Joël Matip’s ability has never been in doubt. We all knew that the Cameroonian defender had the talent to impress in Liverpool’s backline.

The centre-back just needed to stay clear of injuries and find consistency.

He looked fairly decent in his first two seasons at Anfield but every time he’d get into the rhythm of things and find his best form Matip would drop out due to injury. He still hasn’t managed to make thirty Premier League appearances in a single season.

When Virgil van Dijk arrived at Liverpool in January 2018, Matip found himself down the pecking order. By the start of this term, Joël was Jurgen Klopp’s fourth choice centre-half with Van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Dejan Lovren ahead of him in the queue.

It was felt that Matip would struggle to get himself back into the team as a regular starter. It believed that due to his various injury problems, that Klopp couldn’t rely on Joël.

That meant that in the early parts of this term, Matip would be an outsider looking in. He once again missed a month of this campaign after broke his collarbone in an outing against Napoli in the Champions League.

By the time Joël Matip battled back from his latest setback, the international defender was very much needed as Gomez was still out with his own injury and Lovren has missed most of this year due to a hamstring issue.

Matip has comeback into the starting eleven and he’s impressed. He’s featured in ten games in 2019 and played the full ninety minutes in each of those outings.

The former Schalke 04 centre-back has been extremely impressive as of late, helping his side keep cleansheets in five of this ten starts this year.

He was particularly impressive in the 0-0 draws with Manchester United and Bayern Munich.

In his Premier League games (Via Whoscored); Matip has won 2.5 aerial duels per game, has an average passing success rate of 86.5%, he makes around 1.8 tackles per outing and 3.5 clearances.

Now yes Virgil van Dijk is a world class defender and yes everyone that plays beside him seems to shine but Matip has had to come in, proved doubters wrong and has kept The Reds on track for a league success and Champions League glory.

The twenty-seven year old has decent pace, high concentration levels and remains composed under pressure. That’s helped him forge a strong partnership with Virgil.

While Joël scored an own goal in the second leg of the Champions League tie with Bayern, he could do very little about what happened. But the best thing about that moment was his reaction. The centre-back remained calm and produced a stunning display as he help his side to win the fixture. No one bettered his five successful tackles as he kept Robert Lewandowski at bay!

After the game Reds boss Jurgen Klopp heaped praise on his centre-back (Source – Liverpoolfc.com):

‘From my side, you cannot get more [praise] because he is an outstanding player. It’s unbelievable how he is doing.’

‘We were really unlucky with the situation in the centre-half position because so many injuries is really rare, hopefully that’s now finished.’

If Liverpool are to win their first Premier League title this season or if they’re going to go all the way in the Champions League, then they will have to thank Joël Matip for not giving up on himself and coming back from injuries ready to fight for his team’s cause!

Posted on March 15th, 2019 by scott
Filed under: Article