Liverpool striker and defender emerges as winter targets for Turkish giants

Turkish football expert Emre Sarigul claims Joel Matip is a target for Turkish giants Fenerbahce. The expert was speaking on Blood Red: The Liverpool FC Podcast (h/t Daily Star) and claimed an old Liverpool employee was looking to add defenders to the Super Lig side.

“So what’s going on with Fenerbahce is their sporting director is Damien Comolli.

“So he’s trying to pull strings with his old connections at Liverpool and the Premier League clubs that he used to be at.

“They need defenders. They need a complete squad overhaul, so he has been reaching out for Matip. What happens with that we will see. But he is a target for the club.”

Comolli was was the director of football strategy at Liverpool in 2010 and joined Fenerbahce at the start of the season.

Matip wasn’t the only Liverpool player being linked with a move to Turkey with Divock Origi also on the radar of Galatasaray.

“With regards to Origi, Galatasaray have made an approach for Origi. They want him on loan. But I think Liverpool want to keep him closer to home right now. And Galatasaray aren’t gonna pay £20m or a permanent fee because of Financial Fair Play, so they’re only looking for a loan.”

Matip has a couple of starts to his name this season for the Reds but Origi has only 11 minutes of first-team action this campaign.

Letting Origi leave makes a lot of sense given that he won’t get a lot of minutes on the pitch here, but we could do with Matip staying till the end of the season.

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We only have Dejan Lovren as senior cover for Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez, and Matip could be of use should any of these players pick up an injury.