Caoimhín Kelleher

All the reports to date seemed to say that Kelleher is a very talented keeper. The issue was that he hadn’t played much senior football and in the few games he did, there was a couple of errors. 

So my concern was around his big match temperament and ability to handle pressure. He was excellent last night and that will really boost his confidence and his profile. You could imagine that if Klopp selects Adrian at the weekend and he is poor then Liverpool fans won’t be happy. That’s all super stuff. He just needs to progress to the next level which is playing regularly and doing well. A move from Liverpool is probably his best route.  

He’s a great manager and you can see why he gets the most out of his team. 

Hopefully Kelleher is now #2 and gets a few games this season.

Surely you  pointed to the stupid free kick he gave away that resulted in the Czech equaliser, or were you a bright eyed young pup back then rather than the wise old sage you are now?

The minute trap junior was writing him off I knew he had a future in the game 

Its easy to point fingers at keepers in heavy defeats, but in many cases, unless they are fumbling the ball through their hands, static for easy shots, punching the ball directly to attacking players etc, the chances are the midfield has failed in its duty to protect the defence, and in turn, the defence has failed to provide the safety valve, or is even contributing the the problems by imitating a Benny Hill sketch when defending.

Last season, West Ham signed a keeper named Roberto, as a replacement to Adrian. In combination, his precedence looked good, which included some big money transfers, clean sheets against Juventus in the CL, some honours, and membership of clubs like Athletico and Benfica. But when you scratched the surface, he was in fact a bit of a journeyman, who had peaks and troughs in terms of appearances, and a number of free transfers and loan were included in his travels. Its worth looking at footage of him in a West Ham shirt, as you'll see moments where he made some excellent stops, but on the whole was capable of making extraordinary mistakes that cost games, with things like poor positional choice, static movement, and some woeful handling errors.

My point is, pointing to the occasional mistake is one thing, and perhaps the statistics about saves made etc, are worth looking at before making a judgement call. Either way, last night was a good night for Irish football, at the end of what has been a very tough year.

Ederson is actually an example of a keeper who is a poor shot stopper but his ability on the ball would see him as irreplaceable by Guardiola. In that sense it is very easy to see why Klopp loves him/rates him so highly.

For example-

A goalkeeper at Barcelona is unlikely to be called into a lot of saves per game as Barcelona generally keep the ball for long periods and are more likely to be the attacking team.

As the goalkeeper is not called to make that many saves, (barely any in a lot of cases) his ability as a reaction stopper is less to the forefront. He of course still needs to be competent.

His distribution then becomes more valuable and he is used as another 'footballer' on the pitch.