The Keen & Judah Show: Rodrigo Gomes is on the up and up

Liam Keen and Nathan Judah discuss the standouts and the disappointments following the 2-1 FA Cup win over Bristol City.

Transcript

00:00thing right on the way up let's say let's start with on the way up and let's start with a man who

00:03was on the way up last week as well um and that's rodrigo gomez he is in excellent excellent form

00:11not on the left this week as we potentially predicted with maybe right now we're missing

00:15out right now he played and he went on the right hand side uh where he has played by the way before

00:21and and plays regularly for for portugal under 21s as that right wing back role has played for braga

00:26there and looked very comfortable pedro lima was the one who we maybe thought might have played

00:32there but it was rodrigo gomez and not just his goal but his overall performance he is in fantastic

00:39form liam and vita perera was clear maybe it was a dig maybe it wasn't a little bit of a dig

00:45but by peronis postmatch press comments saying that rodrigo gomez is a player for now of course

00:51gary o'neill famously saying that he was brought in as a backup and one for the future so he's

00:56playing and he's proving to his manager portuguese manager by the way which might help him um but

01:03for game time going forward that he is he is here for the but for now and he could make a big

01:09impression and probably going to start against newcastle on wednesday night absolutely he's um

01:14he's a player that is in fine form and finally getting his opportunities on the pitch as you

01:19say versatile can play on the left can play on the right did it on loan estoril you mentioned braga

01:25portugal he played right back even for portugal under 21s uh as well as a wingback so he's played

01:31in a few different positions in the early stages of his career and he's now playing in the premier

01:35league and english football of the fa cup in general um as a wingback and and for me he's

01:41got the characteristics to be an all-round wingback and by that i mean there's a reason

01:46why he's played i know it's under 21 football but there's a reason why he's played right back

01:50at times uh for the portugal of the 21s and that's because he does actually have some very

01:55good defensive instincts his positioning i think is very intelligent he gets back

02:00very quickly very easily his lungs and his energy as he described in his interview with me after the

02:07game um allows him to play that position because he can get back in uh into position very quickly

02:13of course pays out to that as well and um going forward he's got quality he's excellent on the

02:18ball he delivers a good cross he's got an eye for a goal he's still raw and rough around the edges

02:23at times there's definitely going to be some improvement to make but that's normal for someone

02:26of 21 years old and um he's finally getting the chances that to be honest he should have had a

02:32long time ago um he had a couple of sub appearances that didn't go well but he did have a couple of

02:38cup appearances very early on in the season that did go well and he didn't really have the

02:41opportunity to build from them um i'm really pleased for him because as a footballer he's

02:46fantastic but off the pitch the sort of character he is and the way that he carries that onto the

02:52pitch is infectious i mean he's his attitude is top notch he's desperate to be there he's desperate

02:59to play um and he loves playing and he celebrates like a player he celebrates like a fan on the

03:04pitch which is how you want your footballers to be someone who's desperate to be there and desperate

03:08to play for your team so um nothing but compliments for rodrigo gomez this morning he deserves his

03:14plaudits he deserves to keep his place and when players are back from injury like

03:18now since mayday it'll be very interesting to see how he utilised going forward