By Ewah Chika.
Nothing good comes free they say buy that might be wrong considering the free signing of former Schalke 04 centre-back Joel Matip by Liverpool this summer. The signing became necessary following the sale of Martin Skhtel to Fenerbahce and the release of Kolo Toure. Matip is likely to line up with French centre-back Lamine Sahko after he returns from injury thereby ousting Croatian
centre-back Lovren from the starting line-up next season. Lovren has been impressive in some games and also abysmal in other games since joining Liverpool from Southampton in 2014 although he does score odd crucial goals.
"I want to play against the best to become better. That's why I came here. That was my thinking and my choice and I'm looking forward to it," was the statement of the defender upon signing for the Merseyside reds .
Matip is a defender who plays with a lot of confidence and one whose technical skill and defensive positioning is near perfect. The defender is also young (24) and not yet in his prime . Matip could form one of the Premier League's best defensive pairing with Sahko just the way he did in Schalke with the likes of Benedict Howedes, Matija Nastasic and Roman Neustadter during his 16 years at the club. The defender's passing is also top quality as he is a ball playing defender with a lot of aerial ability (6.4 feet tall), which he puts to good use in scoring decisive goals from set-piece for his team. In the 2014/2015 season, Matip played in all of Schalke's 34 Bundesliga games as the team finished fifth in the league qualifying for the Europa League and missing out on the Champions League by just two points. This wasn't the case last season for the defender as he struggled with injury and did not play much games. At 24, Matip has played in over 200 Bundesliga games for Schalke after spending 16 years before his exit this summer.
"I know Matip, he is young with a lot of experience, he is also a top class centre-half. You don't get that often," was the statement made by Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp following the announcement of the defender's signing by the club.
"Matip is not currently at the level of the best defenders in Germany, such as Matts Hummels, Jerome Boateng, Holger Badstuber or Javi Martinez but after these top guys he's in the next group," were the words of Torben Hoffman who is SkySports German reporter.
Compared to both Sahko and Lovren, Matip is a better interceptor of the ball as he made an average of 3.1 interceptions per game compared to Lovren and Sahko's 1.8 Per game. The Cameroonian also bettered Sahko's 1.5 tackles per game and matched Lovren's 1.6. However he was displaced by the pair in the area of pass accuracy and aerial duels as this is an area he will have to work on. With the signing of Matip, it might be said that Jurgen Klopp has finally solved Liverpool's defensive problems for many years to come as he also has young and talented Joe Gomez waiting to be unleashed next season .
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