Ian Doyle criticises Liverpool ace who misplaced every single one of his long passes vs Norwich

Joel Matip produced an unconvincing display in Liverpool’s 3-1 win over Norwich City, journalist Ian Doyle said. 

Liverpool had to come from behind to beat the relegation-threatened Canaries after Milot Rashica’s effort from outside the box found the net via a heavy touch from Matip.

The 30-year-old regained his place alongside Virgil van Dijk in the heart of the Reds’ defence after Ibrahima Konate started in the Champions League victory against Inter Milan on Wednesday.

It was a 20th Premier League start of the season for the Cameroonian.

Doyle wrote (via The Liverpool Echo) that Matip was ‘unlucky’ to see Rashica’s shot deflect off him and past Alisson, but that he’d been guilty of some ‘wobbly’ moments afterwards.

He also noted that his sporadic attempts to ‘saunter forward’ were restricted by Norwich’s counterattacking threat.

Sports journalist Josh Bunting was among those to suggest that the ‘outstanding’ Konate should keep his place after Liverpool’s win at the San Siro, and Matip arguably did little to quieten those calls.

He lost four of the seven aerial duels he contested (57%) and failed to pick out a team-mate with any of the four long balls he attempted.

Indeed, his SofaScore rating of 6.8/10 was the joint-lowest in the Reds’ starting XI (level with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain).

Liverpool are set to take on Chelsea in the EFL Cup final at Wembley next weekend, and Klopp may well have a big decision to make in central defence.

In other news, there’s been a Liverpool contract update live on SSN.

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