Liverpool have had an excellent start to the season and they continued their rich vein of form yesterday against Wolves. Admittedly as a neutral fan, I was watching the game thinking that Jurgen Klopp would drop points as defensively, they were not organised in the slightest. Still, the Reds prevailed and came back from going a goal down to win quite comfortably in the end.
But there was one defender who was lucky that the attack came to his rescue. I am talking about Joel Matip, who was subjected to scrutiny for the defensive role, or should I say lack of a defensive role, he played yesterday.
Liverpool defender Joel Matip ridiculed for his performance
Dubbed by the trusted Liverpool journalist as being “miles off it”, he was one of the players noted in Liverpool’s “dreadful” first half. Indeed he carried on that momentum into the second half. Admittedly, Wolves relieved some of their attacking pressure in the second half but even when Wolves did attack, Matip didn’t look too comfortable.
Dreadful 1st half from #LFC at Molineux. Lucky it’s only 1-0. So flat, so sluggish, so error-strewn. A throwback to the darkest days of last season. So easy for Wolves to cut through them.
— James Pearce (@JamesPearceLFC) September 16, 2023
Surely got to change it.
Mac Allister has struggled badly, Matip/Gomez also miles off it.
With Virgil Van Dijk out, there was bound to be a lot of pressure on the defenders who had to step up. Admittedly, the result meant that defensive errors weren’t costly, but overall, the defence looked shambolic. If the Reds were playing against a team who could competently attack, they would’ve been in serious trouble.
What did you make of Joel Matip’s performance, Liverpool fans? Was he better than people are making out in your opinion?