JURGEN KLOPP HEAPED praise on Irish goalkeeper Caoimhín Kelleher, who again stood in for Alisson for Liverpool’s 4-1 win away to Brentford.
Kelleher impressed in last week’s win against Burnley, which Alisson missed through illness. Liverpool’s first-choice ‘keeper then suffered a hamstring in training yesterday, meaning Kelleher stepped in to make a fourth Premier League appearance of the season, and a 14th in all competitions – higher than his total across both of his previous two seasons combined.
He excelled at what little he had to do in a comfortable win, making a fine second-half save from which Ivan Toney was in a good position to convert the rebound. Kelleher then made a stunning save from Toney at point-blank range late in the game.
With the extent of Alisson’s injury yet to be confirmed, Kelleher is likely to play in Wednesday’s league game with Luton, and is guaranteed to start next Sunday’s Carabao Cup final against Chelsea.
“He was outstanding”, said Klopp. “I don’t know exactly who is the number one in Ireland, but if they have a better goalie than him, I have to say ‘respect.’ He is outstanding, this year we gave him more games than he had previously.
“It is well deserved as we need him, and we need him with rhythm. Now the situation with Ali shows that makes absolute sense. We will see how long Ali is out, but Caoimh is exceptional. Today he was, wow. It was an A-plus performance.”
Gavin Bazunu was preferred to Kelleher when Stephen Kenny was in charge of Ireland.
Liverpool have injury concerns beyond Alisson, with all of Darwin Nunez, Curtis Jones, and Diogo Jota withdrawn during today’s victory. Jota’s looked most serious, as he was stretchered off with a knee problem.
“Curtis got a knock on his ankle, we will see what that means”, said Klopp. “It was what he felt, but he wasn’t 100% sure. That Curtis cannot play on tells you it must be something, as he would have played on at all costs.
“Diogo looks the worst, I didn’t see it back but I heard the pictures didn’t look great. We have to see there. Darwin we took off as he said he feels [something] really little, but that was obviously enough today to push the brake, and we took him off.”
Liverpool are already without Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dominik Szoboszlai, Thiago, and Joel Matip because of injury.
