BBC pundit Garth Crooks has hailed the display of Liverpool centre-back Joel Matip after his performance against Sheffield United on Saturday, and said he’s completely changed since the arrival of Virgil van Dijk.
Liverpool made it 16 Premier League wins on the bounce against the newly-promoted side but Sheffield United gave them a real scare in the 1-0 win.
Crooks put both Matip and van Dijk in his Team of the Week and said that Matip’s performances spelled bad news for Joe Gomez.
Writing in his BBC column, Crooks said, “The improvement in Matip’s performances since the arrival of Van Dijk at Liverpool has been amazing. I have said before that Matip has been prepared to do a lot of the heavy lifting in Liverpool’s defence – a role that can be physically demanding at times but one that is immensely rewarding too.
“Against Sheffield United, it was his ball distribution that impressed me. Making passes into strikers from deep positions can be a risky affair and takes courage. Matip seems to be fearless at the moment. Bad news for Joe Gomez.”
The rise of Matip
Matip’s future at Liverpool was in doubt as recently as the end of last year. He’d only started three of the first 18 games last season and although he said he was committed to fighting for his place in the side, his contract was up in 2020. [Evening Standard]
Now, manager Jurgen Klopp has described him as “one of the best bits of business” Liverpool have done in the past few years, after he arrived on a free transfer from Schalke. [Mirror]
Liverpool have triggered an extension to his contract, until 2021.
Crooks talks about his improvement and that’s been evident this season. Matip has played every game bar the first against Norwich when Joe Gomez was preferred and has a hugely impressive average WhoScored rating of 7.62 – up from 7.11 last season. He was awarded a 7.73 in the game against Sheffield United.
By way of comparison, van Dijk has a 7.42 this season and a 7.44 last season.