Pundit Gary Neville picked Harry Maguire over Joel Matip in a combined Liverpool and Manchester United XI before attempting to explain why.
Neville covered Arsenal’s 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace on Sky Sports last night, before turning his attention to United v Liverpool this weekend.
As is customary before this big game, Sky asked Neville and Jamie Carragher to pick a combined XI.
The pair agreed on eight players – Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, Andrew Robertson, Jordan Henderson, Fabinho, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane.
Carragher went for Matip, Bruno Fernandes and Mason Greenwood. Neville picked Harry Maguire, Roberto Firmino and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Neville explains leaving out Liverpool ace Matip
Carragher pointed out that Matip has arguably been just as good as if not better than Virgil van DIjk this season.
Neville believes that Matip always looks ‘half good’ because he is playing alongside an ‘unbelievable’ defender in Van Dijk.
Neville claimed he wasn’t being disrespectful to Matip, but did also suggest that Carragher could do his job right now.
“I’ve seen Matip a lot of the last 12-18 months,” said Neville. “I think that with the centre half he’s playing alongside, to be fair, I think you could honestly put Carragher alongside Van Dijk now. Let’s be clear about Van Dijk, Van Dijk is unbelievable.”
“I think Matip will always look half good alongside Van Dijk – that’s not disrespecting him,” he added.
Matip is certainly in better form than Harry Maguire this season, and Liverpool fans will be wondering just why Neville left him out.
Come Sunday, don’t be surprised if Matip turns in a better display than Maguire and effectively proves Neville wrong.
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