Liverpool seem to be looking into the one position of their side which needs a revamp and quickly. The left-back slot has been a problematic area for the Premier League club as Jurgen Klopp has not been able to find the right replacement for Alberto Moreno, until now.
The Premier League club is set to make a big money move for Mattia De Sciglio of AC Milan. The 23-year-old was one of the more impressive members of the Italian side in Euro 2016 and he could turn out to be a great signing for the Reds.
That might sound like bad news for Joe Gomez, who started the 2015/6 season so well before injury cut it short. It did not get any better for the 19-year-old has suffered a couple of minor injuries as well but he could be one of the most important members of Jurgen Klopp’s team this season.
Even though the Liverpool youngster is a centre-back, he too can play as a left-back and had replaced Moreno on the left before his injury. While Liverpool might look at De Sciglio as a long term solution for Moreno, the Reds could play Gomez in that position.
We look back at Gomez at the start of last season and compare his performances to those of the Italian. We would only be comparing the performances using the average stats per 90 minutes using Squawka.com
AC Milan’s star or Liverpool’s diamond in the rough?
Gomez only played five Premier League games last season for the Reds but he did make a tremendous impact as he was probably one of the best defenders in the league. Even when playing in a position he wasn’t the most comfortable in, the 19-year-old did manage a better pass completion rate than the Italian.
The Liverpool player managed a 79% pass completion rate compared to just 76% for De Sciglio. But it was the Italian who did more with his passing as he managed 0.78 key passes per game compared to just 0.41 for the English defender.
Gomez though was the better tackler between the pair as he registered 2.06 tackles per 90 minutes for Liverpool while De Sciglio came in with 1.66 tackles for the Serie A club.
However, the Italian did win more take-ons compared to Gomez with a completion rate of 52.94% compared to just 33.33% for the 19-year-old defender. The AC Milan star also won more duels in the air with a success rate of 70.45% compared to just 50% for Gomez.
The English star though seems to be better at reading the game as he came in with 2.47 interceptions per 90 minutes compared to 2.40 for the Italian. He also came in with a greater number of clearances with 4.12 compared to 3.42 for the AC Milan player.
All in all, De Sciglio might be a better option than Gomez simply because the Italian has spent more time playing in the position than the Englishman and signing an Italian defender can never be a bad thing for any club in the world.