​Joe Gomez has revealed who is footballing idol was growing up - and unfortunately for Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher it wasn't him.





The Liverpool starlet told the ​Sports Review that it was a former star of one of the Reds' greatest rivals that he had watched closely as a young kid starting out life on the footballer trail, and that hero was none other than Manchester United's Rio Ferdinand.





Gomez did speak glowingly about Carragher upon his arrival at the club from Charlton in the summer of 2015, but admitted that it was Ferdinand that he had viewed regularly to learn how to be a ball playing defender.

He said: "For me, coming to Liverpool I knew how big Jamie Carragher was, how crucial he was over the years and the number of appearances he made and so on.





"But in terms of playing style it would probably be Rio Ferdinand in the way that he played. How he was a ball-playing centre-half and so on. I looked up to him for that aspect."





The 20-year-old has enjoyed a breakthrough campaign at Anfield this season, with 14 first-team appearances to his name and a first full senior England cap earlier in November after he made his debut in impressive fashion against Brazil at Wembley.

Once again, the full-backs are more than capable of performing at top 4 level. Joe Gomez's development especially should be praised a lot more. — max riegel (@max_riegel) November 25, 2017

Gomez puts his growing stature on Merseyside down to club manager Jurgen Klopp but, when asked about the one piece of advice that has made the difference to him, the ex-Addicks starlet explained that there wasn't one bit of advice that really stood out.





He added: “I wouldn’t say there’s a specific piece of advice, it’s just his management, the way he goes about trying to get the best out of you.

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"It’s a really personal connection, rather than just giving instructions or telling me to do this, do that. When he tells you something, he really means it. It gives you that desire to want to play for him and get the best out of yourself for the team and for him, because you just like him as a manager and person as well.”