Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has said that Reds defender Joel Matip had ‘huge problems’ with Chelsea star Eden Hazard in the first half of their clash on Sunday.
The Belgian international is a tough player to deal with and so it proved for Matip at Anfield. Carragher expressed his concern with the Cameroonian during the game.
“I’ve never seen a player do so many flicks and they come off so often,” he told Sky Sports [16:53]. “Hazard is not offside and then you think he has a low centre of gravity up against Matip, who is having huge problems.
“We wondered about the impact he could have from that position and almost 20 minutes into the game, he is having an impact. There have been a couple of heavy challenges on him and he looks dangerous every time he gets the ball.”
OPINION
Carragher is bang on the money, here. Matip didn’t have a poor first half by any means, but you could tell he was a bit uncomfortable up against someone of the quality of Hazard. There’s no disgrace in that, of course; the Belgian is a world class player. But it’s true that Matip was struggling to get to grips with the 28-year-old. It seemed that the Reds’ tactic for dealing with Hazard early on was just to bring him down. It’s not a bad approach, to be honest, although it didn’t prevent him from being a serious thorn in Liverpool’s side at times. Not to say that Chelsea were the better side in the opening half, far from it. Liverpool played pretty well, but Matip never quite looked comfortable against the offensive threat of the visitors. That’s what Carragher was getting at here. The size and speed difference between Hazard and Matip just made life difficult for the former Schalke man in terms of trying to dispossess the Chelsea star.
