Joe Gomez targeting place in back three after a ‘tough’ summer watching England’s World Cup success

Where does this England team go next? Look less than six months in the past.

When Gareth Southgate took his team to Amsterdam in March for a preparation friendly, he started Joe Gomez on the left of the back three, the second senior start for the 20-year-old.

But it only lasted eight minutes. Gomez felt an ankle injury and had to go off. Harry Maguire came on and secured the place that he held all the way through the World Cup. When Gomez tried to return one month later for Liverpool, he tried to play through the pain and broke down in a game against Stoke City. This time he needed surgery, which put him out of the World Cup.

We will never know whether Gomez would have played in Russia had his ankle held up. But he would have had a good chance. He certainly has all the tools required to play in that England back three. And so it was difficult, at first, for Gomez to watch England’s progress in Russia, with Kyle Walker, John Stones and Harry Maguire in defence, knowing that that could have been him.

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“I had a long period when I was beating myself up, I was replaying it over it in my mind,” he admitted at St George’s Park on Tuesday. “I kept thinking I should have done something to stop things going the way they did. It was tough, I won’t lie, seeing the team do so well. As a fan I was buzzing, at the same time, it was tough that I missed out. But it’s done now, I’m over it. Hindsight is a beautiful thing.”

So Gomez’s priority was to get fit for the new season, with rehab in May and June before pre-season with Liverpool. But he came through it and then when the season began, Gomez was back in the Liverpool team. Not even at right-back, where he has played before, but in his preferred role in the middle. With Dejan Lovren not ready yet, Gomez has been the perfect partner for Virgil van Dijk.

“It was massive for me,” Gomez says. “And on a personal note, just playing centre-half in the Premier League. Obviously I have said in the past I do hope to move inside one day. I’m happy to play wherever for the team, but to get the opportunity to do it is a personal goal of mine. To get the opportunity to play the first game is something I was hoping for.”

We are only four games into the season but Gomez has shone in a defence that has only conceded one goal so far, and that a freak occurrence due to Allison’s poorly-judged Cruyff turn in his own box. He has looked natural alongside Van Dijk, able to bring the ball out from the back, and able to cover ground easily with his athletic ability.

Already, Gomez has earned comparisons to Rio Ferdinand and Bobby Moore, which says at least as much about the media climate in England than it does about Gomez’s own performances. But Gomez admits that he “idolises” Ferdinand, the last English defender to have that graceful mastery of the role, with and without the ball. It matters to him that both are from south-east London; Gomez from Catford, Ferdinand from Peckham.

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Gomez also points to John Stones for his “confidence and ability on the ball”, and a comparison can be drawn between the two, both anchoring the defences of the two best teams in the country even in their early 20s. That means plenty of responsibility, bringing the ball out, and also plenty of risk, defending high up the pitch. But Gomez is showing he can handle it.

So what is it like, playing at centre-back for the team with the most exciting front line in the world? It might be tempting to just stand and watch the carnage unfolding 40 metres in front of you, to try to guess where Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino are going to pop up next.

But that is exactly what Gomez has to avoid. “One of the main things is being wary of staying switched on while we’re attacking,” Gomez explained. “One thing that he [Klopp] emphasises a lot is the protection while we’re attacking. Because if we’re caught sleeping, just watching the game, and we get caught on the counter-attack, it can be costly. It’s all about staying switched on.”

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England are not as exciting as Liverpool, but the principles of playing for Southgate’s team are the same. “Both try and play out, and we try and keep possession of the ball and dominate,” Gomez said. “That is a fundamental here as well, you want to stay [switched on]. Because we’re England, we want to keep possession, and when we do dominate possession most of the time we have to stay switched on and ready for the counter-attack, so it’s similar in that respect.”

All this is why Gomez’s four games at centre-back this season matter so much. Because he has long been ear-marked by Southgate as a potential first-team player, who fits the Southgate mould better than almost anyone. He is showing why every week, and why only injury stopped him from being in Russia in June. If he pushes his way back into the first team soon, do not be surprised, it will be six months overdue.