The inside track on Portsmouth triallist and ex-Liverpool and Leeds midfielder Madger Gomes' Doncaster spell

The midfielder is currently on trial with the Blues as he prepares for the next chapter of his career.

Gomes represented Liverpool and Leeds earlier in his career before spending the past two years at Doncaster

In total, the Spaniard scored four goals in 55 appearances at the Keepmoat before his release at the end of last season.

Gomes featured in the second half of Pompey's 5-2 pre-season win at the Hawks while he was with Danny Cowley's squad at this week's St George's Park training camp.

We caught up with Liam Hoden at the Doncaster Free Press, to get the full lowdown on Gomes' time at Rovers.

Overall, how would you assess Madger Gomes' two years at Doncaster?

To be honest, Gomes was on the fringes in the main.

Although he made a decent number of appearances, his outings from the outset were restricted.

Part of that was because he didn't play an awful lot so he would pick up injuries fairly easily.

He had a decent run in the team at one point last season but got injured. Then after returning to fitness, he got injured again straight away, so that hindered him.

Gomes had a really good start to last season when he scored four goals in the opening five games. It looked like he'd been working on stuff since the 20219-20 campaign was curtailed (because of the coronavirus outbreak).

What hurt him at Rovers, certainly under Darren Moore, is they played a 4-2-3-1 formation and it was difficult for Gomes to nail down a specific position.

He played in the number-10 role, on the left-hand side sometimes and in the deep-lying role.

It was difficult for him to nail down a position and he ended up featuring in that deep-lying role more - that wasn't particularly his strongest position.

It's probably difficult to know how good he actually is because we never got to see Gomes over a consistent period and he never established him.

He didn't particularly impress but there are caveats to that.

What would you say his best position is then?

Certainly, featuring somewhere in the middle of the park but not as a defensive-midfielder.

He'd be best as a box-to-box midfielder in a 4-4-2 system.

Gomes isn't rapidly quick but looked to have a decent engine on him.

He can get around the pitch. Being a busy player is probably his best attribute.

Gomes gets into positions but can also close the opposition down.

Gomes' involvement dwindled after Andy Butler took over as interim-manager following Darren Moore's exit. Why was that?

To be honest, I don't think Andy fancied him. I just don't think Gomes favoured what Andy wanted to do.

So it was no surprise he was released at the end of the season as he'd been on the fringes.

Because Rovers knew there was going to be a big turnover and they were going to have to rebuild, they thought it'd be more beneficial to free the money up from their budget rather than keeping him

Were you surprised when you found out he was on trial at Pompey?

I was surprised, yes. You think Pompey will again be competing at the top end of League One.

I thought Gomes would probably be taking a step down - whether that's to a League One club further down the table or down to League Two.

If Pompey were to sign Gomes, is he capable of being part of a team pushing for promotion?

From what I have seen, he would be as a squad player.

Whether you see him week in, week out, I don't know but I can't really say at this point because I've not seen him do that myself.

If he got a run of games, it might make a difference for him but I couldn't really say he'd be starting every week.

However, as a squad player, Gomes could do a job.