Jurgen Klopp hails Liverpool player who's a 'nice little asset' for the Reds
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has praised Joe Gomez after the Reds defender featured on Thursday.
The Anfield centre-back is back in action after missing most of the 2020-21 campaign through injury.
Gomez sustained an injury to the tendon in his left knee while on international duty with England.
The 24-year-old required surgery and was out for the remainder of the season.
However, Gomez returned last week as a substitute against Hertha and started Liverpool’s second game against Bologna on Thursday.
He often played out from the back and swept passes onto the flanks, something which Klopp was glad to have back.
“Having the centre-halves back, playing football, you can see Joey with new long balls from left to right to left, a nice little asset,” he told the Reds website.
“It’s good, we can switch the game quicker maybe.”
Liverpool missed the likes of Gomez, Virgil van Dijk and Joel Matip not only defensively but offensively too.
Now they’re back, the Reds can look forward to getting back to the heights they reached in 2018-19 and 2019-20.
Gomez back in Liverpool fold: “I’m relishing it”
Speaking after his first training session for eight months back in July, Gomez told the Liverpool media team: “It’s nice to be back among the boys.
“It’s been a long time, so I’m relishing it.
“Obviously after such a long layoff, it’s not a case of just being thrown in the deep end.
“We’ll probably have to do some adaptations, the likes of myself and Virgil.
“That’s where it’s nice to work alongside each other – we had different injuries, but we’ve been in it together all the way.
“There’ll be days where we have to do something more suitable for us, but to do team training today after such a long time means a lot.
“I think speaking for us both, we loved every minute of it.”
