepped in and produced some impressive performances in their absences.
Gomez has been majestic for us when he’s played and is set to reclaim his place as first-choice partner to Van Dijk for next season.
The young Ajax captain is one of European football’s hottest properties at the moment after what has been a magnificent season leading the Amsterdam side to a domestic league and cup double, but how would he fit into the side?
People sleeping on Joe Gomez. Gonna have a freak season next year
— RahulMehta (@GallantSalah) May 17, 2019
“The big question is if he’ll immediately play all matches”, Stam echoed, “I think he has enough quality to do so.
“In those big leagues it’s normal to have to deal with rotation, especially at the start you will probably start on the bench a bit more often.
“After that, you have to get used to the level and the quality of your opponents.
“I think the people around him, and Matthijs himself, are smart enough to pick the option with the most playing time. In that case, money won’t make a difference.”
With this amount of quality rotation in our ranks if De Ligt comes in he could still face issues with wresting a starting spot from a settled and injury-free Gomez, while Jürgen Klopp could face issues with Ajax’s hefty asking price.