Joe Gomez has been making the right noises after his return from a long-term injury but Jurgen Klopp has now revealed what he told the 20-year-old if he wants to make it to the first XI, stop working out.

What might seem rather strange for a manager to tell one of his players, Klopp was a little candid when he told that Gomez only needed this much muscle when going to the beach.

As quoted by the Daily Mail while speaking to the Liverpool Echo, Klopp said:

“I had a long talk with him. When he came back he got injured and then when he came back again he was heavy.

“He had a lot of muscle and you only need muscles like that if you’re only going to the beach.”

Klopp did, however, add that Gomez has a lot of work to do and there is a lot of improvement to be made.

“We had to work on this and now he’s back. He lost weight, he’s really fit, he looks sharp. There are still things to improve.”

The German further added that the 20-year-old needs to add some aggression to his game.

“Everybody told me what a wonderful player he is. His heading was really good, but he can improve – he needs to be a little more aggressive.”

A long and hard road to recovery for the Englishman

Gomez had picked up a serious injury in October 2015 and has been working hard to get back to full fitness. The youngster has had his work cut out in front of him and there are many that believe the youngster has to be sent out on loan to gain experience and rack up the minutes under his belt.

The 20-year-old was one of the highest rated defenders when we signed him from Charlton a few years ago but things have not worked out all that well for the Englishman.

However, with the number of extra games we will play, especially in Europe, Gomez could get a lot of games sticking around and with us not adding any central defenders in the off season, it does make sense to keep him at Anfield too.

This season would be a make or break one for the 20-year-old and if he can stay fit and put in a couple of great performances during the remainder of pre-season, Gomez will have a part to play in our season and hopefully seal his Anfield future too.