Matip and Van Dijk both returned from injury in the Premier League season-opener, with both players missing the latter half of the last campaign, in a clean sheet for the Reds as they won 3-0.
Owing to the injury concerns faced last term, manager Jurgen Klopp bought a defensive reinforcement in the form of Konate to Anfield this summer.
Barnes believes that, going forward, Konate will end up being Van Dijk’s partner in the backline instead of Matip as he believes the Reds must have signed him for a reason.
The Reds legend, while applauding Matip’s performance against Norwich, feels at the same time that the centre-back will not have the capability to compete with Konate.
“Despite a good performance against Norwich, and new players coming in at Liverpool, Joel Matip won’t suddenly up his game”, Barnes wrote in an article for BonusCodeBets.
“With the injury situation last year, Liverpool needed defensive reinforcements, so they bought Ibrahima Konate.
“That doesn’t mean Joel Matip will try harder now than he did two years ago, when he first came to Liverpool.
“It’s great for the club that Matip performed well this weekend.
“However, you’d think when the club spent a lot of money on Konate, that he would be Virgil van Dijk’s number one partner at centre back.
“Matip won’t all of sudden become a greater player than he was, there is obviously now competition for greater places, but at this stage of his career, and at his age, he is the player that he is.”
In his spell at the club starting from the 2016/17 season, Matip has made over 100 appearances for the Reds, though injuries have troubled him in both of the last two campaigns, forcing him to miss large chunks of it.
