???️ LIVERPOOL’S GOALKEEPING OPTIONS THIS SEASON

It’s not a very well hidden secret that Liverpool struggle in the defensive department. Despite the fact we managed to keep 4 clean sheets in our last 5 games, we still seemed suspect at the back throughout the season. However we’ve yet to sign a centre back, it is still hoped that Virgil Van dijk will join before the close of the window. In this article though I’m not going to be talking about our defence, I’m going to be looking into the goalkeeping selection conundrum that Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp face entering a new season. The first person I’ll look at is Simon Mignolet, he was first choice for the majority of last season after displacing Karius and towards the back end made some stellar saves to help us secure valuable points in the race to secure Champions League football. The big Belgian returned to Melwood over the weekend, and spoke of his happiness to be back “we had a good break but then you always look forward to the season”. Mignolet was hard at work over the summer, as was seen through his various Instagram posts of his different exercises. It seems Mignolet is also relishing the prospect of fighting to be the first choice keeper this season – “All the goalkeepers will push each other to make sure we’re ready for the games that are coming our way”. Hopefully for Mignolet this competition for the number 1 spot will be the making of him into a top class keeper, as we saw glimpses last season. The next keeper to look at is Loris Karius. He arrived at Liverpool from Mainz on the cheap, and looked to be making progress in the season before breaking a bone in his hand, nether less he came back and was the starting keeper for 11 games, however after a howler vs Bournemouth, he lost out to Mignolet and only managed to play in the cup games for the remainder of the season, where he seemed to perform well, however wasn’t given another chance in the Premier League. It could be said that the reason for Karius’ performances was because of his injury, and so this season we could be set to see the Karius that was the second best in the Bundesliga a few seasons back. For Karius, last season was a learning curb, being new to the English game, however has higher expectations of himself this time around, “I feel strong mentally and also on the pitch. I want to prove myself”. This season it’s likely to be two games a week, and so there’s plenty of opportunity for Karius to regain his status as Liverpool’s number 1. Finally, we have a keeper coming of the back of a season long loan with newly promoted Huddersfield. Danny Ward gave a tremendous effort in the play-off final shoot-out vs reading, and will be coming into the new season full of confidence. However Ward seems to be the only keeper that is in doubt of where he will even be for the coming season, as another season long loan could be on the cards in order to secure more first team experience, and if he goes back to Huddersfield it will this season be in the Premier League. For Jurgen then there is a tough call on who will be first choice keeper, however as always he’s his same calm usual self, coming out and saying “We have three goalkeepers and they can all show what they are able to do, and then we will see who will start”. With this it seems at face value Klopp is leaving it up to how the players perform, however, I believe that Klopp will have some idea of who he wants to see between the sticks. After seeing Mignolet’s heroics last season, he should be given another go, however he seems to like Karius and so he could be eased back into the first team during the season. And for Ward the future seems unclear despite his success last season. I think that another loan out playing weekly Premier League football would be invaluable experience for the Welshman, however Klopp may want to keep him around for the cups we’ll be involved in this season. On the whole though Liverpool can be confident as we have 3 able keepers all determined to make an impact, hopefully we can can come away with some silverware at the end.