Aaron Gallagher reports from the Aviva Stadium
JURGEN KLOPP PRAISED the talent and mentality of promising goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher following a summer which saw the Cork footballer feature in games against both Manchester City and Manchester United.
The Liverpool boss was speaking after his side dismantled Napoli 5-0 in front of 51,000 supporters at the Aviva Stadium, where goals from James Milner, Georginio Wijnaldum, Mohamed Salah, Daniel Sturridge and Alberto Moreno made for an effective evening’s work.
19-year-old Kelleher joined the Reds from Ringmahon Rangers in 2015 and featured for the club’s U23s five times last season. The teenager also impressed throughout the team’s pre-season tour of America with promising performances which have earned high praise from his manager.
He is an outstanding talent,” Klopp professed following his side’s victory in Dublin.
“Outstanding… he is very cool with the ball. He played in front of 100,000 people in a pre-season game, he has played in front of 60,000 — so he isn’t really bothered about that. (It’s) a very important skill.”
Cork-born Kelleher replaced Loris Karius for the second half of Liverpool’s 2-1 International Champions Cup win over Man City and played another 45 minutes against Jose Mourinho’s United two days later.
The player said that making appearances for the senior team this summer had been an incredible experience.
“It was amazing, seeing all the crowd and stuff. I really enjoyed it. I trained with them [the senior side] last year but to actually play this year has been crazy. It’s been unreal,” he said last week.
“I’ve been happy, I think I’ve done well. Every day we train hard with the ‘keepers, we all push each other to do our best every day and I think that’s all you can do really, do your best, so I’ve been happy.”
Klopp pointed towards the player’s previous experience playing outside of goal as key to his present-day success for the club.
He was an outfield player in his youth, (and) he obviously must have been a very good outfield player, as well as a goalkeeper,” the Liverpool manager added.
“He has fantastic reactions. If nothing serious happens, he has a really fantastic future.
“I don’t know how many really good goalkeepers Ireland have, but one more is never a big mistake. I like him a lot and I’m happy that we have him in our squad.”
You can watch Jurgen Klopp’s full press conference below.
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