Joel Matip has admitted he is 'relieved' to see Darwin Nunez in a Liverpool shirt after he made the big-money switch to the club from Benfica last month.
The 22-year-old joined the Reds for a fee that could rise to around £85m, after he scored 34 goals in 41 appearances for the Portuguese side in all competitions last season. Nunez then made his unofficial debut for Liverpool in their pre-season friendly defeat to Manchester United on Tuesday in Bangkok.
Matip played against the Uruguayan in the Champions League quarter-final back in April, with Nunez scoring in both legs as Liverpool progressed into the semi-final. Nunez caused the Reds back-four havoc across the two matches, however, constantly making runs in behind and posing a threat.
And speaking after Liverpool landed in Singapore on Wednesday for the second part of their pre-season tour of the Far East, Matip spoke about what he expects to see from the new boy in a Reds shirt. The centre-back went on to explain why he is relieved not to be on the opposition side to Nunez from now on.
"He made my life quite hard," Matip told Liverpoolfc.com . "So I'm really happy that he's wearing our shirt.
"A lot of quality and I'm looking forward to seeing him scoring goals for us. I think it's a different kind of speciality – physically, speed. And he will score goals, I'm absolutely sure. He will just give us an extra power player to really go for everything."
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Nunez is expected to play in the centre of a front-three with two of Diogo Jota, Luis Diaz and Mohamed Salah either side this season. This is after Sadio Mane made the £35m switch to Bayern Munich.
Meanwhile, Matip also spoke about his teammate Joe Gomez after he signed a new five-year contract with the club last week. The latter struggled for game time last season and started just 10 games in all competitions. But Matip is pleased Gomez has committed his long-term future to the Reds until 2027.
"Over the years he did a brilliant job," Matip added. "He's a brilliant person and I'm really happy. I'm also happy to have him a few more years alongside me.
"Of course we play for Liverpool and [having competition] should not be different. And with the amount of games we have, we will need everybody."
Liverpool suffered a 4-0 defeat in their opening pre-season friendly against Manchester United on Tuesday. However, Jurgen Klopp adopted three different teams across three 30 minutes, meaning lots of changes disrupted the flow and style of play.
