Liverpool transfer target Jude Bellingham has claimed that he loved watching Reds defender Joel Matip play last season.
The 19-year-old made the admission whilst picking his Team of the Year for BVB-TV. Faced with a choice of centre-backs to include in his team, Bellingham pondered putting Matip in alongside his Liverpool teammate Virgil van Dijk.
“Matip had a good year actually, I think he was good to watch,” raved the England star. “I think Van Dijk always, he’s too good man. I’ll put him in.”
But despite his admiration for Big Joel, Bellingham ultimately couldn’t resist the glamour of a couple of Brazilians.
“I’ll probably put next to him, Marquinhos. Actually Militao won the Champions League didn’t he. I think I’m going to go Militao actually.”
Two good defenders Jude, that’s for sure. But we’ll take our No.32 over any of them.
Bellingham knows ball
This is an interesting little insight into the way Bellingham watches football. Forever flying under the radar, there aren’t too many footballers around who would mention Matip in these types of discussions.
That in itself is an absurdity. Joel was arguably better than Van Dijk for large parts of last season, and has gone toe-to-toe with the Dutchman for many-a-year now.
But for whatever reason, he is rarely mentioned as being amongst the best defenders in the world.
Bellingham obviously sees things in a different way. It’s interesting that he notes how good Matip is to watch, too. It isn’t his defending that gets him a mention, and this clearly shows that Jude has been watching Liverpool.
If he hadn’t, how would he know that Matip is one of the silkiest defenders in the game. Perhaps he saw the 31-year-old’s brilliant goal against Leeds last season, one of so many exquisite forays forward from the centre-back. Come join him, Jude!
As he’s a former Schalke academy player, Borussia Dortmund fans might not be too happy with Bellingham’s suggestion about Matip. But as Liverpool fans, we think it’s great.
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