While yesterday and last week as a whole was a good one for our club, there are still questions that need to be asked before the transfer window closes.
Before our 2-0 victory against Chelsea, it was revealed before kick-off that Joel Matip was unavailable for selection due to injury, which saw Fabinho put in a man of the match display alongside Virgil van Dijk at the back.
Further scans concluded that the Cameroonian powerhouse has suffered a muscle injury and will miss the next three weeks of action, according to Goal.
This is not the first injury of this kind that Matip has had in recent years, having only made 13 appearances during our title-winning campaign, missing 20 matches during that timeframe.
In total, this amounts up to 60 matches that the £28.8m-rated defender has missed since his free transfer from Bundesliga side Schalke back in 2016. A worrying statistic for sure and that figure is about to grow as the weeks pass by.
There isn’t a season that has gone by where he hasn’t picked up a knock of some sort. Although I believe he was unlucky to fracture his collarbone in 2018.
L4L’s view…
Jamie Carragher told Sky Sports (20/09 7:00 pm) that the 28-year-old “cannot be trusted” when it comes to his fitness, and I am afraid that I agree with him.
I want to see Matip continuously play for this club as I believe he has brought a lot to this squad during Jurgen Klopp’s reign as manager.
The German tactician has turned the German-born defender into a unit of a centre-back, someone that has proved worthy to stand alongside Virgil van Dijk in our starting line-up.
But unfortunately, his injuries are proving to be a problem for us and while it was great to see Fabinho playing out of position yesterday, it cannot be a long-term solution for us.
We had a similar conundrum with James Milner having to deputise in the left-back role during the 2016/17 campaign. It wasn’t until we brought Andy Robertson to the club that this changed for the better.
If we don’t bring in someone this summer, I am pretty confident that the club’s stance will eventually change. A Ragnar Klavan-style signing would do the trick and keep our options open.
