Ex-Red Daniel Sturridge has tipped his former teammate, Joe Gomez, to reach the world-class bracket of defenders in future.
The England international, who partners Virgil van Dijk in defence, joined the Dutchman on the sidelines after sustaining an unfortunate knee injury, which will likely keep him out of action for much of the season.
“Training against Joe Gomez when I was at Liverpool, I was thinking, ‘ok, ok’,” Sturridge told The Beautiful Game Podcast (via the Echo). “I’m trying to twist you up, alright cool, you’re strong, alright cool yeah, you’re fast yeah, you’re not afraid to be dirty, you’ve got it all.”
“You look at him and you think yeah he’s next,” the forward insisted. “He’s going to be in that class you can see it, he’s going to be in that class down the line.”
Having trained regularly against Gomez, the former Reds man will have been better-placed than many to speak of the Englishman’s defensive qualities.
We’ve all, of course, seen the sheer level of talent at the No.12’s disposal, having formed a solid partnership with Van Dijk in the heart of defence.
To say it was a massive blow to lose both to injury is still something of an understatement, at least as far as we’re concerned.
We’ve been fortunate to benefit from Fabinho’s defensive know-how, alongside third-choice man Joel Matip, in the meantime, but we’re looking forward to having the usual suspects back in the starting XI.
At 23 years of age, Gomez is a defender who appears to have an exceptionally high talent ceiling, and one we’re excited to see him explore under Jurgen Klopp.