24 August 2023 , 14:28
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Joel Matip has admitted he has got to "adapt" to Jurgen Klopp's new Liverpool system having not played a single minute for the Reds so far this season.
The 32-year-old has been an unused substitute for Liverpool's first two Premier League matches, with Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate getting the not at centre-back. This has left both Matip and Joe Gomez cemented to the bench, while Nat Phillips has not even been in either squad.
However, Klopp has continued with a similar system he used at the back end of last season, which sees Trent Alexander-Arnold move into midfield, with Andrew Robertson, Van Dijk and Konate forming a back-three. Liverpool have had moderate success so far, picking up four points from a possible six.
Speaking in the club's official matchday programme, Matip revealed he has got to get used to Klopp's new system as he attempts to get back into the line-up. He said: "It is obviously a different kind of situation for me now and I need to adapt. I think it will get better and better in the season. For sure I have to think of different things on the pitch because the right-back will not be there in the first moment.
"We need to adapt, but at the same time we have got some more players and some new players in the midfield. There are always some pros and cons but there is no perfect system. It's how we live the system we are playing and I feel confident of our system."
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Liverpool secured their first victory of the season last Saturday with a 3-1 victory over Bournemouth at Anfield. Antoine Semenyo opened the scoring for the Cherries, before Luis Diaz, Mohamed Salah and Diogo Jota struck for the Reds as they came from behind to win.
After the game, Klopp opened up on his side's performance and admitted there is still work to be done to get used to his new system. He said: "The level was really good, it was really good. We scored the third goal [and] in that situation we still had our moments, we still had counter-attacks.
"I thought for [having] never ever trained or played in that formation the boys did extremely well, they all fought really hard. I think the situations Bournemouth had were all high balls into the box, header, square, bam... that's really difficult to defend because you cannot avoid all long balls, especially not with a man down, but I thought we did that really well."
Liverpool are next in action when they travel to Newcastle on Saturday evening. The Reds then face Aston Villa at Anfield in their final game before the international break.