The Brazilian has been an important part of Liverpool setup under Jurgen Klopp and his absence will be a big blow to the team.
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It has been an impressive start to the season for Liverpool in various competitions. The Reds have found their previous best and are dominating their way past opponents in all competitions. Barring a few blips, Liverpool have largely enjoyed a positive campaign so far. However, they suffered couple of noticeable injuries of late, which has made life difficult for them. One of them is the injury to first-choice goalkeeper Alisson Becker. The Brazilian has been an important part of Liverpool setup under Jurgen Klopp and his absence will be a big blow to the team.
In Alisson’s absence, youngster Caoimhin Kelleher is expected to be the keeper for the Merseyside outfit. When asked whether Kelleher is ready to be a No.1, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, quoted on the club’s website, said ahead of the Premier League match against Fulham, “Yeah, no doubt. No doubt. We see him every day in training. He is an exceptional, exceptional talent. Maybe we don’t mention his name often enough, but it is a John Achterberg thing. From day one when I am in, he told me this will be our homegrown boy who will make it. Since then, we see every step. He was a boy and now he’s a man. And yeah, top goalie, no doubt.”
The manager added: “He is in general a focused person. You will not see him in a bar celebrating the clean sheet [against LASK]! That is not a problem. Caoimhin is prepared for that, he wants that now. We had discussions in the summer about it, obviously, but as long as we don’t have a solution we cannot loan players. He is homegrown and all these kind of things, so we have to make sure first and foremost, the first responsibility is we do the best for Liverpool and then we have to see how we can sort it. Now, obviously, for him it is the situation he didn’t want to have [Alisson Becker being injured] but obviously somehow, yes, because he wants opportunities, he wants to play and now he will get a few games, definitely. And I trust him.”
An in-form Liverpool side is difficult for any opponent to face on a given day. At Anfield, they are even harder to play. Klopp went on to explain the reasons behind Liverpool’s strong home record. “We always enjoyed it, in our bad spells as well! It’s our home and must be – must, must, must be – a difficult place to come. I said to the boys yesterday, I think every player if you are not playing at Liverpool and you play in a different country, then you see the group and you get the draw and stuff like this, playing at Anfield is a dream. But actually it must be a nightmare. That’s what we tried to do. It didn’t work out all the time, but when our people are at it, it makes a massive difference. That’s how it is,” he explained.
He added: “It was always a situation where we had to give on the pitch and then the crowd was there, or it was the other way, but we were always together. Really good. It happened rarely that the atmosphere was not great and we still played a super game, or the other way around. It’s cool, but I think my best skill is not feeling at all winning streaks. I just don’t feel it. When somebody tells me, I have no clue because the next game is so important, so different, so difficult and all these kind of things. That’s why I don’t think they help really; maybe the other teams think it is a difficult place to go but for us each game stays difficult because of the quality of the opponent.”
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