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Liverpool announced the signing of Cameroon defender Joel Matip on a free transfer in February 2016, with the player officially joining the club from Schalke 04 five months later, as reported by The Guardian.
The centre-back was one of the first players brought by Jurgen Klopp to Anfield and was among five new names in the Liverpool squad ahead of the 2016/17 season.
Matip was a regular presence in the Reds’ line-up in that campaign, with 29 Premier League appearances and a further three in the EFL Cup in a season where there was no European football at Anfield. [via TransferMarkt.co.uk]
He made four fewer league appearances in 2017/18 but featured eight times for Liverpool in their run to the Champions League final, although a hamstring injury ruled him out of the business end of that campaign.
He had only 17 Premier League starts last season but featured in the first XI in eight Champions League games and this time he played in all but one of the knockout round matches, as well as setting up a goal in the final as Liverpool won a sixth European Cup.
This season he has played in four of the Reds’ first five league matches, as well as the full 120 minutes of the UEFA Super Cup against Chelsea, and has been the preferred centre-back partner to Virgil van Dijk, with Joe Gomez making just three appearances so far this term and Dejan Lovren yet to feature.
Matip’s goal against Arsenal in late August preserved his record of scoring in each of his Premier League seasons for Liverpool, and with one goal in every league campaign, he has a good chance of adding to that in 2019/20, especially as he also scored in the Community Shield in recent weeks.
The 28-year-old has shown why he has been consistently selected by Klopp this season with some impressive statistics.
No Liverpool player has won more aerial duels per game this season than Matip with 5.8 – Van Dijk’s average is 5.4 – and the Cameroon defender won 12 alone in Saturday’s 3-1 win over Newcastle.
To show the scale of how much Matip has improved in his regard, he averaged just 2.2, 2.3 and three successful aerial duels per game in his respective first three seasons at Anfield. [via WhoScored.com]
In the early weeks of the 2019/20 campaign, he has averaged 1.8 tackles and two interceptions per game, the latter the highest of anyone in Klopp’s squad. In the 2017/18 season, his match average for both metrics was 1.4, as per WhoScored.com.
BBC pundit Garth Crooks named Matip in his Team of the Week after the Arsenal game and said: “He was outstanding against Southampton last week and scored a glorious goal this week against Arsenal, and it was the Cameroon international whose brilliant recovery and tackle stopped Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from putting the Gunners back in the game.” [via BBC]
The player who came on a free transfer three years ago has been excelling recently alongside a centre-half who cost £75m and, given Matip’s importance to the team now, signing him without a transfer fee was a very shrewd piece of business from Klopp.
Liverpool fans, do you consider the free transfer of Matip among the best signings that Klopp has made at Anfield? Let us know your thoughts by commenting below!
