I love this player and what he's brought to the team. Based on what I had read about him in the summer I was quietly confident he would add some much needed quality to our central defence. Little did I know he would quickly become, far and away, our best defensive performer this early in the season.
Central defense is a position we've suffered at over the past decade compared to the top teams in the league. How many of those who played for us during that period would have been in contention for the top teams on a consistent basis? Probably none as I suspect that Hypia was the last such player (sorry Agger, Carragher). We've had the forwards, and usually the midfielders, but not so much at the back. If Matip keeps playing like this he's going to be top 5 in the league at this position. It's no wonder he was named in the team of the year in Germany. As others have mentioned, our set piece issues are masking the great job this guy is doing for us.
I had given up on Lovren after his disastrous first year with us. It's incredible how a loss of confidence can so completely affect a players performances. However, he brought me back on board last year and he's continued again this year, but I still think this will be one of the positions Klopp goes back to improve in the next year or two, whether that is through a signing or the training/progression of someone like Joe Gomez. All that said, I'd love to clone Matip and have two of them in the middle!
