Andy Townsend heaped praise on Liverpool enforcer Joel Matip and stated that he thought the centre-back had been fantastic recently.
The BBC pundit claimed that Matip had got better during his Liverpool career when talking about the Reds sitting top of the Premier League during the second international break.
“Matip has got better during his Liverpool career and I think he has had a fantastic spell recently alongside Van Dijk,” gushed Townsend on BBC Radio 5 Live (19:28, Monday, October 7th).
Matip has played nine times across all competitions for Jurgen Klopp’s side this season but missed the 2-1 victory over Leicester City due to an injury.
OPINION
Towsend is spot-on with his verdict on Matip as the 28-year-old has improved throughout his Reds career. The centre-back in the first half of his 2018/19 campaign often found himself sat on the bench, as he only featured in eight of the Reds’ opening 16 league games before a collarbone injury then ruled him out of for five league matches (Source: Transfermarkt). However, when given an opportunity to feature in 13 league games in a row shortly after recovering from that injury, Matip hasn’t looked back and that has continued to be the case this season. The 28-year-old has been in red-hot form so far, averaging a rating of 7.62 across his league outings on WhoScored, and has been a reliable presence at the back partly due to his ability to consistently win the ball in the air, he has won six aerial duels per game on average. Matip has also showcased his fantastic ability to be one step ahead of his opponents by reading the game well, as he has impressively averaged 1.7 interceptions per game across his league outings (Source: WhoScored). So considering that Matip has gone from stuck on the bench to one of the first names on the teamsheet due to his form, it’s fair to say Townsend is justified to say the defender has got better since joining the club in 2016.
