Joseph Dave Gomez

Written by Will Unwin, Simon Burnton and Michael Butler for The Guardian:

After several years blighted by injuries and spells on the sidelines, for the first time in his career Joe Gomez has made more than 50 appearances this season, playing almost as often at left-back as on the right and with a handful of games in central defence to boot. “He can play all the positions at the back and that is very important,” Jürgen Klopp said last year. “He didn’t have a good year last year but he is absolutely back to his best.” Gomez certainly knows how to party: after Liverpool’s famous 4-0 win over Barcelona in 2019 he and two friends were up until 4am playing Monopoly. Heaven knows what he would do if he finally scored a senior goal (Klopp had to ask fans to stop imploring him to shoot, saying “one day he will shoot, let him find the moment himself” - though by early May - including headers he nearly had as many shots this season (17) as in the last seven combined (18). “If I wasn’t a footballer I would have liked to be a PE teacher,” he says. “It’s really important, not just for the health benefits but just for having fun. Psychologically it’s important that children get a chance to express themselves and sometimes PE is the best way to do that.”