Virgil Van Dijk on Joël Matip Goal: “I Wish I Had That Quality”

The world can at times seem a quite terrible place. There are within it, though, moments that are pure and good. And if you’re a fan of Liverpool Football Club circa 2022, it’s likely that at least some of those pure and good moments have a face to them.

And that face belongs Joël Matip, Liverpool’s lanky centre half who regularly likes to remind people of his dribbling prowess. Which may or may not in part be predicated on nobody in opposition every really, truly expecting a lanky centre half to enjoy gliding semi-gracefully up the pitch quite so much.

Matip, though, loves an adventure with the ball at his feet, and on Wednesday evening against Leeds United he went on an adventure that paid off, picking up the ball at the half way line and carrying it into the final third before playing a one-two with Mohamed Salah and scoring.

“It’s a big quality of him,” said a buoyant Virgil van Dijk—otherwise known as the world’s best centre half—afterwards. “I wish I had that quality at times. He just can go without any fear at all and hope for the best a little bit! But he has that quality.

“It’s a big strength of him and obviously it’s useful because it drags other players from their position and today obviously the space was there to make that run and finish it off. I said to him already before the game I felt it coming because he had an assist for Diogo and I said, ‘A goal is next!’ so I’m very happy for him.”

We’ve got nothing much to add to that aside from that we’re also happy for Matip. And for Liverpool. And for us for having gotten to see a Joël Matip adventure end up with a quite memorable goal for the 6’5” marauding false deep lying trequartista of a centre half.

In fact, we liked it so much we’re going to cap things off with some video of the moment. On the off chance you’re a Liverpool fan who somehow didn’t see it. Or more likely in case you just, like us, would like to see it a few more times.