Never been anything above decent, take away his pace and what does he really have…like majority of English players tbh, unreliable in terms of injuries and needs to be moved on for his own good.
He was much better than decent for about 15 months between aug 18-jan 20 but he hasn’t been that player for a while. People are very slow to lose faith when a player has played at that level but you can’t ignore the mountain of evidence with Gomez, he’s not a good defender anymore. Maybe he’ll have a bit of a resurgence at right back but otherwise it’s probably curtains for him at the top level.
Too many injuries have done him in, we need to be more ruthless with players like this. Gomez and Chamberlain have been given far too long to find their previous levels.
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Yeah, I’ve defended him before with those levels in mind but yesterday… wow, that was embarrassingly bad. He contrived to make Welbeck look like Pele and actually managed to run away from the ball at one point amongst other less than stellar moments.
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Him being a homegrown player might be the only thing that keeps him at Liverpool beyond the next summer - though playing at right back might also be his saving grace in the short term. Just like the rest of the team, his spirit looks shot and he’s not even capable of doing the basics properly. It’s been like that for a while, though I hoped that the new contract would restore his self-confidence. I don’t know where we’re standing on the whole club-trained/homegrown field but he’s definitely a player I wouldn’t be sad to see leave the club. If Tyrone Mings can play in PL, so can Gomez.
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Yeah well, in that case he can join a club of Villa’s range and form a nice little PL partnership with Mings. If he can. I understand that the grass isn’t always greener elsewhere, other clubs in our level have ‘worse’ backups than Gomez. But I don’t want us to “carry” him for 10 years of his career because he’s homegrown, can do a job at RB (to a limit) and doesn’t moan when he doesn’t play. There are more important issues to solve in this team, but his case (and similar) shouldn’t be ignored either. Of course, it depends also on the market and potential interested parties.
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It’s like any relationship. It’s on the rocks now but you keep harking back to the highs (and they were giddy heights).
But ultimately you have to admit to yourself that those days are sadly gone.
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Twice in a row against Brighton, he gets turned in front of goal like nobody’s there. Tries some karate or kung-fu move showing his arse to the attacker and falls to the ground. Any takers this January or next summer?
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Aye, there is a big difference between acknowledging he HAD to try to block the shot and doing that. It was stuff you’d pull someone in U12s for doing. So much of defending is about making it as difficult as possible for the guy to beat you as much as it is winning the ball. leaving both feet and turning your back might help you block the ball, but if you dont you are completely out of the game.
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I think it looks like all 3 players around Mitoma thought he was going to take the shot, hence the reactions that they had. I don’t blame him for thinking that the block was the only thing he should be doing there, because either he blocks the shot, or there would be two other players there to neutralise the remaining threat if he does some trick instead (which surely is in itself a lower probability there?)
If there was ever 1 image that exemplified how not to defend it’s this.
The issue isn’t him trying to block it, it is the way he did it.
A still image shared by an Arsenal fan
I get that, but the bit I quoted suggested that what he did “might help you block the ball”, which is why I thought that if that were true, to me it just shows that he committed to blocking the shot above all else.
Shared by a troll on here.
Sure, but in a way you’d criticise a 12 year for doing. I dont criticize the commitment, just the application.
When someone is that close to the goal and shaping up for a shot, then you do what Joe did. Yes, we can crticise JOe’s stupid role in the Welbeck goal in the other match, but for me not this.
After the dink over, Mitoma did a snapshot before Darwin could move in fully, and that was the right thing from his persepctive as the opportunity that close to goal is there.
IN fact, had Darwin been slower or turned away, maybe Mitoma would’ve taken a fraction of a second longer for the ball to go down a bit to make the shot easier - so in effect the short window he had made up his mind to hit it quickly.
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Have it replayed then if it helps…neither of these instances is how you defend, there isn’t really getting out of that.
Horrible. 
What’s worst is fans can defend that…defending the indefensible is a crime in itself.
You’d expect to see that type of lousy defending in the national league, league 2 league 1 maybe.
Exactly, he is afraid of the ball and turns his back to the ball