‘Important’ Liverpool player faces exit door as Reds reportedly target surprise free transfer

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Joel Matip would face the exit door if reports that Liverpool want a surprise free transfer are true. That’s not to say he’d walk through it.

Liverpool have four fantastic centre-backs right now. Virgil van Dijk is arguably the world’s best, of course, while Ibrahima Konaté appears to be a possible successor to that.

Joel Matip has been reliably fantastic for years, while Joe Gomez is capable of delivering as a title-winning centre-back. And yet, Liverpool may have their eyes on someone new.

Team Talk claim that the Reds are looking at Milan Skriniar. He’s coming to the end of his contract with Inter, and a swarm of top sides now want the player. Liverpool’s supposed interest comes as a surprise, though, given they lack room for another first-team option.

In fact, the only way to make it work would be to move someone on. And there’s one obvious option for that.

Joel Matip could face exit

Van Dijk certainly isn’t going anywhere, while Konaté is the future at centre-back. And arguably the present, admittedly.

That leaves Gomez and Matip, with the latter having been the more reliable option over the last few years. However, he’s also much older than his English counterpart. Matip turns 32 at the start of next season, after all, while Gomez won’t turn 26 until May. Only one of these players is a long-term investment.

There’s also the homegrown factor. With both Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and James Milner out of contract in 2023, losing another homegrown player in Gomez would make future signings much more difficult. Especially if his replacement, presumably Skriniar, isn’t homegrown.

Thus Matip would be the obvious one to make way, even if he’s the better player. That’s not to say he couldn’t change that. Jurgen Klopp called him ‘very important’ just this month and we can’t imagine he’d want to lose the player. A few months of good form and there’s no way Liverpool let Matip go, given they wouldn’t receive much of a fee anyway.

In reality, we can’t see Skriniar actually arriving, even if the Reds take a look at him. We’d prefer Matip to stay than for the Slovakian to arrive on a free transfer.

If Liverpool are desperate to sign Skriniar, then perhaps Matip ends up facing the exit door and fighting for his place. He’d be the one, anyway. We just don’t see the worth in it – and the Cameroonian should keep that door firmly closed.