Forget the attack – Liverpool’s pivotal figure is Joel Matip

Liverpool had just imploded, their defence one again left clutching the smoking gun, and the culprit seemed obvious.

"Not good enough – he spreads panic," was Gary Neville’s verdict. "Nothing suggests he’s cut out for this level," barked Jamie Carragher alongside him. On Twitter, plenty of others were firing off similar, if less family-friendly, appraisals of Loris Karius, whose fumbled save had presented Bournemouth with their winner. The despair plastered across the face of Liverpool’s goalkeeper suggested he hardly needed telling that he had undone the good work of his attackers.

Karius was indeed central to the collapse, and the criticism was broadly fair. But it was quickly forgotten, amid all the catastrophising about Liverpool’s defence and all the hasty comparisons to ‘Crystanbul’, that Liverpool do have a calming presence at the back, someone who radiates quiet authority, leads by example and spreads reassurance rather than panic.

Having been a mainstay of a defence that had conceded more than once in a game on only one occasion since mid-August, Joel Matip sat out Sunday’s game with an ankle knock. The other two games he’s missed this season were the trip to Arsenal – a 4-3 win hardly founded on defensive resilience – and the 2-0 defeat to Burnley. In those three games, the team have conceded as many goals as they have in the 11 Matip has played. When it comes to Liverpool’s capacity to keep goals out, the key variable isn’t so much Loris Karius as the gangly Cameroonian just ahead of him.

There is an aptness to Matip’s absence on Sunday going largely unrecognised because his excellence when he has been fit has also flown largely under the radar. This is partly down to the fact that Liverpool’s defence in general has garnered a bad reputation (skewed downwards, it should be said, more by isolated moments of clownishness than consistent ineptitude) and partly it’s because, as a low-profile signing, he has been spared scrutiny of his more expensive peers.

Mainly, though, Matip has attracted little attention because he does not demand any. He is a centre-back who relies on concentration and anticipation, rarely making a game-saving block or bone-shaking tackle. On the ball he is unhurried and canny (he played a season in midfield for Schalke) but not especially eye-catching. He does not shout or pump his fists.

It is not the British way, but like many a fine defender, the very fact that he exists in the background is testament to his quality. The flip-side, of course, is that it takes everyone else a while to catch on.

Ironically, he’s becoming most conspicuous when absent. It does not reflect well on Dejan Lovren, recruited as a defensive leader, that his game seems to disintegrate when his preferred partner (Mamadou Sakho last season, Matip this) isn’t around. But without Matip the Croatian’s decision-making becomes subject to the impulsiveness of a toddler let loose in M&M World. Matip’s immediate replacement, a repurposed Lucas Leiva, is a proper leader, and a solid stand-in as long as his team are on the front foot. But he’s not made for anything resembling backs-to-the-wall mode, and is no one’s idea of a one-on-one defender. Matip, rangy, quick and deceptively strong, is a rather more formidable barrier.

All of which leaves Liverpool oddly dependent on a player whose arrival – on a free transfer announced five months before it happened – was met with little fanfare and even less expectation. Which goes to show: even in today’s market there are bargains to be had – although at this stage Matip looks less a bargain than an act of minor larceny.

The last time Liverpool targeted the title with an attack that far outshone its defence, the side required a superhuman striker to ensure that balance (or imbalance) stayed in their favour. This time the dynamic is similar but you sense that no one attacker would be unduly missed. Instead, the pivotal figure – the one who ensures the proficiency of a dazzling attacking outfit – is a defender so low-key you often have to double-check he’s even there.