Topic: Joël Matip (Job Joël André Matip)

[jack witham]

What we have desperately missed is his ability to carry the ball out from the back.

That was something he excelled at and none of our other centre backs are capable of doing.

Nothing better than Joel marauding up the pitch, I wish him well.

Very underated player.

[Bread]

What we have desperately missed is his ability to carry the ball out from the back.

That was something he excelled at and none of our other centre backs are capable of doing

Not sure I agree with that, I've been pleasantly surprised by Quansah's ability to travel with the ball a good 30 or 40 yards up the pitch.

Honestly, I love Matip, but I think it'd be negligible to extend his contract at this point.

[mullyred94]

Had to double check that Spurs game wasn't his last start as that would have been cruel to a great servant.

Don't think he was every rated as highly outside Liverpool in his pomp which I also think is criminal he was good as VVD for a time.

[darragh85]

Too injury prone but probably our second best centre half.

Make no mistake he was a massive loss
 His experience alone would have been invaluable

[SamLad]

Not sure I agree with that, I've been pleasantly surprised by Quansah's ability to travel with the ball a good 30 or 40 yards up the pitch.

Honestly, I love Matip, but I think it'd be negligible to extend his contract at this point.

me too, so let's do it!

[Fromola]

Too injury prone but probably our second best centre half.

Make no mistake he was a massive loss
 His experience alone would have been invaluable

Games like Atalanta and Old Trafford were the defence lost their heads.

[KC7]

Games like Atalanta and Old Trafford were the defence lost their heads.

We were completely overrun by Atalanta (the disparity had some even speculating on here they were on something) from the very start when Kelleher made that save with his head.

We were ambushed by a more more athletic team, especially in midfield, and they were able to breach the back line far too easily.

Without protection infront of the defence there's very little the like of Matip could have done to comtain the bombardment. 

At OT, the Quansah pass, Matip likely wouldn't have done that. Still, one ball over the top by Casemiro to the area vacated by the show 6 meant they too were able to freely run at the back line, which ended with the fella finishing top corner (very hard to see what any defender could have done to stop that).

We've been leaking easy goals all season, including when Matip was in the team, as we've had the same flaky midfield all season. 23 times now gone behind. This isn't a late collapse. The leakage has been there all season, marginally better than last season when we had no midfield protection at all. The central defence has generally been excellent. Virgil, maybe the Arsenal mix up, cant think much else. Quansah, again, switching off for the pass at OT, and the dead rubber vs West Ham could have done more for the headed goal, but other than that he barely put a foot wrong.

[Fromola]

We were completely overrun by Atalanta (the disparity had some even speculating on here they were on something) from the very start when Kelleher made that save with his head.

We were ambushed by a more more athletic team, especially in midfield, and they were able to breach the back line far too easily.

Without protection infront of the defence there's very little the like of Matip could have done to comtain the bombardment. 

At OT, the Quansah pass, Matip likely wouldn't have done that. Still, one ball over the top by Casemiro to the area vacated by the show 6 meant they too were able to freely run at the back line, which ended with the fella finishing top corner (very hard to see what any defender could have done to stop that).

We've been leaking easy goals all season, including when Matip was in the team, as we've had the same flaky midfield all season. 23 times now gone behind. This isn't a late collapse. The leakage has been there all season, marginally better than last season when we had no midfield protection at all. The central defence has generally been excellent. Virgil, maybe the Arsenal mix up, cant think much else. Quansah, again, switching off for the pass at OT, and the dead rubber vs West Ham could have done more for the headed goal, but other than that he barely put a foot wrong.

That Fulham game was a turning point though (when Matip got injured). Our games went chaotic from that week to week. We had a fair few convincing wins before that, particularly at home.

Not saying that's because of losing Matip, but defensive injuries accumulated. Ali, Trent, Matip, Konate and Robbo all getting injuries. We've missed Matip most recently as Konate hasn't been at all sharp and Gomez has been used as full back cover through 2024. That then overloads Konate to become mire susceptible to injuries.

Defensive injuries have stopped us being settled at the back and our defensive midfield area is.substandard.