He was bad at least 50% of the time next to Gana though. He's clearly very talented, and I hope he can get back to the sort of form he showed when he very first came into the side. It's weird the excuses that get put forward for him though. He looked limited when next to Gana and way before his injury, but people consistently make out like he was outstanding. I'd say he had 7/8 really good games when he first came in, and since then he's basically been a 1 in 4 player. Good players look better when surrounded by quality, better players make the players around them look better than they are.
To put a sort of defence and sort of not defence of Gomes- when he is good he is very good. The midfield display at Anfield, albeit in a gme Pickford through away was fantastic. Ran the game and was head and shoulders above their midfielders. I remember similar at Stamford Bridge, or West Ham that season up against Rice. Just head and shoulders above them.
You also add in he is very graceful on the eye and you can see why people like him.
I am however often drawn to the bit of the movie in Moneyball, where they start discounting players on what they look like, not what they do, and vice versa. You here the scouts saying "purist swing I've seen" or "great running action"/ "he's 6 ft 4 and lifts loads in the gym" and Brad Pitt sort of says back how many runs do they score.
There's a lot of that with Gomes, what concretely is he contributing. He's low on goals, on assists, on chances created. He doesn't tackle or intercept much. He doesn't seem to go past people much currently (though I'm hoing that chnages). The defence is he runs games which I fair enough, but we don't seem to win the midfield battle at all, or have much control in games (that may have come from having a ladlike Scholes who dictates tempo).
He has a lot of attributes, his size, he can pass, he seemsto be able to shoot but for whatever reason it hasn't been consistent.
I see some poeple turning their nose up at Doucoure. I don't think Doucoure is a perfect fit either, but you can look at his numbers and see what he does. He presses opponents, he scores goals, he wins headers and creates more opportunities for teamate that Gomes does.
So it's a big season for him. He needs to kick on, or I suspect he will be left out.