According to the Football Insider, Liverpool are ready to listen to offers for their central defender, Joel Matip. Matip has fallen to fourth choice at Anfield this season but still starts regularly due to injuries on the team. Despite this, his performances have noticeably declined, mirroring the struggles of many of Liverpool’s players. After the defeat against Wolves, Jamie Carragher blamed the performances of Matip and Joe Gomez, who according to him look world class beside Van Dijk but without him at their side, struggle.
Even Alan Shearer on Match of the day criticized Matip after his performance in the 3-0 defeat against Wolves.
“You have time to pick your pass, no pressure on the ball, it’s too easy,” said Shearer. “Gomez is out of position.
“Look at Matip, you have time to pick your pass and put it in behind. Matip stops. I mean, he is on his way over there to close them and he stops. I don’t know what he’s doing. He had a nightmare.
“Then, all of a sudden (Wolves goal the first goal) and it’s a little bit unlucky with that (the own goal). But again, one simple pass out. They have gone past the three midfielders. You are in the back four, into the final third, causing them problems.”
The problem for Liverpool is that all of their stars who made them so good like Van Dijk, Salah, Firmino, Fabinho and Thiago are all on the wrong side of their 30s. This puts massive pressure on the club to go for squad refresh all at once as they haven’t invested well over the past few years.