Joel Matip not thinking about Liverpool exit and vows to fight for first-team role

Fighting for chances: Joel Matip
Liverpool FC via Getty Images
David Lynch30 November 2018

Joel Matip has dismissed suggestions that he is considering his Liverpool future just yet, insisting he cannot afford such distractions during the season.

The 27-year-old has started just three of the Reds’ 18 matches so far this term, with Joe Gomez, Virgil van Dijk and Dejan Lovren often preferred at centre-back by Jurgen Klopp.

The contract Matip signed following a 2016 free transfer from Schalke will have just a year to run at the end of the current campaign, meaning the defender is likely to face a decision over whether to leave in search of regular football this summer.

But, for now, he is focused solely on increasing his chances of featuring in Klopp’s starting XIs more regularly this season.

Matip told Standard Sport: “I only concentrate now on the season on Liverpool and there’s nothing else in my mind. Everything else would only distract me.

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“I’ve got to wait for my opportunity, I have to work hard - this is the life of a player.

“I try to be in the best form I can be and to be ready if I had to be.”

Liverpool will hope to prevent local rivals Everton dealing a blow to their Premier League title push when the two neighbours meet at Anfield on Sunday.

And Matip is looking forward to an occasion he describes as ‘special’ for both players and fans alike.

He added: “It’s something special for the players, for the people of the town, because with two big clubs like Everton and Liverpool in one town that’s something special.

“For all the supporters this is a special game. If you are in the stadium then you already feel it’s something different.

“You see the atmosphere and then you know that the next 90 minutes it will be [difficult]. Every game is a fight but this will be a massive fight.

“[If you lose] nobody wants to talk to an Everton fan the next day. I think it means a lot to all the people and to us.”

Matip was speaking at an Ability Counts session as part of the LFC Foundation and Everton in the Community’s Respect 4 All inclusion programme.

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