Joel Matip to Liverpool: ‘Perfect’ bargain fits Jurgen Klopp’s changing design

It was announced this week that the defender will join on a free transfer at the end of the season

(Getty Images)

Jurgen Klopp has detailed why he chose to make Joel Matip his second signing, in saving Liverpool a considerable transfer fee by persuading the Cameroon defender to switch to Anfield.

Matip, 24, announced on Monday that he would leave Schalke for Merseyside in the summer having reached a pre-contract agreement.

Klopp also revealed Matip’s purchase was made on his recommendation, the earliest sign yet his reign will be different to that of Brendan Rodgers, when the club’s recruitment strategy was influenced heavily by a transfer committee.

Matip, a German Cup winner in 2011, is closing in on 250 appearances for Schalke and has experience of the Champions League and the Europa League.

“He [Matip] wanted a new challenge and he’s made big steps in his development in the last few years,” Klopp said. “He’s become a really experienced centre-half – tall, but flexible and quick. A perfect header of the ball, he scores four or five goals a season, and good in the build-up. He was an easy choice.”

Klopp continued: “I know in England it is really difficult to sign a player without paying a transfer fee but I thought it cannot be a reason not to take him only because you cannot put a number behind his name. If you asked in Germany what other clubs would have paid for him had he still been under contract, you can pick a [high] number.

“You cannot play in a club like Schalke for six years, always in the starting line-up, without having big quality. If it was one, two or three years ago when he was under contract he would not have been ready for a change but I knew about his thoughts. I knew he was thinking about doing something else because he had been with Schalke since the youth team in 2000; a long time ago.

“This was our chance, but for sure there were a lot of clubs interested in him. It’s good because he knows that I know him, and it is not a coincidence or something else. He won’t be coming here having to show the manager special things, but of course he has to work hard and improve. He can be a really good centre-half in the Premier League.”

Liverpool have signed seven players in each of the past two summers but Klopp thinks he will not be so busy this time around. He indicated that the next area he would look at improving was on the wing, where he only has “a few young ones with great potential”.