Aston Villa set their sights on Liverpool defender but face competition for his signature

Liverpool defender Joe Gomez is on Aston Villa’s radar since the arrival of Steven Gerrard and with struggles at the back ongoing, the defensive unit could be the first area of focus in the summer.

Aston Villa beat Brighton on Saturday past 2-0 at Villa Park. Goals from Matty Cash in the first half and Ollie Watkins in the second, collected not only all the points and returned them to winning ways, but also capped off the double for new manager Steven Gerrard over Graham Potter and his Seagulls.

When Steven Gerrard was announced as Dean Smith’s successor last year November, Brighton was his first game in charge; they ran out 2-0 winners in that one as well. The oddity from these results are the clean sheets kept by the West Midlands club.

Since being in charge, the defence has been a plaguing concern that they tried to fix during the January transfer window, but sadly, to no avail.

Aston Villa have conceded too many goals

From November to date: Villa have conceded 17 goals in 15 games across all competitions. During this time they’ve managed a weak and worrying four clean sheets and five of their outings saw them let in two or more goals.

Despite sitting in 12th place barely, Villa have the eighth highest number of goals conceded this season — for a club that is after European football and a way back to the glory days — that simply is not good enough.

A solution is needed, it is clear to see and one of the answers to this is said to be Liverpool’s English centre-back, Joe Gomez. He is available for £30m and has fallen further down the pecking order at Anfield.

A mixture of Ibrahima Konate’s arrival, Jurgen Klopp preferring Joel Matip and Virgil van Dijk as his centre-back pairing and consistent injury setbacks for Joe, makes an exit seemingly becomes more appealing for Gomez if he is to get back into the English national team setup.

Gomez, rated once as England’s most promising defender, finds himself as a wanted man and has an important decision to make, come the summer. He is wanted by Villa because of the Stevie G links but they face competition from the richest club in the world, Newcastle United.

"Villa will reportedly have a battle to secure the services of Joe Gomez if they make a move for the Liverpool defender in the summer.Reports in the Spanish press claim that Newcastle United are set to end their interest in Real Madrid defender Nacho in favour of a move for Gomez.Gomez has been heavily linked with a move to Villa since Liverpool legend Gerrard took over from Smith at Villa Park in November.Villa could look to sign a centre-back in the summer despite bringing in Calum Chambers from Arsenal in January, with the defender able to fill in as a midfielder. (Via: birminghammail.co.uk)"

They are also on a massive rebuild under Eddie Howe, who has impressively saved them from the clutches of the relegation zone with a string of outstanding performances.

They have deep pockets to compete with the biggest clubs in the world and can ward off any competition with massive transfer fees and exuberant salaries.

The Magpies just about missed out on Real Madrid’s Nacho and Lille’s Sven Botman, with the latter, still said to be keen on a Newcastle move. But because of missing out on the pair of foreigners, they have shifted their attention to Joe Gomez.

The 24-year-old has only featured 13 times for the Reds this term with five of them being starts. He would be a great addition and he has a lot of time on his hands being 24.