Gomez prefers one position, as he reveals Klopp’s message

Joe Gomez has admitted he would prefer to nail down one position as his own at Liverpool rather than filling in across the back four.

The 22-year-old has been at Anfield for four years now after arriving from Charlton for £3.5million as a raw 18-year-old.

The England man has now made 66 appearances for Jurgen Klopp’s men, but just as he inferred when he arrived, he has reiterated his desire to make one position his own.

Gomez, who missed four months of last season with an ankle injury, admitted at the time he signed for the Reds that he would “like to play centre-back eventually in the coming years”.

Instead though Gomez has been used across the back four by Klopp with Joel Matip often getting the nod to partner Virgil van Dijk at the heart of the defence last season.

“I’ve played a number of positions over the years I’ve been here,” Gomez told the club’s website.

“I like to excel in one and nail that spot but I’m happy to play wherever for the team and the manager.

“It’s just about development in whatever way I can and doing all the extra bits I can to develop off the pitch as well as on it. Hopefully things fall into place.

“This is my fifth season now and I’ve had a lot of experience at the club and learned a lot here. But I’m still so young, I’ve got so much left to learn. I’ve got to keep developing, keep progressing and stay hungry.”

Gomez is in full pre-season training and gearing up to the start of the campaign – a season which Klopp says has an air of unfinished business about it.

“Definitely. He (Jurgen Klopp) said that this morning in the meeting,” added Gomez. “We can be happy and proud of the achievement but we’ve got so much more work to do and so many ways to improve as well.

“The Premier League was so close and I think that’s all the motivation we need, that we were so close but so far at the same time in the fact that we didn’t get it.

“It’s something we want to get this year and to do so we can’t get complacent or dwell on what happened last season, we have to hit the ground running again now.”

The Reds have two pre-season fixtures this week with a game against Tranmere at Prenton Park on Thursday, before tackling Bradford City on Sunday.

“Obviously it is as intense as you’d expect when you first come back, a lot of running and dusting the cobwebs off,” Gomez added.

“But it feels good, it’s nice to be back. It was nice to end on such a high last season and we just want to carry on where we left off and keep the momentum going.”