The anticipation for a Joe Gomez goal is ever-increasing and the journey towards one is making him even more of a Liverpool fan favourite…
I CAN’T wait for Joe Gomez to score.
Imagine the let off when he finally notches one. Unreal. I might try to get on the pitch.
He’s getting closer, inasmuch as he’s taking shots now. He’s played 201 games in Red and that net is going to bulge at some point.
We’ve been here before. Greyer Reds will think back to the days of Rob Jones (243 games, hit the post twice and had one off the line) and wonder if Joe will be just as unlucky. Surely he’ll get one at some point, particularly in this setup.
Then again, maybe he won’t. The Footballing Gods can be bastards. Maybe it’s as Joey ‘the Lips’ Fagan says at the end of The Commitments…
“You’re missing the point. The success of the band was irrelevant – you raised their expectations of life. You lifted their horizons. Sure we could have been famous and made albums and stuff, but that would have been predictable. This way it’s poetry.”
This way it’s poetry. I’m not sure the Catford Cafu would agree.
In any case, his lack of goals is my second favourite thing about him. No, it’s all about his middle name.
Picture the scene. It’s the summer of 1997 and baby Joe is about to be christened somewhere in South London. The clergyman tilts the infant over the font and pronounces him Joseph David Gomez. A parent shuffles forward with a raised finger.
“Look, sorry to interrupt. It’s just that it’s ‘Dave’, not ‘David’.”
‘“Sorry?”
“We, erm, want his middle name to be Dave rather than David.”
“Dave?”
“Dave.”
Joseph Dave Gomez. Absolutely tremendous stuff. How can you not like that?
I don’t know the story behind that and I’ve indulged in a bit of artistic licence when it comes to Joe’s religion, but not knowing why somehow makes it even better. Dave it is. Joe Dave.
Again, we’ve been here before. Emile Ivanhoe Heskey for one. At the other end of the scale there’s Mark Everton Walters which seems both cruel and unusual.
Anyway, enough of that. More importantly, Joe’s form has been great since Trent Alexander-Arnold got injured. He knocked in a cracking assist for Darwin Nunez’s second while the other full back — and what a player he’s going to be, if his start is anything to go by — got one for Diogo Jota.
We may have lost Mo Salah to the AFCON and a hamstring tweak, but we’re also without the starting full backs. Full backs who have redefined the role and been the main instigators for Jürgen Klopp’s success. Imagine having Trent and Andy Robertson in your side. Then imagine trying to win the league without them.
No Mo but we have four great finishes from two other world-class strikers, as well as two assists from the second-string full backs. Third string in Conor’s case.
Bobby Clark and Owen Beck looked great too.
This whole squad gives the lie to the view that you can only win things with £50m+ players. Oh, you undoubtedly need a few of them knocking around. But strong players, strong options don’t need an Instagram Reel signing session to help The Reds’ cause.
Since ‘No, I’m On Your Side, Honest’ left, Joe has become our longest surviving player at the club, so his experience is invaluable. I’m so glad he didn’t follow Steven Gerrard to Villa a while back. Few would have blamed him given the man he had to usurp to get a game. And not just Trent. Joel Matip and Ibrahima Konate had already pulled ahead of him in the centre-back stakes.
My third favourite thing about Joe Gomez? Well, you wouldn’t mess with him, would you? I mean, the man has a scowl on him.
If you were to accidentally kick your ball over his fence, you’d be unlikely to disrupt his evening by knocking on his door and asking for it back. Oh, he’s probably the nicest lad in the world, but I wouldn’t want to test the theory. That look he gave Raheem Sterling that time!
Still no goal, though. You’d think it wouldn’t bother him but it got in Rob Jones’ head. Here’s a clip of him in a very, very oversized shirt, talking about it.
I hope Joe’s comes in a vital game rather than, say, away at Fleetwood in the League Cup. Gini Wijnaldum couldn’t find the net away for Anfield for ages, just as he couldn’t score away from home when he was at Newcastle either. Then he broke his duck at the Olympic Stadium, Rome in the second leg of the European Cup semi-final. That’s what we’re after. Save it, Joe.
Another game down and two cup games to come. We keep going. The personnel changes, but it’s made no difference. Liverpool keep being Liverpool. That’s all we can ask for.
Ivanhoe, though.
Fulham.
