THIS IS MATIP’S MOMENT
With Van Dijk out, fellow centre half must step up and lead for Liverpool
WHEn Liverpool went looking for a centre back four years ago, they watched no fewer than 34 candidates play 15 games each.
When it came to those with potential to develop, Virgil van Dijk emerged top in every category, from aerial prowess and recovery speed to composure and the respect of his colleagues.
It’s the spatial awareness, the calmness, the height, the goals and the guidance for Joe Gomez and Joel Matip who are poorer without him, which they will now miss. As well as the diagonal passes which propel Liverpool ahead on the counter-attack and were integral to last year’s 3-1 away win at Bayern Munich, in which Van Dijk also scored.
Can Liverpool retain the title if, as seems possible, Van Dijk will be out all season with the ACL injury which will require surgery? ‘I would say no,’ says former Liverpool defender Mark Lawrenson.
‘His performances don’t change, he helps everyone around him and makes them better. He’s a talker, a leader. He is irreplaceable.’
Jurgen Klopp insisted yesterday, prior to the start of his side’s Champions League campaign at Ajax tomorrow, that Liverpool will regroup. ‘Virgil will get over it, 100 per cent, today is already the first day of the recovery,’ he said. ‘We are there for him. We will wait for him like a good wife waits when the husband is in jail.’
But he was already a centre half down, having sanctioned Dejan Lovren’s sale to Zenit St Petersburg this summer, so it will be for Joel Matip — injury prone and undergoing a muscular scan after the draw with
Everton — as well as Joe Gomez, a work-in-progress with a tendency to adopt the wrong body shape at key moments, to step up. So far, Matip, 29, has not looked like a leader though it’s possible that this crisis will turn him into a more vocal defender, conscious that this is his moment to guide Gomez, 23. Unexpected outcomes can come from adversity. When Kenny Dalglish missed two months of the 1983- 84 season, Paul Walsh played and flourished. It’s possible Fabinho, impressive in Van Dijk’s shoes when stepping in for him in the 0-0 home leg against Bayern, could become one of Klopp’s centre halves of choice but Lawrenson sees the Brazilian sitting slightly deeper in front of the defensive back two ‘to form a triangle with the centre backs’.
Another alternative is a threeman defence of Matip ( left), Gomez and Fabinho, but that would mean Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold operating as wing-backs, which may prove detrimental.
‘In their current position they’ve got acres to run into and their starting position is a defensive position,’ Lawrenson says. ‘With three at the back they become two midfield players, playing on the half-turn in more congested space.’ Klopp will surely go back into the transfer market in January, not least because Lovren’s exit has left him short, though the problem is that centre half is currently a premium position, which has driven up the price.
Liverpool have actively looked in Germany, asking about Schalke’s combative Turkish centre half Ozan Kabak but after hearing the £36.2 million price, they did not proceed down that route.
Malick Thiaw, 19, the Finn who has captained Schalke’s Under 19s and briefly appeared for the senior side, has also been of interest.
Liverpool and Manchester City’s scouts are cut from the same cloth so Sevilla centre half Jules Kounde will be known to Klopp, though he, like Thiaw, has little experience. Liverpool are willing to buy centre halves who, like Gomez, can develop at full back. They were surprised that Bournemouth paid £13m, rising to £21m, for Bristol City’s England Under 21 star Lloyd Kelly last year, and turned away. They like Brighton’s Ben White but have reservations about his height and have considered Burnley’s James Tarkowski.
Klopp’s huge demands on centre backs make buying one fiendishly difficult. ‘Because the team push up and press you need the pace to recover and get back,’ says Lawrenson. ‘You need to back yourself in a foot race over 30 yards.’ That might rule out Merseysideborn Conor Coady of Wolves.
The consolation for Liverpool is that Van Dijk has generally proved so durable. The moment which left Klopp and his staff convinced they had signed the right man came late against Tottenham at Anfield in March 2019 when Moussa Sissoko led a two-on-one breakaway.
Van Dijk held his ground, forcing Sissoko to rush his chance and miss. Van Dijk took a very heavy blow to the ankle in the process and left the stadium in an ice pack. He was back in the team six days later. This lay-off will be longer and even if he is back ahead of time, will the damage have been done?