Press conference‘The best free transfers ever, it’d be a close race between Matip and Milner’
Jürgen Klopp is thankful for Joel Matip's outstanding form and availability for Liverpool this season.
The centre-half has enjoyed a mostly uninterrupted campaign in the heart of the Reds' backline, making 25 appearances in all competitions so far.
His manager hopes that remains the case, as he considers the 2016 arrival from Schalke to be a crucial component of the team's success in recent years.
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“Top, absolutely top,” Klopp said of the No.32. “We had too many injuries in the centre-half position in the last few years, that's how it is, that's why we struggled at times.
“It was never the boys' fault. I remember one game against Napoli when we won the game and were all celebrating, and in the last challenge there was a challenge between him [Matip] and I think Koulibaly, I'm not sure, but when he came down, he broke a bone which kept him out for a while.
“So, life without luck is really difficult, and footballers need luck. I hope we stay a little bit more lucky than we were in the last few years because these boys are incredible talents, but the main thing they want to do is to play and to contribute to what we do. And if you are sitting outside with an injury, that feels really strange.
“Long may it continue that we have all our centre-halves available because it's obviously a really important position for us. The way we play, we need really good players and Joel is an outstanding player, I think.
“A lot of the time, I think people think about which are the best ever signings on a free transfer. I can imagine it would be a really close race between Millie and Joel.
“They both came here for free and are absolutely outstanding players. Nothing what we reached in the last few years would have happened without them.
“So, it's good that Joel can play football this season and long may it continue.”
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