Liverpool centre-back Joel Matip has said “It doesn’t matter” when asked if he would rather face Son Heung-min or Harry Kane in the Champions League final against Tottenham on Saturday.
Harry Kane has declared himself fit, although having not played since the start of April he is likely to be lacking match fitness.
Manager Mauricio Pochettino said yesterday that he couldn’t confirm if Kane would start, be on the bench or not figure at all.
However, Matip has said Liverpool don’t mind either way. Talking at the Liverpool press day, when asked if he’d prefer to face Kane or Son, he said “It doesn’t matter. We will defend them all as a team.”
Matip asked who he'd prefer to face out of Son or Kane.
"It doesn't matter. We will defend them all as a team."#LFC
— Neil Jones (@neiljonesgoal) May 28, 2019
OPINION
Will he, won’t he? Harry Kane is the big story of the Champions League final – bar the headline that two Premier League sides are doing battle for the biggest club trophy in the world. We think that most Liverpool fans would prefer it if Kane was ruled out entirely, but we’d be concerned if he started after not playing since the quarter-final against Man City. The game could go 120 minutes and penalties and it will be played at a frantic pace. There’s no way that Kane would be able to play at full pelt for that long, and surely the end of the game is more important than the start? Kane has obviously declared himself fit – he won’t want to miss the biggest game of his career – but Pochettino needs to make his own mind up, along with advice from his medical experts. If we were gambling people we would bet on him starting from the bench and coming on to make an impact in the second-half.