Joel Matip is prepared to be patient at Liverpool as he continues to fight for increased opportunities in the starting lineup.
The defender has managed just three starts and five separate one minute cameos so far this season having fallen down the pecking order on Merseyside.
An imperious centre-back partnership of Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez has seen Matip slip to fourth choice behind Dejan Lovren.
His lack of playing time has evidently alerted Fenerbahce, with Liverpool’s former director of football Damien Comolli leading the Turkish club’s efforts to secure his services in January.
Discussing speculation of an Anfield exit, Matip told Standard Sport: “I only concentrate now on the season on Liverpool and there’s nothing else in my mind. Everything else would only distract me.”
“I’ve got to wait for my opportunity, I have to work hard – this is the life of a player. I try to be in the best form I can be and to be ready if I had to be.”
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Matip teased signs of promise following his free transfer from Schalke in 2016, but has struggled for consistency since seeing his debut campaign disrupted by a lengthy dispute over his refusal to play for Cameroon at the African Cup of Nations.
It seems difficult to believe Jurgen Klopp would entertain any offers for the 27-year-old as he strives to retain his squad’s strength in depth in view of maintaining a Premier League title challenge beyond the winter.
Dejan Lovren’s recent history of niggling injury problems alone marks good reason to keep Matip around, not to mention the occasional use of Joe Gomez at right-back in place of Trent Alexander-Arnold.