Alan Shearer ripped into Joe Gomez for his ‘crazy error’ that helped Leeds United open the scoring during Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat at Anfield on Saturday evening in the Premier League, as he told Match of the Day.
With less than five minutes on the clock, with Joe Gomez running towards his side’s defensive right flank, he decided to play a blind pass towards his goal and to Alisson Becker racing out of his goal.
It proved to be a huge mistake because it ended up being a brilliant ball across the penalty area from the 25-year-old to Leeds forward Rodrigo and Shearer firmly lay the blame on the Englishman’s head.
This despite pictures showing Alisson holding his hands up towards Gomez when he turned to look at his keeper just before Liverpool were about to restart the game.
In the end, it proved to be costly because, whilst Mohamed Salah equalised less than ten minutes later, 21-year-old Crysencio Summerville was wheeling away in jubilation with what turned out to be the winning goal right at the death.
This isn’t just an issue today for the Reds, but a constant problem throughout the season, which Shearer pointed out.
“Defensively they have been so far,” said Shearer. “That means everyone across the back of it. There is a lack of protection and too many errors.
“This is just a crazy error from Gomez. He doesn’t even look. Not once does he even look where his goalkeeper is. Plays a blind pass. You just can’t do that at all. Rodrigo is quick to react and he gets a simple tap-in. Basic error and you shouldn’t do that at all.”
FROM WORSE TO WORSE
This isn’t just a blip now, but a major issue now sitting on the doorstep of Jurgen Klopp, who is facing his biggest challenge yet after seven years at the club.
Whatever the issues, the one big problem he constantly has to deal with are big errors from individual players and Gomez is one of them.
In truth, there are some who will feel that Alisson was more at fault for Leeds’ opening goal, but at the end of the day, his teammate still needs to take some form of responsibility for not looking up when playing his pass.
Either way, for someone like Virgil van Dijk, that’s his first defeat in 70 home matches, and with one of Europe’s in-form teams visiting Anfield next in Serie A flyers Napoli for the Champions League, then like two London busses, it wouldn’t be a surprise if back-to-back defeats follow.
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