Statistical Analysis of Joël Matip’s Excellent Form Alongside Van Dijk

In What Could Be His Final Season for Liverpool

Written before the Man City-Liverpool game on 25/11/2023

After an underwhelming 2022/23 season where he struggled for form rather than injuries (15 league games as an unused sub), Joël Matip has made an excellent start to the current campaign while partnering Virgil van Dijk at the heart of the Liverpool defence.

Most people envisaged this season to be the one where we see Ibrahima Konaté taking the mantle of the first-choice right-sided centre-back. But, the Frenchman has struggled to stay fit, opening the door for the likes of Matip, Joe Gomez or even Jarell Quansah to stake their claim in the side.

The former, whose contract at Anfield expires at the end of this season, is not expected to sign an extension unless there is a sudden turnaround. The 32-year-old has played well and is on course to leave the club on a high next summer. 

In this article, we focus on the former Schalke defender’s performance so far this campaign and also look at the progress chart showing where he has bettered his game this time around.

J. Matip - 2023/24 Numbers 

Matip is not only having one of his better seasons individually, but he has been one of the best defenders in the league since August. We just hope that long may it continue with no injury or form dip hindrance.

In this section, we have a few data visuals consisting of Premier League defenders of this season in various metrics to gauge where the 32-year-old is at this point in time.

NB - When you filter in “defenders” from the FBRef data, they do not have another filter for centre-backs and fullbacks separately. So, the defender visuals will consist of both centre-backs and fullbacks.