Liverpool set to put ULTIMATUM on senior player's future

Yahoo

16 hours ago

The competition for places in Liverpool's squad is just as feisty as you expect it to be.
Every summer, before the recruitment plan is decided for the transfer window, the Liverpool academy talents get their chance to impress Arne Slot for a chance of playing in the first team.
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The last pre-season campaign led to Rio Ngumoha and Trey Nyoni being called-up as full-time members of the senior set-up and we'll see how perform then playing at a more intense level.
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Youngsters are normally gifted this chance because the squad has lost a player in that position and the cost of bringing someone else in is too high. Most other squad roles are so competitive that there is no pathway from the academy to the first-team available. It's a pretty tightly run operation.
Beyond that, certain players in the first team, that can't nail down a starting role are utilised in countless different positions, making them useful to Slot in the aggregate. Anyone who fails to make a positive impact in the squad across the season will have questions to answer of themselves.
Gomez will be set an ultimatum
One of those latter players is Joe Gomez, a player whose commitment to the Reds should never be in doubt, but whose future is going to be under intense scrutiny if he's unable to get out of his slump.
While the Englishman might well be just as frustrated as the fans are when it comes to his injuries, the fact is that his fitness is increasingly becoming a problem and the situation is getting untenable.
Of course, the defender's struggles aren't anything new, he tore his ACL in 2015, had extensive achilles problems in 2016, had ankle surgery in the 2018/19 season and he had patellar issues in the 2020/21 season. His misfortune with fitness has been well-documented in his 10 year stay with us.
But the what seems to have been the most damning thing for his Liverpool career so far, is that since he picked up an injury in pre-season, with Gomez one of the three centre-halves the Reds currently have, the decision has been made to try and bring in two new defenders this summer, not just one.
That will give Arne Slot five options to fill the two centre-back roles in the starting XI, meaning one of them is almost guaranteed to not feature in a match, unless they're shoehorned into a different place.
One of the main reasons why Gomez has been able to stay at Liverpool for so long has been his ability to perform his defensive duties at left-back, right-back or centre-back, whenever he's needed.
In times of an injury crisis, he was a player who could compose himself well enough to deliver for the team, regardless of how much football he had played at the time. He's an experienced veteran for us.
But now that his own injuries are starting to impact him more and more - 28 games missed last season - the club now feels as though a new player must be brought in. Gomez is now a luxury.
Since getting injured earlier this summer, it has now been reported that he is back in training, although for how that will be is still to be understood. But while we all love the player and hope desperately that he'll score a goal at some point this season, he's likely on borrowed time now.
Having five centre-backs signifies an ultimatum for someone and it's likely to be Gomez. Of course, Ibrahima Konate might choose to run down his contract this season and leave for free, while it's not out of the realms of possibility that he could leave this summer or in January to give Liverpool a fee.
So the likely additions of Marc Guehi and Giovanni Leoni could be to cover all bases, in case the Frenchman decides not to sign a new contract, but if Gomez isn't involves this season, he might well be offered a testimonial and sent on his way, so both parties can go their separate ways.
He's contracted until 2027, so he doesn't necessarily have to go anywhere soon, but Liverpool's actions suggest that a decision will have to be made on his future soon and it's likely he'll leave.