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Liverpool midfielder Gini Wijnaldum impressed once again when he started against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium, lining up in a midfield two alongside captain Jordan Henderson.
Against Pep Guardiola’s team, which contained Kevin de Bruyne in midfield, Jurgen Klopp was asking a lot from the pair he selected, playing boldly with four attacking players to include Roberto Firmino and Diogo Jota.
Wijnaldum is no closer to signing a new contract that would see him stay at Anfield beyond the end of the season, but the trust placed in him in what could be the biggest game of the season shows that the Dutchman remains a crucial gear.
Thiago Alcantara was absent due to injury, while other options like Naby Keita barely returned from the blows, but Wijnaldum and Henderson are probably the only two players Klopp would have relied on defensively in a two-way midfield at home or away in that game.
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It’s not just in big games that Wijnaldum excels – he’s appeared in 80 of Liverpool’s last 84 Premier League matches, without starting just 10 of those times, so reliance on him for almost every match is clear.
On the Blood Red podcast, Ian Doyle said, “It’s amazing how many of these great games he plays.
“That’s why it was so important the other year when he didn’t play Barcelona, and we saw what happened when he entered the second half.
“He is someone that Klopp trusts and has stepped up this season, although he has not yet signed his contract, I would be surprised if he signs it now.”
“If he goes to a free transfer, no one could blame him. He has been much better than any of us thought he could be when he arrived and he was not necessarily a central midfielder.”
“People weren’t sure where he was going to play, but he ended up playing everywhere: in the first game against Barcelona he was in the lead.
“He’s someone who when the big games come around, he’ll always be there because he’ll always get a seven or eight out of 10 no matter what.
“He got a bit lost in the big away games when he first arrived, but since then he has been a very important player for them.”
That’s what makes his contract even more paralyzed: There is an argument that he is statistically the most important midfielder for Klopp at the moment, but there are no talks on the contract.
In 2018/19 with Liverpool amassed 97 points, Wijnaldum played 3705 league minutes while last season he played 3644. So far this season he has already played 950 minutes in the Premier League.
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In all three time periods, the last two full seasons and the beginning of this one, he has played more minutes for Liverpool than any other midfielder.
Meanwhile, Keita, to use the Guinean as an example, has only managed just over 3,500 minutes in all that time, a figure Wijnaldum has beaten in individual seasons over the past two seasons.
Wijnaldum is no closer to agreeing to a new contract at Anfield, but his importance for Liverpool and Klopp couldn’t be more clear.
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