Why Liverpool’s goalkeeping situation this season has been nothing short of bizarre

Over beers at the weekend, I had the pleasure of discussing Liverpool’s fortunes with a learned scholar of the Liverpool way.

Uncle Kevin has been a fan since the 60’s and as with any beer-fuelled conversation, the greatest XI discussion was a necessity.

Tales of Stevie Heighway on the wing, King Kenny, and how Liverpool were Europe’s greatest Club flowed through the ears as I dreamed of the times gone by, before VAR came and destroyed everything.

Then it came to the best Liverpool eleven I had ever seen (I’m 27 by the way), and as a team always will, it started with the goalkeeper. Crap.

BOURNEMOUTH, ENGLAND – Sunday, December 17, 2017: Liverpool’s goalkeeper Simon Mignolet during the pre-match warm-up before the FA Premier League match between AFC Bournemouth and Liverpool at the Vitality Stadium. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

I mulled and I waited and I looked through the annals but couldn’t help but wonder if I’d ever really seen a great goalkeeper play for Liverpool. David James. Sander Westerveld. Peggy Arphexad. Chris Kirkland. Scott Carson. Jerzy Dudek. Pepe Reina. Simon Mignolet. Loris Karius.

Each and every one of them had their moments but gosh, don’t they all just leave you with an enormous “meh”.

The current 2 are what we’re really here to talk about though, and not only that neither exactly inspire confidence in am already porous defence, but that Klopp’s treatment of the pair has been nothing but bizarre this season.

Mignolet started off as the club’s premier league goalkeeper, with Karius being mostly used in Champions League fixtures, which in itself is an odd move in my opinion.

If you have 1 goalkeeper better than the other, then why are you using the one you’re uncertain on in the more difficult competition? But then came that somewhat odd decision to start Karius in the August fixture vs Arsenal, Liverpool’s biggest league game of the season at that point.

READ MORE: Lessons still haven’t been learnt at Liverpool, but it’s not too late to fix things

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND – Sunday, January 14, 2018: Liverpool’s goalkeeper Loris Karius during the FA Premier League match between Liverpool and Manchester City at Anfield. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

A 4-0 victory sounds like an unqualified success but while Karius did keep a clean sheet and had little to do with his hands, his footwork was genuinely terrible.

On 3 occasions the German was almost robbed of the ball, looking terrified every time it came near him, as if it some sort of raging dog about to attack him.

This was no one off either. Similar errors vs Wigan, and a hilarious moment vs Sunderland in which he passed a goal kick a off for a corner in 2016 all seemed too familiar seemingly. Mignolet was reinstalled as number 1 for the next 3 months.

Over this time, Mignolet looked relatively solid for the most part, but as so often happens with the Belgian, errors crept into his game.

Failure to catch an Eriksen cross in the 4-1 November loss to Spurs, was followed by an equally awful howler, flapping at Granit Xhaka strike in the December draw with Arsenal. Simon has only been asked to play twice in the 7 games since.

READ MORE: Why it’s crucial that Sadio Mané returns to top form sooner rather than later

SINSHEIM, GERMANY – Tuesday, August 15, 2017: Liverpool’s manager Jürgen Klopp and goalkeeper Simon Mignolet after the UEFA Champions League Play-Off 1st Leg match between TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and Liverpool at the Rhein-Neckar-Arena. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

As Liverpool fans, we have forever known that our Goalkeepers haven’t quite been up to the standard we’re aiming for. But how much of this is down to the management of Klopp?

I’ve played in goal and coached goalkeepers, obviously to a much lower standard, but can assure you that a very high proportion of their quality in any game is about the confidence they have in themselves. When Jurgen Klopp is repeatedly switching them, changing his mind who is number 1, and also going to the press to tell them this, it is almost no wonder that they are playing so poorly.

Both look entirely bereft of confidence, and this was obvious in the West Brom loss this past Saturday. Yes, Mignolet was atrocious, but his downfall has firstly been played up by the media, but Klopp stating that you have to “commit” to a goalkeeper, having done exactly the opposite all season, is not going to help him whatsoever.

Our goalkeepers appear in a cycle of having low confidence, therefore making errors, therefore being dropped, therefore losing confidence and onwards it goes. Having this announced in the media is poor form. Given that Jurgen Klopp is one of football’s greatest in motivating and keeping players positive, I think he has entirely dropped the ball on this one.

Mark Schwarzer spoke to the Liverpool Echo this week about how criticism of Liverpool’s goalkeepers has been vicious and disrespectful, and maybe he is right. Maybe though, the criticisms have been fair, and also, that Klopp’s bizarre decision making around the situation are to blame.

The post Why Liverpool’s goalkeeping situation this season has been nothing short of bizarre appeared first on AnfieldHQ.

Source: anfieldhq.com