OPINION
It’s always good to have players who are willing to fight for their place at a club and don’t rush for the exit door at the first sign of trouble, but sometimes footballers need to realise that their careers are short.
That is the case for Liverpool defender Joel Matip, who has found himself in somewhat of a untenable situation at Anfield this season.
The Cameroon international is a fine centre back, but he is now stuck behind Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Dejan Lovren in the pecking order on Merseyside.
Despite that, the former Schalke man has insisted that he remains committed to the Reds’ cause: “I only concentrate now on the season on Liverpool and there’s nothing else in my mind,” he told the Evening Standard. “Everything else would only distract me.
“I’ve got to wait for my opportunity, I have to work hard – this is the life of a player. I try to be in the best form I can be and to be ready if I had to be,” he finished.
Matip’s attitude here is admirable, but he is missing the point entirely. His career is stagnating on Merseyside, and it doesn’t appear as if there is any end in sight for his isolation. He’s played just 272 minutes of first team action this campaign, and does anyone see that changing anytime soon?
Gomez is going to be a Liverpool stalwart for the foreseeable future, while Van Dijk is Jurgen Klopp’s crown jewell in the heart of the Reds defence. Lovren, on the other hand, seems to have some strange hold over the German and is unlikely to be usurped by Matip at any point.
The 27-year-old should be looking to leave the club in the next couple of transfer windows, then, as his former team mate Ragnar Klavan did this summer when he saw that his first team prospects were limited at Anfield.
Matip is too good a player to waste the prime of his career warming the substitutes bench. He has a lot to give to a team that is willing to give him regular football, and he should be allowed to move on if a decent offer is made.
Working hard in training and waiting for your opportunity is all well and good, but it doesn’t look as if there is any light at the end of the tunnel for Matip.
None of the aforementioned defenders are going anywhere, and as long as they are on Merseyside Matip won’t get a sniff. It’s time for him to move on and secure regular first team football somewhere – he deserves it.
