Matip has certainly improved since he first came. He wasn’t great defensively when he joined but he was a big upgrade on Lovren and Skrtel. since playing alongside VVD, he seems to have improved on his strength and aerial ability. We now have the two best defenders in the air vs a few years ago when we would be easily bullied.
It's the biggest difference between lovren and matip, before vvd joined I'd have put them on a par, nothing special, occasional **** up and easily bullied by an aggressive centre forward. Matip has flourished with virgil next to him and Gomes as competition. He rarely get caught out, positional play has vastly improved, but most importantly a big forward will go up against him and he will hold his own. Just shows how two players in the same position can react completely differently to the same conditions
I wouldn't swap VVD, Matip or Gomez for any other CB is the league. The only one that comes close is Laporte.
And credit to VVD. He’s come in, played alongside Matip and Gomez, and lost Alisson behind him. Yet there is no drop off in quality.
