Tony Cascarino appeared to be blown away by Liverpool defender Joel Matip after he continued to impress against Arsenal on Saturday.
The pundit claimed that the centre-back had been extraordinary considering he joined the Reds on a free transfer and pointed out that he had improved enormously in recent times.
Cascarino was asked whether Matip was Virgil van Dijk’s permanent partner at the heart of the Reds defence and the pundit suggested that Jurgen Klopp had a great problem when it came to choosing who to play out of the 28-year-old and Joe Gomez.
“I think it’s a great problem for Jurgen Klopp because I think Gomez is a terrific centre-half and I think he is going to be an England regular and also a Liverpool regular in time,” said Cascarino on talkSPORT (6:30am, Sunday, August 25th).
“I think Matip has been extraordinary as a free transfer, he’s played better than Van Dijk at the start of the season, he’s been outstanding and he was superb yesterday again.
“He made an unbelievable challenge against Aubameyang where he covered ground to get back round to make a challenge, I do worry about individual mistakes with him, but if he irons them out, and he is seemingly better this year than he has been, he has made one or two big mistakes in games, but I think Matip has improved enormously like many other Liverpool players.”
OPINION
Cascarino may have acknowledged that Matip has made a mistake or two previously, but aside from that, he can’t seem to shower the defender with enough praise. In fact, the pundit even went on to suggest that the centre-back is capable of ironing out the flaws in his game as he has already proven that he can improve while with the Reds. Cascarino even boldly points out that he believes Matip has outperformed Van Dijk this season and it’s hard to really argue with that statement. The 28-year-old has achieved a higher rating on WhoScored in the Reds’ last two league games than Van Dijk so Cascarino has evidence to back up his point. Matip made more tackles and intercepted the ball three more times than his Dutch teammate in the 3-1 win against Arsenal, as per WhoScored, and it’s worth noting that he was able to contribute a goal as well. With that in mind, while Cascarino is still confident Gomez will one day be a Liverpool regular, given the form Matip is in and the fact he is even outshining Van Dijk currently, then the Englishman should probably get comfortable on the bench for the time being.
